The differences between Israeli and American society, though often difficult to observe, run quite deep.  Something to keep in mind about Israel culture is that it’s still in its infancy, considering the State is only around 50 years of age.  Whereas American culture has, for the most part, reached its age of maturity and is now on to try to control other countries.

Over the last 3 years I’ve had an eye on Israel (as I first made a two week, then a 4 week, and now a 7 month stay here) and have observed a phenomenon I can best deem ‘Californication’ which is having an Americanizing effect on the Israeli culture from the center outwards.  The center being literally and figuratively the center of Israeli culture which comprises Tel-Aviv and surrounding areas, known in the native Hebrew as HaMercaz.  Though in the beginning Israel was of predominantly what can loosely be referred to as a middle-eastern mindset, due to a wave of immigration after the pre-WW2 era of eastern Europeans and Moroccans, it quickly shifter into it’s own unique culture, the strongest influence of which would be the eastern European culture.  This incidentally pushed the Israelis past being merely a people of muscle into a well balanced (though constantly threatened) people of brain and brawn (not to mention the inherent ethical systems that Jews carry along with themselves everywhere).

 

I would here begin to speak of Israel culture as a whole from the beginning.  But to do so now would be quite difficult since at this point in Israel history there form two dicotomectic divisions in the society that leans one not to refer to a single culture but several sub-cultures.  The Israelis loosely split into 4 groups in the beginning of Statehood: The religious Sefardim, the non-religious Sefardim, the religious Ashkenazim, and the non-religious Ashkenazim.  I believe a discussion of these groups in beyond the scope of this paper, so I will merely summarize the result of this division.

 

Though in the official beginning of the society this was more or less the basic division, today the divisions have grown so disperse that the only way to semi-accurately know from an outside perspective what the different groups are is to closely study the division in Israeli parliament and keep up on the dynamic map of Israeli politics.  Such a task is a burden that most Israelis families accept grudgingly everyday.  For to fail to keep up on politics in such a small and threatened nation is to resign ones self to self-interest doom.  This I should say is the first large-scale difference between Israeli and American life I have yet to point out.

 

I shall now endeavor to compare and contrast two cultures who are truly heterogeneous in their cultural elements in the truest sense of the word.  For both cultures it is inevitable that they should be comprised of so many sub-cultures or small interest groups, but that it is so in Israeli culture at first look may be less obvious.  Yet still our comparison may begin by pointing out that both the American and Israeli cultures are cultures that are composed of an extremely large immigrant community.  For American this is more or less a thing of the past, for Israel though, it has slowed down since the Russian infiltration of the early nineties, it is still a reality and an extremely large section of Israel society are immigrants.

 

First of all something that all Israeli people share, therefore making in an inescapable part of the culture, is the need to deal with an in concrete and highly dynamic nation.  What I mean by this is that Israeli is always building, changing, growing, and in Hebrew ‘pkoking’ which is loosely translated as ‘in a jam or some sort’.  Israel, to most Israelis, is a ‘balagan’ a ‘huge chaotic mess’.  Now, to the outside observer these things are not so obvious at first, but as one stays longer in the land and tries to participate in increasingly more aspects of Israeli lifestyle, one begins to see the problems that the Israelis are frustrated with.  Many of these problems are related to bureaucracy and deal with the fact that the govt. is never adequate in some respect toward the needs of the people – though it may very well try it’s best to be.  This is due to the fact that not unlike the American system, whenever a new election takes place the govt. almost always reverses course.  This creates a friction in the society that is of constant debate in all echelons.

 

But beyond that there are just many little idiosyncrasies that have become a part of one section of Israeli culture that annoys another – and for the most part Israelis simply ‘deal with it’ but over time everyone gets frustrated by such things.  However, none of the previously mentioned tensions compare to the incredible mess of emotions that is stirred when you ask an Israel about the army and the IDF’s roll in Israeli society.  I believe this is the foremost question on the Israeli mind and of huge philosophical interest to all who live here.  Obviously such a question is not simply about the effort of army service but indirectly dealing with Israel’s conflict with surrounding Arab nation and the internal ongoing Palestinian issue.  Such huge issues simple do not exist in the USA.  If they did the American culture would be much less concerned with issues of poverty, violence, and domestic issues, and much more interested in external affairs, I personally believe.

 

Though there may be tension in the US between sub-cultures, such tensions are not as immediate as those Israelis face and are not, in general, a part of everyday life, but rather a series of rude awakenings and occasional flare up.  The American system is built to keep things the status quo and does that in an incredibly efficient manner.  This causes its people to be very controlled and self-contained in there lifestyles.  Such status quo governing isn’t possible in Israeli society and so things that in any other nation would be controlled by the govt. directly are often dealt with by a number of citizens that feel it there responsibility to keep something from becoming a problem.  These moral cohesions that exists between Israelis, which are linked by nothing, more than current nationality is also a cultural aspect that is lacking in the States.  Yet as Israel matures this part of its culture continues to fade in my experience.  In fact, from what I’ve scene the older Israel gets the more she becomes like a ‘51st’ state, in terms of cultural elements, at and exponential rate.  I believe this was less the case before the Rabin-Clinton era.  Before that time there was an apparently French impact on the culture that rivaled the American one.  Many argue that this is related to MTV culture.

 

Moving on to the more superficial aspects of culture.  On the surface Israel in general has a third world and often European feelings in most areas.  Obvious exceptions are Tel-Aviv and Eylat.  In terms of food even a typical (if there is such a thing in Israel) Israel meal is comprises of at least a dish from the east and a dish from the west, often an Israeli meal will be made up of food from several different nations.  In terms of fashion Israel caters very much to the female gender and imports heavily from Europe, whereas the States realizes predominantly upon its own fashion Industry of which most Israelis are not big adherents.  When it comes to entertainment Israel spends a good deal of time watching the American screen but also gets a nice slice of European and the occasional Asian film.  Although many subtle aspects of Asian culture are also a part middle eastern culture, some things which have not heavily hit the west in the modern area of Asia have yet to really infiltrate Israel, such as Anime. 

 

It is when Industry is introduced into the picture that America and Israel seem quite similar, and in fact this is the area that is where America is having the most profound impact upon Israeli society.  Israelis biggest interest these days is in the high tech industry.  In Hertzlya Pituach, which is a mile from where I live, several large American high tech companies have branches including: Lucent, GE, Sun, TI, Compac, and further up north in Haifa Intel it’s self.  Microsoft also has a base in Haifa.  This ‘high tech’ culture also known as cyberpunk in the States although it was born in the States has been quickly assimilated to a much higher level in Israel.  Indeed, the cyberpunk feeling in general is much stronger in England, Japan, and Israel than anywhere else in the world including the slow changing US.  For Instance it is joked that as soon as a child is born in any of these countries they are immediately given a cellphone.  In Israel not to own a cellphone is scene as being either extremely old fashion or simply very poor.  In America cellphone are still catching on, but in the highly developed areas of Israel almost every child on the street owns one.  This is an aspect of the californication, which I referred to above.

 

Housing in Israel is a far cry from that in the States.  Most Israelis live in Apartments that would hardly be called luxurious in America.  However, much of ones life here takes place outside ones home, so the emphasis on the outside appearance on such things as cars and homes is much less than that in the States.  This indicates that Israel has a plethora of activities outside the home, which is often the case.

 

//Note 10/5/02 The intifata has taken a huge chunk out of Israeli night life, the result is a wide spread feeling of cabin fever, with an underlying varying amount of depression, which is highly widespread.

 

In terms of entertainment, Israel is a much more highly developed country than one may realize.  Since Jews from all over the world have migrated here, it is no wonder that Israel has many diverse cultural influences such as theatre’s, museums, Opera houses, streets with various shops, which can go on for kilometers.  This eclectic variety of public gathering places lends Israel to having both a strong tourist suppose base on top of that which is produced from it’s fine history, and a highly active public community with an exquisite night life.  This nightlife is predominantly targeted at the youth, which is I dare say, something unique to Israel and therefore quite different from the US.  Though the US is in a constant marketing attempt to its youth, the majority of the countries entertainment facilities does not cater to them specifically, as is done in Israel.

 

When it comes to music Israel most strongly has its eye on American MTV culture, with extremely strong European mainstream and underground music as the selection of choice to those around the army age in Israel’s strong clubbing community.  Though the MTV culture that pervades is very similar to that seen in the US, and indeed an Israel could easily discuss the newest hype in pop culture with an American, the clubbing culture that exists in Israel is much more akin to something seen in European than in the States.  In fact the clubbing culture in the States is scene by Europeans, Japanese, and Israelis as being several years behind and hindered by America’s drinking laws and various other subtleties of American culture.  This, combined with army service and national history, creates the biggest gaps between Israelis and Americans, which are not felt until around the age of adulthood. 

 

Israeli teens seem to take a sudden leap into adulthood that is quite beyond the ability of most teenagers’ modern cultures I dare say.  This is heavily linked to Israel’s tumultuous and, thus far, brief history.  I believe this is quite an intriguing phenomenon and can offer quite a lot of possible explanations, but to do so would be to grievously bloat this paper.  Suffice it to say that in general Israelis are born with certain stress coping abilities that are not made manifest in Americans, and I believe these abilities are the true and definable separation point of the American and Israeli culture.