We're driving from the northern coast inland to the Sea of Galilee to spend the night at a kibbutz, and on the way we pass Arab villages and Jewish tract housing. These "development towns" came after independence when Jews from all over the world flooded into Israel. First the new arrivals went to refugee camps, then tents and shacks and then to public housing. In the early 1950s about half of the new arrivals were Holocast survivors and half Jews from Arab lands. Other more religious Jews, some from backward places and some thinking the Messiah was coming. Most of these people were penniless. Initially refugees were moved to the desert and if they were European and sophisticated enough to know the system, they soon moved up to a better situation. The developement towns were soon poor places with patricarchial families that were destroyed further as fathers were unemployed and children went to work. This created a loss of respect for the fathers and led to severe social problems. As the residents stagnanted and seemed unable to get themselves out of this situation, they became more disatisified and angry at the "Askanazi elites".
These more traditional and orthodox Jews were also against the militant secularism in Israel post independence and didn't like their children educated in the kibbutz where there was no kosher food, their curls were cut off and the religious aspect of Judism was ignored. Lot of political changes in leadership happened at this time. A sort of rescue came in the 1990s when one million Soviet Jews went into the old developments alongside the disinfranchised because the rent was cheap. They brought with them symphony orchestras, doctors, art and many educated people. There are still many social problems, but the governement seems to have learned a great deal from forced assimilation and when the Somali Jews arrived a few years later, social workers were on hand to teach them some very basic things like how to use electric lights, flush toilets, and washing machines.
These more traditional and orthodox Jews were also against the militant secularism in Israel post independence and didn't like their children educated in the kibbutz where there was no kosher food, their curls were cut off and the religious aspect of Judism was ignored. Lot of political changes in leadership happened at this time. A sort of rescue came in the 1990s when one million Soviet Jews went into the old developments alongside the disinfranchised because the rent was cheap. They brought with them symphony orchestras, doctors, art and many educated people. There are still many social problems, but the governement seems to have learned a great deal from forced assimilation and when the Somali Jews arrived a few years later, social workers were on hand to teach them some very basic things like how to use electric lights, flush toilets, and washing machines.
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