In Search of Identity: Jewish Aspects in Israeli Culture

As Israel reaches its fiftieth year of statehood, Israeli society faces a deepening crisis of identity. This is particularly evident in Israeli culture which, for quite some time, has been effectively disintegrating into several simultaneous sub-cultures. This process has gained momentum during the 1990s due to the relaxation of national cohesiveness following the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, on the one hand, and to the growing post-modern influences on Israeli culture, on the other. This in turn has brought to the fore a whole range of questions which have hitherto been ignored, not least the inter-relationship between the Hebrew and Jewish aspects of Israeli culture. The problematic continuum in Israel between past and present, between Israeliness and Jewishness, lies at the core of this volume.