Introduction

Fran Markowitz, Stephen Sharot, and Moshe Shokeid

Part 1. Coexistence and Conflict

1. Living Together Separately: Arab-Palestinian Places through Jewish-Israeli Eyes

Efrat Ben-Ze’ev

2. Landscapes of Despair, Islands of Hope: Social Working in the Unrecognized Arab-Bedouin Villages in the Negev

Hagit Peres

3. Performing the People’s Army: The Israeli Military Manages Symbolic and Moral Boundaries

Edna Lomsky-Feder and Eyal Ben-Ari

4. Another Item in the News: Normalcy and Distress at Sapir College

Dafna Shir-Vertesh

5. From the Protest to Testimony and Confession: The Changing Politics of Peace Organizations in Israel

Sara Helman

Part 2. Migration, Ethnicity, and Identities

6. From Engaged Mediator to Freelance Consultant: Israeli Social Scientists in the Service of Immigrant Absorption

Moshe Shokeid

7. A Different Mizrahi Story: How the Iraqis Became Israelis

Esther Meir-Glitzenstein

8. Living Separately, Loving Tragically: Cross-Ethnic Romance in Israeli Films

Stephen Sharot

9. Universalism and Particularism Revisited: Immigrant Physicians from the Former Soviet Union in Israel

Judith T. Shuval

10. Israelis of Ethiopian Origin: New Identity Constructs and Research Models

Lisa Anteby-Yemini

Part 3. Religion and Rituals

11. Toward an Ethnography of a Mediterranean People: The Complex Culture of Southern Tunisian Jewry in the Early Twentieth Century

Shlomo Deshen

12. “With Us More Than Ever Before”: Making the Absent Rebbe Present in Messianic Habad

Yoram Bilu

13. How Do We Know When a Society Is Changing? Reflections on Liberal Judaism in Israel

Harvey E. Goldberg

14. More Dry Bones: The Significance of Changes in Mortuary Ritual in Contemporary Israel

Henry Abramovitch

15. “Where It All Began”: Archaeology, Nationalism, and Fundamentalism in Silwan

Michael Feige

16. Vehicles of Values: Souvenirs and the Moralities of Exchange in Christian Holy Land Pilgrimage

Jackie Feldman

Part 4. Comparative Perspectives

17. Reading and Redacting National Landscapes: Tales of Two Buildings from Israel and Bosnia

Fran Markowitz

18. “I Love a Parade”: Ethnic Identity in the United States and Israel

Abraham Rosman and Paula G. Rubel

19. Middle East Studies in Israel, Europe, and the United States: Trends and Prospects

Dale F. Eickelman

Afterword

Alex Weingrod

Contributors

"Toward an Anthropology of Nation Building and Unbuilding in Israel presents twenty-two original essays offering a critical survey of the anthropology of Israel inspired by Alex Weingrod, emeritus professor and pioneering scholar of Israeli anthropology. In the late 1950s Weingrod's groundbreaking ethnographic research of Israel's underpopulated south complicated the dominant social science discourse and government policy of the day by focusing on the ironies inherent in the project of Israeli nation building and on the process of migration prompted by social change. Drawing from Weingrod's perspective, this collection considers the gaps, ruptures, and juxtapositions in Israeli society and the cultural categories undergirding and subverting these divisions. Organized into four parts, the volume examines our understanding of Israel as a place of difference, the disruptions and integrations of diaspora, the various permutations of Judaism, and the role of symbol in the national landscape and in Middle Eastern studies considered from a comparative perspective. These essays illuminate the key issues pervading, motivating, and frustrating Israel's complex ethnoscape. "--

Fran Markowitz is a professor of anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

Stephen Sharot is a professor emeritus of sociology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Moshe Shokeid is a professor emeritus of anthropology at Tel Aviv University.

Alex Weingrod is a professor emeritus of anthropology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.