Understanding Israel Chapter Summary

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Recommended: Political, religious and social life in Palestine

In the preface for Barry Rubin’s Israel: An Introduction, the reader is told that the goal of the book is just to provide a “basic survey of Israel itself” and a “rounded picture that goes far beyond history and politics” (Rubin vii). In other words, this book is just to provide a general understanding of Israel and her society.
The first chapter, aptly titled “Understanding Israel” is a quick overview of the topics that are to be addressed throughout the book to let the reader get acquainted with general knowledge of Israel. Topics in this chapter include the strength of a Jewish National Identity even during the Diaspora (2), the Pre- and ante- Zionist movement (3), the makeup of the population (3, 8), the intermingling of secularism and religion within society (5), and how Israel’s political system has evolved. Because it is just a quick overview, the chapter is not too detailed in regard to the topics. Rather, the reader will be given a slightly more nuanced look into Israeli society with each succeeding chapter.
It is not until Chapter two, entitled “History” that the topics begin to be expanded on. This chapter …show more content…

According to the author, Israel is “ancient and modern, religious and secular, traditional and highly innovative” all at the same time, yet the “predominant tone” is Jewish (121). The differences that is seen within Israel has more to do with “habitat…region of residence; age; class; profession” than with “religious and ethnic differences” (121). The reason that religion and ethnicity is not as quite a large difference is that a large number of the Jewish people have intermarried (121). That is the various differences between the Jewish people- the European Jews (Ashkenazim) and the Middle Eastern and Asiatic Jews (Mizrahim and Sephardic)- are being blurred to the extent that the “variations of religious practices” are quickly becoming unimportant

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