Our brothers' keepers: Societal reactions to the Russian aliya in Israel, 1989-1992
Katner, Garth Todd
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/23029
Description
Title
Our brothers' keepers: Societal reactions to the Russian aliya in Israel, 1989-1992
Author(s)
Katner, Garth Todd
Issue Date
1996
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Weinbaum, Marvin G.
Department of Study
Political Science
Discipline
Political Science
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Political Science, General
Political Science, Public Administration
Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
Language
eng
Abstract
The process by which the State of Israel assimilates new Jewish migrants, referred to in Hebrew as olim, has changed drastically in the last two decades. This is especially apparent with the most recent wave, or aliya, of migrants from the former Soviet Union. Some critics assert that the changes initiated by Jewish national and state institutions have undermined the success of the assimilation process, or klita. The objective conditions of those olim who have been arriving since October of 1989 appear to bear this out. While the group as a whole has been fully housed, apartments for a significant number are substandard, overcrowded, or located at a distance from the primary metropolitan areas. Forty percent of the olim remain unemployed. In the competition for already scarce jobs with veteran Israelis, social tensions are on the rise.
Issues of public policy such as these can be critically evaluated with regard to the dynamic between three elements: committed leadership, adequate leadership, and public support. It is rare, however, that these elements occur simultaneously or with equal intensity during any specific period in Israeli history. Factors particular to the neo-corporatist character of the Israeli state have prevented from being as well-funded and efficiently coordinated as they are usually portrayed. This, in turn, has eroded the enthusiastic support of the Israeli public for national and state klita policies. As long as the process of formulating and implementing such policies are dominated by struggles between a number of semi-autonomous policy-makers with contradictory ideologies and political ambitions Israeli public opinion will remain negative, particularly towards the new olim.
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