Shifting ethnic boundaries and inequality in Israel : or, how the Polish peddler became a German intellectual

Why do racial and ethnic groups discriminate against each other? The most common sociological answer is that they want to monopolize scarce resources-good jobs or top educations-for themselves. This book offers a different answer, showing that racial and ethnic discrimination can also occur to preserve particular group identities. Shifting Ethnic Boundaries and Inequality in Israel focuses on the early period of Israeli statehood to examine how the European Jewish founders treated Middle Eastern Jewish immigrants. The author argues that, shaped by their own unique encounter with European colonialism, the European Jews were intent on producing Israel as part of the West. To this end, they excluded and discriminated against those Middle Eastern Jews who threatened the goal of Westernization. Blending quantitative and qualitative evidence, Aziza Khazzoom provides a compelling rationale for the emergence of ethnic identity and group discrimination, while also suggesting new ways to understand Israeli-Palestinian relations.

CONTENTS Acknowledgments xxx PART ONE Introduction CHAPTER ONE Introduction 3 PART TWO Background CHAPTER TWO Brief Historical Background 000 CHAPTER THREE Israeli Ethnic Formation 000 CHAPTER FOUR Was Dichotomization Inevitable? 000 PART THREE Analysis CHAPTER FIVE The Iraqi Paradox 000 CHAPTER SIX How the Polish Peddler Became a German Intellectual: Orientalism, Jewish Identity, and the Antecedents to Social Closure in Israel 000 CHAPTER SEVEN Cultural Capital 000 CHAPTER EIGHT Residential Segregation and Economic Isolation 000 CHAPTER NINE Into the Next Generation 000 PART FOUR Conclusion CHAPTER TEN Conclusion 000 Appendices 000 Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000