The Social Factors Of Israel Sociology Essay

The modern country of Israel contains two different nationalities, the Jewish and the Palestinian. These two nationalities are complicated from its religious and cultural identity. Among these two nationalities, the Palestinians are Arabs and their customs are founded in Muslim culture and the Jews in Israel define their culture in the huge part around their belief as well.

Religion:

Israel is a Jewish state, was established in 1948 as the important and modern home of the Jewish people. This is the world’s only Jewish state. Israel is also the only nation in the Middle East having a full freedom of religion for all. Israel is the Sacred Land of the world’s great religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Though Judaism is the popular religion here, the liberty to practice any of religion within country is guaranteed. The religions legally known under the Israeli law are mainly Jewish, Christian, Muslim etc. Israel protects the independence of Jews and non-Jews similar to involve in their chosen form of worship exercise.

In December 2010 there are 7,503,800 inhabitants in the country among them 75.4% of them are only Jewish and other 20.3% are only Arab. The rest of 4.3% are categorized as other and they are encompassed mostly of non-Arab Christians as well as non-Arab Muslims.

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Language:

National or official languages are Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew is written from right to left. About 50% of the Jewish people are Sephardi and half Ashkenazi.21% of Israeli citizens is Arabs whose day-to-day language is either Arabic or Hebrew. Along with the local languages, 35 languages are spoken in Israel.

Hebrew is the language of communication at places of work except in the Arab sector, among recent immigrants and foreign workers, and with tourists. Government ministries publish all the material intended for the public in Hebrew. There is no specific policy, but in each Ministry, and often independently at local offices, a policy develops to provide written material or make available clerks speaking languages for which a necessity is perceived, such as Arabic, Russian &Amharic.

Representation in courts of law is in Hebrew. However, a lawyer is entitled to appear in Arabic and to be rendered Arabic-Hebrew-Arabic interpreting services by the court. In Israel almost every highway and street sign is in English, Hebrew and Arabic. English language newspapers, magazines and books are accessible in Israel.

The Arts and Humanities:

Literature

Israel has a diverse literary scene. Several of writers have come to the nation from overseas, including Zbignieew Herabert from Poland and Robert Friend from the USA. The Israeli writer Shmmuel Yoseef, a German who arrived to Israel in 1913 and he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1976. The poet Arinon Levy, who was born in Jerusalem capital city of Israel, has also increased international appreciation, as has Yehuada Amichait, whose poetries have been translated into different languages. Aemos Ozi is the well-known writer of Israel and his novels as well as poetries have been translated into many languages.

Graphic Arts

Existing painting and sculpture are well and alive in Country. The Israeli styles are extremely inspired by European art, but much of them deal obviously with Jewish issues and theme. Artists of Israel who have increased global acclaim include the painters Menashe Kadishman, Arikha, and the sculptors Karavan and Ygael. Ceremonial Jewish art includes attractively crafted menorahs (candelabra), candlesticks, prayer shawls, and other ritual objects.

Performance Arts

Classical music in country has been exciting since the 1930s, when great number of music teachers, students, instrumentalists, composers and singers, as well as hundreds of music lovers, flooded into the country, determined by the risk of Nazism in Europe. This country is home to some classical music bands, such as Israel Philharmonic and New Israeli Opera. The creation of the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra in 1936 noticeable the opening of country’s classical music scene. In 1985s, the New Israeli Opera created productions, reviving enthusiasm for operatic works. Russian migration in the 1995s increased the classical music and dance arena with new music lovers.

Old-style folk dances of country include the Yemenite and Hora dance. Today this folk dancing is choreographed for performance dance groups.

Presently, dance in Israel has won global acclaim. Israeli choreographers such as Ohadi Naharinil and Barack Marshallus, are considered the most versatile and unique international inventers today. Publics come from all over country and many other parts of world for the yearly dance carnival in Kermiel, held in June. First it was held in 1978, the Kermiel Dance Festival is the major celebration of dance in this country, containing 3 or 4 days as well as nights of dancing, with 6,000 or more dancers and the millions viewers in the capital of Galile. Initiated as an Israeli folk dance occasion, these festivities now include workshops, performances as well as open dance sessions for a many dance forms.

Food:

Israeli food includes many local dishes by people native to Israel and these dishes brought to Israel by Jews people at the time of the migration. Subsequently before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and particularly since 1970s Jewish cuisine has developed.

Many people came in 1948 in Israel when the country was known as ‘Palestine’ and added its freedom from The Great Britain. At that time, more numbers of European Jews wanted to found a Jewish state in Israel. They brought Jewish dishes to nation which is prepared in their countries such as Hungary, Poland, Russia and Africa. Other inspirations on cuisine are the availability of foods in the Mediterranean region, particularly certain kinds of vegetables, fruits, dairy products and fishes. Different dishes based on the agricultural products such as avocados, oranges, dairy products and fishes have been introduced over the years.

In Israel, there are some popular fast-foods which is eaten during walking on the road is ‘falafel’. Falafel is a sandwich which contain salad, herbs and fried chickpeas in a pita bread, and ‘shwarma’, which is a sandwich-like wrap, composed of shaved chicken, turkey, goat, and beef, and salad or laffah bread.

Gender status:

In the Orthodox custom, women and men live very distinct lives. Here, women are measured inferior, and they are excluded from many of traditional activities. However in Israel, most of society is most advanced, and women are usually given equal status to men, both legally as well as socially.Women are working in many fields, both traditional (nursing, child care, teaching) and nontraditional such as politics, military etc. Women are mostly restricted to administration and education and generally do not achieve high positions in many field.

Marriage:

In Israel, marriage can be done under the umbrellas of the religious community from which couples come and for the people who have recognized to lack any religion for them, civil marriage can be done also. Matrimonial law is constructed on the Millaet.

There are 9 formally recognized Christian communities; Muslim, Jewish as well as Druze communities the authority for the Jewish marriages which is done in this country is the Chief the Rabbinical courts. The Interior Ministry of Israeli records marriages on the basis of production of special documentation and Registration does not itself authorize a marriage.

Though, it is illegal in Penal Lawton of marry in the country. The minimum age for marriage in this country is 18 years for males and 17 years for females.

Family and household:

Nowadays, the structure of homes and families is varied than in the past, due to result of changing, social, demographic and economic trends. Here, family is defined as two or more persons who share same house and are related to one another as husband and wife or as a parent and child. The most type of family is a couple having children (63%). In recent years, young people have been appending marriage. Some people live alone or some with friends and others with their partners. In Israel, age at the time of marriage, at the birth of first child has risen.

Demographics of Israel:

In Israel, demography is administered by Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Nation has a population of about 7,933,200 in 2012 and 75.4 %of them are Jewish people and 20.6 % are Arab people while the remaining 4 % are others.

Israel – Ethnic groups:

From the estimated population of 5,749,760 in 2000 among them 80.1% were Jewish .The old-style separation of the Jews people into Sephardim and Ashkenazim is quiet given official recognition. The marginal non-Jewish people are tremendously Arabic speaking but in Israel, minorities are distributed into many religious groups. In Israel, Arab people do not segment fully in rights approved to and taxes imposed on Jewish people. The rights of nationality do not encompass to Arabs in the administered areas.

Life Expectancy:

Life expectancy at birth in the nation is 81.07 (2012 est.) years for population. Here, life expectancy is 80 years for men and for women it is 83.6 years. This life expectancy remains a rising trend of the past decade. In Israel, males of Jews have a life expectancy 4.2 years more than Arab males and females of Jews have expectancy 3.0 years more than Arab females. Israeli lifetime expectancy is more than OECD average.

Life expectancy at birth (years)

Employment:

In Israel, the year 2011 was a good for the economy. Unemployment reduced from 7.4% in 2009 to 6.7% in 2011. The average salary of employees increased marginally by 0.9% and average salary of the senior executives was increased by 11%.

In Israel, share of employees in the country income also improved slightly, from 63% in 2010 to 64% in 2011. Here, the share of employees is much lesser than it was at the start of the decade: 69%.

Income distribution:

In Israel, the average income for the richest 20% of people is 7.5 times more than the poorest 20% of the society, According to the report published in 2011.

The gap between the rich people and poor people in Israel has been gradually increasing, with the average individual incomes of the same groups 6.3 times before 10 years.

In 2011, a study recognized that the average family income of Jewish majority was NIS 14,169(USD $3,796) per month, whereas the average income of Arab minority was NIS 8,169 (USD $2,186) per month.

Earning power:

Israel has one of the greatest successful job markets in the Middle East. Changing extensively with a well-industrialized service sector Israel offers high-tech jobs in many field, dependent on the amount of experience and education of the migrant. As compare to other countries as well as other economies, Israel is no different with its requirements for jobs. In Israel, the demand of high-tech professional jobs is the most-desired. Several companies of Israel pay extremely to fill these important positions. Israel is also great country for English speaking migrants therefore; English is a commonly spoken language in the Israel. In Israel, many companies also employ people even though they don’t know Hebrew.

Standard of living:

In Israel, the standard of living is high and is continuously improving. In 2011, Israel ranked 15th out of 194 countries in the Human Development Index .This country also has highest life expectancies at birth in the world. However, country still suffers from poverty with 20.6% of population living below the poverty line in 2011.

Country was ranked 47 out of 194 countries in the Annual Standard of Living Index in 2011. This index is based on different categories: cost of living, health, economy, environment, infrastructure, climate, freedom, safety and risk etc.

Maximum numbers of Israelis live in apartments. A report published by Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, 33% of population lives in three-room apartments, 28% of population in four-room apartments, and 13% of population in five-room apartments. This report also showed that 5% live in only one-room apartments, while only 0.6% lives in the eight rooms or more.

Urban life:

About 92% of Israelis live in urban areas. Various modern towns and cities are built on places known since antiquity. Safed, Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva, Akko are well known cities of Israel. Others such as Hadera, Rehovot, and Petach Tikva initiated as agricultural villages during the pre-state era and progressively grown into major population centers.

Urban buildings are made mostly of concrete block, stone, and stucco. Maximum residential areas are divided from industrial and commercial zones, with wide-ranging, many playgrounds and well-tended parks situated within the town boundaries.

Rural life:

About 8 % of population lives in rural areas and two cooperative frameworks, the moshav and kibbutz, which were established in Israel during the 20th century. Villages of many sizes are inhabited mostly by Druze and Arabs. Houses and lands are privately owned. Farmers cultivate as well as market their crops on individual basis. Here, a minority in the Arab sector, usually nomadic Bedouin Arabs is presently experiencing an urbanization process which reflecting the change from a traditional society to a modern lifestyle.

The kibbutz is an independent economic and social unit in which decisions are generally taken by the members, and property as well as means of production is mutually owned. The moshav is a rural unit in which every family maintains their own farm as well as household.

Education:

The Israeli educational system is basically centralized and widely funded, with a standard national prospectus. Obligatory education arises at the last year of kindergarten and continues up to the 12th grade. In 2011, there were near 2 million student and 130,000 teachers in Israel.

The school system is structured into three levels:

• Elementary school (Ages 6 to12)

• Middle-school (Ages 12 to 15)

• High-school (Ages 15 to 18).

Schools grouped by major institutional divisions are:

• Secular Jewish

• Religious Jewish

• Arab

Students in the Arab schools learn in Arabic and Students in the Jewish schools learn in Hebrew. Ultra-orthodox Jewish schools, other than some private schools in Arabic cities, have different degrees of autonomy and only partial national funding.

The core curriculum is set out by the Ministry of Education, and 75% of each school’s course must adhere to it. In adding to a High School Diploma, secondary studies are culminated by consolidated matriculation examinations.

These exams measure success in required and elective disciplines. Required disciplines are Mathematics, Civics, English, and 4 humanities subjects, such as literature. Natural sciences and social sciences are electives.

Transportation:

In Israel, transportation is based generally on private vehicles, a growing railway network and bus service. Political factors, demand of population growth as well as tourism and increased traffic established the bound. All aspects of transportation in this country are under the management of the Ministry of Transport. Road networks in this country extent 18,098 km of roads among them 235 km are categorized as expressways. This network extents the whole nation.

Here Railways has extended and developed the train service in modern time. Trains run more regularly to more terminuses and there are many train stations in the main cities. Here the trains are more contented for the public. In Israel, senior citizens and student get discounts by showing their ID.

There are heavy traffic on most of the roads because of it travel by train is suggested whenever possible. In Israel Trains which run from Nahariya to Tel Aviv and many large cities from in the south to Dimona in the north which including Ben Gurion airport and Jerusalem

Israel is a small nation and due to this it is only valuable to ruminate flying between Tel Aviv or Haifa and Eilat. Many companies operate flights from Haifa to Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport in south. Air Charges are reasonable but they are still much more than bus charges.

Health care:

Israel’s national health care system, established in 1995, provides universal coverage by requiring citizens to join one of four competing insurance plans that, by law, have to provide certain base level services. The plans cannot reject customers because of pre-existing conditions.

Israel has 46 acute-care hospitals, with approximately 15,000 acute-care beds. The Ministry of Health operates about half of those beds, another half are operated by the largest health plan (Clalit Health Services), and the remaining beds are operated by a mix of for-profit and nonprofit organizations. The hospitals are financed primarily via the sale of services to the health plans, and they do so through a complicated mix of reimbursement arrangements

Israel’s health system is considered especially well for its early diagnosis of chronic diseases, preventing unnecessary hospitalization.

The government allocated health funding at relatively low levels during years of tight cost control with relatively low demand, attributed to a young and healthy population. Yet Israel made it possible to build a high quality health system.

Key challenges faced by Israeli healthcare include a decline in the publicly financed share of national health expenditures, a growing shortage of nurses and a projected shortage of physicians, and persistent gaps between population groups in health outcomes and healthcare utilization.

Social welfare:

Social welfare programs contain pensions for the elderly, workers’ compensation, and allowances for big families. The government offers support for recent migrants, though these programs have been criticized for assisting well-off migrants at the cost of poorer native-born Israel’s people.

Israel has a broad social security system that pays a sequence of benefits and scholarships to those in financial need. The insurance system includes every resident of Israel and the social programme has a series of means verified assistances that are applicable to people of aged 20 or older.

Labors make contributions into the system that is a % of their wage. Self-employed persons also make contributions as well as the employers will also pay a % into the system for each worker. To claim the old age pension, a person must have made a least of twelve years of contributions in the system.

There are disability payments and pensions for illnesses which are liable upon the harshness of the disability and the span of time the applicant will be off work. Parents having a disabled child can also claim for an allowance to support with the cost of care. There is a also mobility allowance for those people who have decreased the mobility but are not still retired.

There are many benefits which are for the short period. Maternity grants as well as benefits can be paid to the new mother who has paid into this system. In Israel, There is a short term illness benefit which can be claimed by those who are on leave because of their illness but who are wanted to return to the work after a short period.