The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land.Donna Rosenthal. The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land. New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : Free Press, 2003. This well-written, well-researched book indexes "Israelis"--a multi-ethnic, multi-religious collection of 6.7 million people who live in a land smaller than New Jersey. In that land there are 1.2 million Muslims--the fastest growing group of Israeli citizens, with a birthrate birth·rate or birth rate n. The ratio of total live births to total population in a specified community or area over a specified period of time, often expressed as the number of live births per 1,000 of the population per year. double that of Israeli Jews. Arab Israelis have the right to vote and they receive their education in a separate, Arabic-speaking state school system. With the current uprising of Intifada II, there has been a dramatic rise in Arab-Israeli feelings of alienation from the Israeli state and its institutions. Immigrants from Russia make up twenty percent of the Israeli nation (most of this group came to Israel after Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev lifted travel restrictions in 1989). Many Russian-Israelis are highly educated and had professions in their former country (an influx of Russian doctors has led Israel to have the highest per capita [Latin, By the heads or polls.] A term used in the Descent and Distribution of the estate of one who dies without a will. It means to share and share alike according to the number of individuals. doctor-patient ratio of any nation in the world). Russian-Israelis tend to be more secular than other Israeli groups and many voted for prime minister Ariel Sharon, the son of Russian immigrants. Other groups living in Israel include Ethiopians (in 1991, as rebel troops were closing in on Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (ăd`ĭs ăb`əbə) [Amharic,=new flower], city (1994 pop. 2,112,737), capital of Ethiopia. It is situated at c.8,000 ft (2,440 m) on a well-watered plateau surrounded by hills and mountains. , 14,324 Ethiopian Jews were flown to Israel on thirty-three Israeli jets--history's largest human airlift); the Druze (nearly one million Druze live in four adjoining countries--their religion teaches that they must be loyal to the country in which they live); Haredim (these ultra-orthodox Jews make up a third of all Jerusalemites and look as though they belong in a nineteenth-century Polish or Russian shtetl shtetl any small-town Jewish settlement in East Europe. [Jewish Hist.: Wigoder, 552] See : Rusticity ); and Christians (many Arab Christians living in the West Bank and Gaza are trying to come to Israel through family reunification or marriage with Israeli Arab Christians). CNN CNN or Cable News Network Subsidiary company of Turner Broadcasting Systems. It was created by Ted Turner in 1980 to present 24-hour live news broadcasts, using satellites to transmit reports from news bureaus around the world. , al-Jazeera, the BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. , and The New York Times can only give snapshot views of Israel in their news coverage. For a more complete look at this complex, multi-faceted nation I highly recommend reading The Israelis. ALL REVIEWS BY MARTIN H. LEVINSON, PH.D. |
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