The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines culture as “the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time” (Merriam-Webster, Culture). There are many aspects to each culture; five important aspects to look at when defining a culture include language, religion, government, tradition, and customs. The first three of these aspects are relatively self-explanatory, but the last two aspects seem somewhat similar at first glance. Throughout this cultural awareness essay we will define the meaning of tradition as to include historical aspects, and customs as being more in present day.
The country of Israel in its short history has had many major conflicts and important cultural issues to manage with. Before discussing the history and culture of Israel, it would first be helpful to understand the geography and terrain of the country. Although Israel is a relatively small country (8,357 square miles), there are four geographic regions: the Mediterranean coastal plain, the hill regions of northern and central Israel, the Great Rift Valley, and the Negev. There are mountains, valleys, coastal areas, lakes, the Jordan River, and much more, which creates a varied landscape with many different microclimates and unique issues created by each type of terrain (Encyclopedia Britannica, “Israel”).
The population of Israel’s overwhelming life in urban centers, less than a tenth of the country’s total population living in rural areas, and over half of the country’s population living in the two coastal metropolitan areas of Tel Aviv-Yafo and Haifa. The country is currently working on trying to decrease overpopulation of these areas by helping develop new towns in the north and south and pushing recent immigrants to move t...
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Works Cited
“About Israel: History.” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Web. 21 Mar. 2014. http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/History/Pages/default.aspx. “About Israel: State: Facts about Israel: The State.” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Web.
21 Mar. 2014. http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/State/Pages/The%20State.aspx.
“Culture.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture. “Israel.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia
Britannica Inc., 2014. Web.. 21 Mar. 2014. http://www.britannica.com/EBchceked/topic/296740/Israel.
“Land of Israel.” Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed.
Vol. 10. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 100. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 17. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 165-83. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. .
The Nation of Israel was founded out of the eastern area of a British occupied (former Ottoman Empire) section of western Asia known as the “Mandate of Palestine”. There was an attempt in November of 1947 by the United Nations (UN) to partition the region into Arab and Israeli states with the Holy City Jerusalem as an international city. (United Nations, 1949) The Jews accepted this proposal while the Arab League and other groups did not. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2006). What followed was an Arab strike that became violent and sent the Jews on the defensive. They rebounded and brought the civil war to an end, expelling over 250,000 Arabs. The day before the British mandate was set to expire; the region was invaded by four Arab States starting the yearlong 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Ultimately a cease fire and truce was reached with the establishment of bo...
Culture by definition is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices, as well as customary beliefs, social forms and material traits that characterize a racial, religious or ...
Situated just north of Lake Kinneret overlooking the Huleh Valley in Israel and the Al Raquad Valley in Syria sits a plateau, which rises to between 700 and 1,400 feet above sea level and is perhaps the most strategic piece of land in the Middle East, depending on one’s perspective. (Jewish Virtual Library, 2001) The antiquities left behind by the Romans, Turks, Greeks, and Mongols, just to name a few of the empires that have conquered this area, date back several centuries. This relatively small area of land, roughly the size of Queens, New York, is approximately 40-45 miles long and 15.5 miles across at its widest point, and controls the Kinneret, Israel’s only lake and foremost water resource. (Bard, 2002) This much-disputed piece of land is called the Golan Heights.
The Middle East has since time immemorial been on the global scope because of its explosive disposition. The Arab Israeli conflict has not been an exception as it has stood out to be one of the major endless conflicts not only in the region but also in the world. Its impact continues to be felt all over the world while a satisfying solution still remains intangible. A lot has also been said and written on the conflict, both factual and fallacious with some allegations being obviously evocative. All these allegations offer an array of disparate views on the conflict. This essay presents an overview of some of the major literature on the controversial conflict by offering precise and clear insights into the cause, nature, evolution and future of the Israel Arab conflict.
There is a relatively long history in Israel which is needed to know in order to begin to understand what is happening today. What Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza strip is today was called Palestine prior to 1948. They were part of the Ottoman Empire until near the end of World War One and were then occupied by Britain. The demographics in Palestine was 85% Muslim 9% Christian and 5% Jewish. The State of Israel was formed in May 14, 1948 after the end of the British Mandate. With the establishment of the State of Israel, as much as 170,000 Jewish displaced persons and refugees began streaming into the new sovereign state. On May 15, 1948 Israel was invaded by five Arab states and then began the War of Independence. The following year Armistice agreements were signed with Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In 1967 Israel won the Six-Day War where Jerusalem and its holy sites came under Jewish control. In the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty Isra...
Since the inception of an Israeli nation-state in 1948, violence and conflict has played a major role in Israel’s brief history. In the Sixty-One year’s Israel has been a recognized nation-state, they have fought in 6 interstate wars, 2 civil wars, and over 144 dyadic militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) with some display of military force against other states (Maoz 5). Israel has been involved in constant conflict throughout the past half century. Israel’s tension against other states within the Middle East has spurred vast economic, social, and political unity that has fostered a sense of nationalism and unity in Israel not seen in most other states. Over the next several pages I will try and dissect the reasons for why the nation state of Israel has been emerged in constant conflict and how this conflict has helped foster national unity and identity among the people of Israel.
Israel was a very hard place to live when it first was established. We often found sickness, which caused many families to start over again. Because of this, there were many authors who expressed their feelings during this time. This can be seen this in the story Dr. Schmidt. In this story, it is clear that there are a lot of old and new Jews, topics relating to Zionism, and a gap between Ashkenazi Jews and Yemenite Jews. These topics have helped readers relate to these stories, and motivate them to live a better life. This is why the state of Israel has been so successful in its short life. The drive to succeed has shaped the State of Israel for the better.
Ed. Paula S. Fass. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 808-809. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Israel, the place call the holy land, the land, which Jesus walked, however, it is widely acknowledged that tensions between secular and religious sectors constitute a salient feature of Israeli society. If one were to try to summarize the relationship of Israel to Jewish religion, he would say that it is related but not equivalent to certain concepts of Israel. Most people think of the holy land when they hear the names Israel but one must ask the question is Israel truly the holy land. This essay will show the relationship between religion and Israel. Religion in the broadest sense may be defined as man's attitude towards the unseen, and the earliest forms of human thought furnish the clue from which must be traced the development of those great systems of religion that have at different time periods been professed by certain groups of people. The term religion must also include, not only beliefs in unseen spiritual agencies, but also numerous customs, superstitions, and myths which have usually been regarded by the people of the specific society or community. As far as, Jewish religion goes, there are many different opinions about the origin and history of people and the religion.
...ol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. 2316-2317. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 5 May 2014.
Tom Quirk and Gary Scharnhorst. Vol. 1. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 380-386. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Niles North High School. 3 Mar. 2008.
Palestine (and Israel) is a small area in the Middle East that is on the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea and borders the nations of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was declared by the Jewish Peoples council. Following this act, the Arab people of the surrounding countries attacked the new Israeli state. However Israel prevailed, and took almost all of the land previously designated to be ...
Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people…Culture in its broadest sense of cultivated behavior; a totality of a person’s learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning (http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html).
1. What is Culture? What I personally think is that our culture is the foundation of who we really are in life. It identifies the lifestyle and pursuits that are practiced in the group of people we relate with in our society. In other words, an important concept to understand is that cultural beliefs, values, and practices are learned from birth first at home, in church, and other places where people meet. Some practices and beliefs in human culture include religion, music, sports, food, health beliefs, and art which represent the values we have in life. Also, our own culture is diverse and it is significant to look with in and identify what we value the most, what is essentially needed, and how we see the world. It is our remaining tool and we don’t even realize it is needed to communicate and socialize with others.