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The Identity of Religious Minorities in Non-Secular States: Jews in Tunisia and Morocco and Arabs in Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Mark A. Tessler
Mark A. Tessler
Affiliation:
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
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Extract

Since 1972 I have been conducting a study of Jews in Tunisia and Morocco and Arabs in Israel. This study included interviews with stratified quota samples of Tunisian and Moroccan Jews from August 1972 to August 1973 and conversations with community leaders during these thirteen months, as well as my participation in the life of the Jewish communities. From May through August 1974 I carried out field work in Israel, surveying a stratified quota sample of Israeli Arabs and meeting regularly with Arabs from all walks of life. After my departure, research assistants completed the survey. Jews in Tunisia and Morocco and Arabs in Israel were selected for study because they are religious minorities in non-secular states. While they bear some resemblance to minorities the world over, there are additional factors defining their position in society which make their circumstances relatively unique. I have elsewhere described them as ‘non-assimilating’ minorities. The purpose of this paper is to examine two questions pertaining to the groups I am studying: (1) What factors account for the unnarrowed cultural distance between the three minorities and their respective host societies? (2) How do the three minorities understand their respective sociocultural identities? In responding to the second of these questions, some findings from the surveys will be presented.

Type
Minorities and the Dominant Culture
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , July 1978 , pp. 359 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1978

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References

1 This reasearch was made possible by grants from the Social Science Research Council, the American Philosophical Society, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. While in Tunisia, the author received administrative assistance from the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Economiques et Sociales. The support of each of these institutions is gratefully acknowledged.

2 See Tessler, Mark A. and Hawkins, Linda L., ‘The Political Culture of Jews in Tunisia and Morocco,’ International Journal of Middle East Studies (forthcoming)Google Scholar and Tessler, Mark A., ‘Israel's Arabs and the Palestinian Problem,’ The Middle East Journal (Summer, 1977): 313–29.Google Scholar

3 For details see Tessler, Mark A., ‘Secularism in the Middle East?’ Ethnicity 2 (1975): 178–203.Google Scholar This paper examines the relationship between religious and national identities among Moslems and Jews, reviewing historical developments and summarizing studies of contemporary trends. It also argues that Western standards should not be applied when assessing the role of religion in Middle Eastern society.

4 Speech delivered by President Habab Bourguiba in 1966 at Zitouna Mosque.

5 Zghal, Adelkader, ‘The Reactivation of Tradition in a Post-Traditional Society,’ in Eisenstadt, S. N. (ed.), Post Traditional Society (New York: Norton, 1972).Google Scholar

6 La Presse (Tunis), 29 December 1972.Google Scholar

7 For an elaboration of this point in relation to Jews see Parkes, James, A History of the Jewish People (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1964), p. 7.Google Scholar For further discussion and additional references see Tessler, , op. cit., 1975.Google Scholar

8 Tessler, and Hawkins, , op. cit.Google Scholar and Tessler, , ‘Israel's Arabs,’ op. cit.Google Scholar

9 Similar ideas are advanced in Rondot, Pierre, ‘Minorities in the Arab Orient Today’ (1959), reprinted in Landau, Jacob M. (ed.), Man, State and Society in the Contemporary Middle East (New York: Praeger, 1972).Google Scholar

10 Fein, Leonard, Politics in Israel (Boston: Little, Brown, 1967), p. 61.Google Scholar

11 In all three countries, samples were stratified on the basis of age, socio-economic status sex, and place of residence. Religion was also a variable of sample stratification in Israel. In Tunisia, 89 respondents were interviewed. Interviewing was carried out in Tunis and Djerba. In Morocco, 161 respondents were interviewed. Interviewing was done in Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes and Fes. In Israel, 348 respondents were interviewed. Interviewing was done in Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, Nazareth, Shafa ‘Amr, Majdel Krum and Miilya.

12 See Peres, Yochanan, ‘Modernization and Nationalism in the Identity of the Israeli Arab’ in AlRoy, Gil (ed.), Attitudes Toward Jewish Statehood in the Arab World (New York: American Academic Association for Peace in the Middle East, 1971);Google ScholarDakah, Lufti, ‘A Survey of Arab Students in Jewish High Schools’ Haifa: unpublished seminar paper, 1974Google Scholar; Smooha, Sammy and Hofman, John E., ‘Some Problems of Arab-Jewish Coexistence in Israel,’ Middle East Review (Winter, 1976–1977): 5–14.Google Scholar