Minority Literatures in Israel

Abstract

The term “minority” usually refers to individuals or groups that are disadvantaged in comparison to those who belong to the dominant group. This type of exclusion is commonly based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, social and cultural background, and sexual orientation. While in reality boundaries between cultural groups are unclear, defining and relating to minorities always hinges on a definition of the majority or hegemony, thus creating an often misleading concept of binarism. The heterogeneous social and cultural fabric of the Israeli context, and its evolution over the years, problematizes any clear dichotomy between hegemonial and marginal groups. Nevertheless, general distinctions can be made based on what is perceived as the common narrative of Israeli culture. From its inception, the Zionist leadership, while integrating people from different places, cultures, and languages, pursued a melting-pot policy by promoting a monocultural community for the “ingathering of the exiles,” supported by national “standards” such as the “National Poet,” the “National Theater,” the “National Museum” and the “National Library,” where Hebrew was the cultural kernel. These cultural pillars adhered to the Ashkenazi Western secular culture, with certain concepts of masculinity and militarism, to the detriment of other national ethnic and religious groups. Changes in the political arena, and the growing waves of immigration from the 1950s to the 1980s, led to fissures in efforts to structure a homogeneous Jewish-Israeli culture. Alternative narratives and cultures began shaping a multicultural sphere with differing national, ethnic, religious and cultural groups. In the last few decades, this evolution has been mirrored in Hebrew literature and in the field of Hebrew literary criticism. Numerous volumes of prose and poetry have been published and studies have dealt with the Israeli minority literature of specific literary groups or significant authors. This entry clearly cannot cover all these minority groups, but rather focuses on the national minority in Israel in the writing of Palestinian-Israelis, the literatures of ethnic minorities such as Mizrahim who immigrated from North Africa and the Middle East, and immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Ethiopia, the literature of religious and ultra-orthodox Israelis, and the literature of the LGBT community in Israel. It does not discuss women’s writing, a broad category that deserves separate attention; the literature of the disabled community, which has still not emerged as a literary group; or authors who write and publish in Israel in different languages such as English, Yiddish, or German. Some of these groups are discussed in Shai Ginsburg’s comprehensive article on Israeli literature in this bibliographic collection.