I mizrahim in Israele: la storia degli ebrei dei paesi islamici (1948-77)

The objective of this research work is the absorption process of Mizrahi Jews in Israel in the years spanning between 1948 and 1977, which produced a deep change in the Israeli society, bringing back religion as the main display of national belonging, as religion was the only bond among the Diaspora communities. The period considered spans from the foundation of the State of Israel to the electoral turnover between the “Left” and the “nationalist Right” of Begin in 1977, widely known in Hebrew as the “mahapach”, which means the “revolution”. The term defines a momentous turning point : the transfer of power between the Mapai-Labour, which party had ruled for approximately 30 years, and the Herut-Likud, caused by the demographic changes occurred in the country. Israel had lost its European majority to turn (by 1977) into a country with an “Oriental” majority, consisting of Jews of Arab and Islamic countries, arrived during the Great ‘Aliyah, the mass immigration taking place in the years comprised between 1949 and 1952.