Applied, Practicing, and Engaged Anthropology in Israel

Abstract

Applied anthropology has a long history in Israel, its genesis in the massive waves of immigration that began after the establishment of the state in 1948. Its primary focus remains today what it was then: integrating (or in Israeli parlance, "absorbing") the new Jewish immigrants who came to Israel from Europe after the Holocaust, from Muslim countries from 1948 through the sixties, from Ethiopia and Russia more recently, and from many other places. Anthropologists have helped government agencies, schools, health services, and other public bodies understand the newcomers' cultures, aspirations, and problems, and they have been instrumental in devising modes of settlement that meet both the immigrants' and the country's needs. Ironically, little work has been done in the area of conflict resolution between Jews and Arabs (and specifically Palestinians) or in finding ways of integrating Israel's Arab population into the country's mainstream. While many Israeli anthropologists are prominent social activists, they tend to separate their personal and professional lives, and little of their professional work actually takes place in applied realms.