Ethno-Religious Hierarchy in Educational Achievement and Socioeconomic Status in Israel: A Historical Perspective

Israel is a society characterized by high and increasing levels of socioeconomic inequality compared with most OECD countries (Kimhy 2010). In addition, Israel is a multiethnic and religiously heterogeneous society that has experienced dramatic changes in population composition and structure since the time of the foundation of the State in 1948. The combination of high and increasing social inequality with salient ethno-religious heterogeneity raises many social and political concerns. Moreover, we suggest that much of the socioeconomic inequality can be understood as inequality among ethno-religious groups— between Arabs and Jews, Muslim and Christian Arabs, and European-origin and Asian-African Jews—in educational characteristics, which are transmitted intergenerationally.