Israeli Society

Immigration and Settlement: The Law of Return and the Communities It Created

The Declaration of Independence of 14 May 1948 stated that the new state would be open to Jewish immigration and the ingathering of exiles.[1] The Law of Return of 1950 gave every Jew the right to immigrate. A 1970 amendment extended the right to the child and grandchild of a Jew and to their spouses.[2] The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported a population of about 10.0 million at Independence Day 2025, more than three quarters of them Jewish and about one fifth Arab.[3] Immigrants from the former Soviet Union form the largest wave of recent decades. About one million arrived after 1989.[3] Russian-speaking Israelis built a Russian-language press and a political party, Yisrael Beiteinu, founded in 1999, and many entered engineering and the technology sector. A smaller group qualified under the grandchild clause but is not Jewish under the statutory definition, which covers a person born to a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism.[2] This creates difficulties over marriage and burial. French immigration rose in the 2010s after attacks on Jews in France, including the Toulouse school shooting in 2012 and the Hyper Cacher market attack in 2015. American and Canadian immigrants are assisted by Nefesh B'Nefesh, founded in 2002. Latin American immigration, especially from Argentina, rose during the economic collapse of 2001 and 2002. These communities keep ties to their countries of origin through language, schools and dual citizenship. The kibbutz and the moshav shaped the state before it existed. Degania, the first kibbutz, was founded in 1909. The kibbutz was a collective settlement with shared property, and the moshav was a cooperative village of family farms. Both supplied a large share of early military and political leaders. After the economic crisis of 1985, many kibbutzim restructured their debts and introduced differential salaries. The attack of 7 October 2023 struck several kibbutzim near Gaza, including Be'eri, Kfar Aza and Nir Oz, and their rebuilding is now a national project.

Arab, Christian, Circassian and Druze Citizens, and the Place of Hebrew and Arabic

The Declaration promised "complete equality of social and political rights" to all inhabitants without distinction of religion, race or sex, and invited Arab residents to take part in building the state.[1] Arab citizens vote, sit in the Knesset and serve on the Supreme Court. Salim Joubran sat on the bench from 2003 to 2017 and was its first permanent Arab Muslim justice, and George Karra, a Christian Arab, served as a judge on the Tel Aviv District Court and later the Supreme Court bench. In 2021 the Arab party Ra'am joined a governing coalition for the first time. Christians numbered about 185,000 at the end of 2023, roughly 1.8 percent of the population, according to a CBS release for Christmas 2024.[4] Most are Arabs, and the rest are mainly immigrants from the former Soviet Union and their descendants. Christian communities run their own schools and courts for personal status matters. Circassians are Sunni Muslims who came from the Caucasus in the 1870s. They live in two villages, Kfar Kama and Rihaniya, and have served in the Israel Defense Forces since an agreement with the community leaders in 1958. The Druze, a separate community, also serve in the army, and the two groups are often described as having a "covenant of blood" with the Jewish majority. Hebrew was revived as a spoken language in the late nineteenth century. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda arrived in Jerusalem in 1881, insisted on Hebrew in his home, and compiled a dictionary. The Hebrew Language Academy, established by law in 1953, now coins new words. Hebrew is the state language under Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, passed in 2018. The same section gives Arabic "a special status" and provides that nothing in it harms the practical use of Arabic before the law was passed.[5] Arabic remains on road signs, in courts and in Knesset proceedings. Supporters of the law say it records the national character of the state without removing any right of Arab citizens. Opponents argue that downgrading Arabic from official language to a language of special status is symbolic harm. Both positions are on record in the Knesset debate of July 2018.

Education, Health, Housing and Poverty

The State Education Law of 1953 ended the party-affiliated school streams of the pre-state period and created state and state-religious schools.[6] Two other streams exist alongside them: the independent Haredi system, which receives public funding but sets its own curriculum, and the Arab stream, which teaches in Arabic. The Haredi stream is the subject of a long dispute over whether boys' schools should teach a core curriculum of mathematics, English and science. Haredim made up about 13 percent of the population in 2023, according to the Israel Democracy Institute's compilation of CBS data.[7] Higher education rests on seven research universities and a number of colleges, supervised by the Council for Higher Education. The Technion began teaching in 1924 and the Hebrew University opened in 1925. The universities supply much of the talent for the technology sector, which accounts for a large share of exports. Health care is organised under the National Health Insurance Law of 1994, in force from 1 January 1995. Every resident must belong to one of four non-profit sick funds: Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet and Leumit. The funds provide a statutory basket of services, updated each year by a public committee. Life expectancy at birth was about 82 years in 2022, according to the World Bank.[8] Housing and the cost of living are the most frequent complaints in public surveys. The Bank of Israel has identified planning delays and limited land supply as the main reasons for rising prices, and it has called for faster approval of building plans.[9] Governments of the right have emphasised increasing supply, reducing regulation and releasing state land, and have opposed price controls. Poverty is concentrated in two groups. The National Insurance Institute measures relative poverty as income below half the median and reported that about one fifth of families fell below that line in its most recent annual report, with the highest rates among Arab and Haredi households.[10] Participation in work explains much of the gap. Employment among Haredi men has risen in recent years but remains well below the national average, according to the Israel Democracy Institute.[7] Government programmes since 2015 have aimed to raise Arab employment, particularly among women. Supporters of the government argue that employment and vocational training are the most effective response, and critics argue that benefit levels are too low. The figures themselves are not in dispute.

Religion and State: Rabbinate, Marriage, Shabbat, Kashrut and the Jewish Calendar

The arrangement known as the status quo comes from a letter of 19 June 1947 sent by the Jewish Agency to Agudat Israel. It promised that the Sabbath would be the official day of rest, that state kitchens would be kosher, that Jewish personal status would be governed by religious law, and that religious schools would be autonomous.[11] Later laws gave these promises legal form. The Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law of 1953 places Jewish marriage and divorce under the exclusive authority of the rabbinical courts.[12] There is no civil marriage in Israel. Couples who prefer a civil ceremony marry abroad, commonly in Cyprus, and the Interior Ministry registers the marriage. Defenders of the system say that one national standard of Jewish status prevents a split in the Jewish people, a concern that has been cited since the 1940s. Critics say that it excludes immigrants whose Jewish status the Rabbinate does not accept and couples of different faiths. The Hours of Work and Rest Law of 1951 sets Saturday as the weekly rest day for Jews and lists the Jewish holidays on which work is restricted.[13] Public transport runs on a limited basis on Shabbat, and municipalities decide their own rules for shops and entertainment. The Kashrut Fraud Prevention Law of 1983 requires that food described as kosher be certified, and the Rabbinate supervises most certification.[14] The divide between secular and religious Israelis is widest on military service. On 25 June 2024 the Supreme Court ruled that, in the absence of a lawful arrangement, the state must conscript yeshiva students on the same basis as other citizens.[15] The coalition has since debated a new draft law. Supporters of Haredi exemptions argue that full-time Torah study preserves the Jewish tradition, while supporters of conscription argue that the burden of service should be equal. The Jewish calendar structures the year. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Sukkot, Hanukkah and Purim are national events, and on Yom Kippur the roads are almost empty. Memorial culture follows a fixed sequence. Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on 27 Nisan under a law of 1959, with a two-minute siren. Memorial Day for the fallen falls on 4 Iyar under a law of 1963, with sirens in the evening and the morning, and Independence Day follows at once on 5 Iyar. The Ministry of Defense counted about 25,000 fallen soldiers and security personnel since 1860 in its 2025 Memorial Day release.[16] The attack of 7 October 2023 added a large number of civilians and soldiers to the national record of loss.

Media, Literature, Film, Music, Food and Sport

Israel has a plural press. Yedioth Ahronoth, Haaretz and Israel Hayom, a free daily launched in 2007, compete with each other, and the public broadcaster Kan began operating in 2017. Commercial Channels 12 and 13 have been joined by Channel 14, which supports the government. Many on the right argue that long-established outlets lean left, and the growth of Channel 14 and Israel Hayom is the market response to that view. Surveys of public trust by the Israel Democracy Institute show low confidence in the media across political camps, and this finding is cited by both sides.[17] Hebrew literature was recognised internationally when Shmuel Yosef Agnon shared the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966.[18] Amos Oz, David Grossman and Etgar Keret later reached a wide readership in translation. Poetry and the Bible remain common reference points in political speech. Israeli television has been exported worldwide. Hatufim became the American series Homeland, and Fauda and Shtisel were distributed on international streaming services. Israel has won the Eurovision Song Contest four times, in 1978, 1979, 1998 and 2018.[19] Popular music draws on Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, Yemenite and Western styles, and military and army bands produced many of its best-known performers. Food reflects the origins of the population. Dishes from Iraq, Morocco, Yemen, Poland and Romania sit beside hummus, falafel and shakshuka, which were adopted from Arab and North African cooking. Fresh vegetables, tahini, olive oil and grilled meat define the common table, and kashrut shapes menus in public institutions. Football and basketball have the largest followings. Maccabi Tel Aviv has won the EuroLeague basketball title six times. Gal Fridman won Israel's first Olympic gold medal in windsurfing in 2004, and Israel won two golds at the Tokyo Games, in artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics.[20] The Maccabiah Games, first held in 1932, draw Jewish athletes from many countries.

Women, LGBT Israelis, Civil Society, Emigration and Antisemitism

The Declaration guarantees equality regardless of sex, and the Women's Equal Rights Law of 1951 gave it statutory form.[1][21] Golda Meir served as prime minister from 1969 to 1974. Military service is compulsory for women as well as men under the Defense Service Law, and combat roles have opened gradually since the 1990s. Marriage and divorce remain under religious courts, and the problem of women denied a religious divorce, known as agunot, is a continuing legal issue. Wage gaps persist, and Haredi and Arab women have lower employment than other groups, although the rate for both has been rising. Legal change for LGBT Israelis came largely through the courts and the Knesset in the 1990s and 2000s. The Knesset repealed the sodomy law in 1988. The Supreme Court ruled in 1994 in El Al v. Danilowitz that a same-sex partner was entitled to the same airline benefits as a spouse, and in 2006 it ordered the Interior Ministry to register same-sex marriages performed abroad.[22] Tel Aviv holds the largest pride parade in the region. Amir Ohana of the Likud became the first openly gay Speaker of the Knesset in December 2022. Civil marriage for same-sex couples is not available, for the same reason it is not available to others. Civil society is large and active. Volunteer organisations, including Magen David Adom, provide emergency services, and after 7 October 2023 volunteers organised aid for evacuated families and soldiers. The Knesset passed a transparency law in 2016 requiring non-profits that receive most of their funding from foreign governments to disclose it in public reports.[23] Supporters say this protects public knowledge of outside influence, and opponents say it burdens human rights groups. Emigration is a recurring concern. CBS data show that more Israelis leave than return in most years, though the figure is small against the size of the population.[24] Immigration continues, and Israel remains a country of net Jewish immigration. The government maintains programmes to return Israelis from abroad. Relations with Jews abroad are close but not simple. The Law of Return and the work of the Jewish Agency tie the diaspora to the state, and American and European Jews are major donors. Disputes arise over conversion, the status of Reform and Conservative Judaism, and the Western Wall, where a government decision of January 2016 to create a pluralist prayer area was frozen in 2017.[25] Antisemitism in the diaspora has risen since 2023. The FBI recorded 1,832 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents in the United States in 2023, about 68 percent of all religion-based incidents.[26] The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance adopted a working definition of antisemitism in May 2016, which many governments, and the Israeli government, use as a guide.[27]

In One Paragraph

Israel is a society of about 10 million people, founded in 1948 as a Jewish and democratic state that promised equal rights to all inhabitants. It was built by immigration under the Law of Return of 1950 and includes about one fifth Arab citizens, as well as Christians, Druze and Circassians. Hebrew, revived from the late nineteenth century, is the state language, and Arabic has a special status. Children attend one of four school streams, and every resident belongs to one of four sick funds. Marriage is controlled by the religious courts, Shabbat and kashrut are set by law, and the Haredi draft is the sharpest dispute between secular and religious citizens. Housing costs and poverty among Haredi and Arab households are the main economic concerns. Culture, sport and civil society are active, and antisemitism abroad shapes the relationship with the diaspora.

Sources

1. State of Israel. “Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.” May 14, 1948. Knesset, official English text. Pinpoint: proclamation paragraphs beginning “THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to Jewish immigration” and “WE APPEAL to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel.”https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/About/pages/declaration.aspx.
2. State of Israel. “Law of Return, 5710-1950.” July 5, 1950. Refworld, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Pinpoints: §§ 1, 4A, 4B. Accessed October 5, 2026.https://www.refworld.org/legal/legislation/natlegbod/1950/en/34127.
3. Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel). “Israel’s Independence Day 2025.” Media Release no. 134/2025, April 29, 2025. Pinpoints: pp. 1–2, including notes 1–8 (population composition and immigration since 1990).https://www.cbs.gov.il/He/mediarelease/DocLib/2025/134/11_25_134e.pdf.
4. Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel). “Christmas 2024 – Christians in Israel.” Media Release no. 409/2024, December 22, 2024. Pinpoints: p. 1 and infographic p. 4 (Christian population and share of Israel’s population).https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/mediarelease/DocLib/2024/409/11_24__409e.pdf.
5. Knesset of Israel. “Basic Law: Israel – The Nation State of the Jewish People.” 2018. Pinpoint: § 4(a)–(c), “Language.”https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawNationState.pdf.
6. Knesset of Israel. “State Education Law, 5713-1953.” 1953. Pinpoints: §§ 1–3 (definitions of state and religious state education and introduction of the two state streams).https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/about/history/documents/kns2_education_eng.pdf.
7. Malach, Gilad, and Lee Cahaner. Statistical Report on Ultra-Orthodox Society in Israel 2024. Jerusalem: Israel Democracy Institute, 2025. Pinpoint: chapter 1, “Population” (2024 Haredi population and share).https://en.idi.org.il/haredi/2024/?chapter=58376.
8. World Bank. “Life Expectancy at Birth, Total for Israel (SP.DYN.LE00.IN).” World Development Indicators, accessed through FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Pinpoint: 2022 annual value.https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPDYNLE00INISR.
9. Bank of Israel. Annual Report 2023, chap. 8, “The Housing Market.” Jerusalem: Bank of Israel, 2024. Pinpoints: pp. 225–226 (planning approvals, implementation delays, infrastructure and statutory obstacles).https://www.boi.org.il/media/bhthht0i/chapter-8-english-2023.pdf.
10. National Insurance Institute of Israel. “The National Insurance Institute 2024 Poverty Report.” Press release, January 2026. Pinpoint: sections on poverty incidence and Arab and Haredi households.https://www.btl.gov.il/English%20Homepage/About/PressReleases/Pages/dohoni2024.aspx.
11. Ben-Gurion, David, Isaac Gruenbaum, and Yehuda Leib Maimon. “Status Quo Letter to the World Organization of Agudath Israel.” June 19, 1947. Transcript via Sefaria. Pinpoints: sections on Sabbath, kashrut, matrimony, and education.https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/128552.5?lang=bi&lang2=bi&with=Notes.
12. Knesset of Israel. “Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law, 5713-1953.” August 26, 1953. Pinpoints: §§ 1–2 (exclusive jurisdiction over Jewish marriage and divorce and performance under Jewish religious law).https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/about/history/documents/kns2_rabbiniccourts_eng.pdf.
13. International Labour Organization. “Hours of Work and Rest Law, 5711-1951.” NATLEX, 1951. Pinpoint: § 7(b)(1), weekly rest including the Sabbath for Jewish employees.https://natlex.ilo.org/dyn/natlex2/r/natlex/fe/details?p3_isn=36146.
14. State of Israel. “Kashrut (Prohibition of Deceit) Law, 5743-1983.” Laws of the State of Israel 37 LSI 147 (1982–83). Official law record: Knesset National Legislation Database. Supporting legal reference: Amichai Cohen, “In the Best Interests of the Group: Religious Accommodation in Israel,” noting the statute and its place in Israel’s kosher-food regulation. Pinpoint: discussion and note 255.https://main.knesset.gov.il/Activity/Legislation/Laws/pages/lawprimary.aspx?lawitemid=2000082&st=lawlaws&t=lawlaws ;https://escholarship.org/content/qt3698v643/qt3698v643_noSplash_5ba89a0fbe07c56519e7bf7168877087.pdf.
15. Supreme Court of Israel. HCJ 6198/23, Movement for Quality Government in Israel v. Minister of Defense, judgment of June 25, 2024. Pinpoint: holding requiring equal application of conscription law absent a lawful exemption framework; summarized by Library of Congress, Global Legal Monitor, July 2, 2024.https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2024-07-02/israel-high-court-rules-that-state-must-draft-yeshiva-students-to-the-military/.
16. Israel, Ministry of Defense. “Eve of Memorial Day 2025: Ministry of Defense Updates the Number of Fallen from 1860 to the Present: 25,420.” April 27, 2025. Pinpoint: cumulative number of fallen since 1860.https://www.mod.gov.il/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%91%D7%96%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%97%D7%93%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%93-%D7%94%D7%91%D7%99%D7%98%D7%97%D7%95%D7%9F/%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%93-%D7%94%D7%91%D7%99%D7%98%D7%97%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%93%D7%9B%D7%9F-%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%94%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D.
17. Israel Democracy Institute. The Israeli Democracy Index 2025. Jerusalem: Israel Democracy Institute, December 2025. Pinpoint: table 2.11, “Express Trust in the Media, 2024 and 2025,” by political orientation and religiosity.https://en.idi.org.il/media/30427/the-israeli-democracy-index-2025-full-english-version.pdf.
18. Nobel Prize Outreach. “The Nobel Prize in Literature 1966.” NobelPrize.org. Pinpoint: “Summary,” listing Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs as equal recipients.https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1966/summary/.
19. European Broadcasting Union. Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Media Handbook. Pinpoint: winners table entries for 1978, 1979, 1998, and 2018.https://eurovision.tv/sites/default/files/uploads/2023-05/EUROVISION%202023%20MEDIA%20HANDBOOK%20%281%29.pdf.
20. Israel Olympic Committee. “Gal Fridman – Gold Athens 2004, Bronze Atlanta 1996.” Pinpoint: biography and 2004 gold-medal account. For Tokyo 2020 medal results, see “Tokyo 2020,” listing Israel’s two gold medals won by Artem Dolgopyat and Linoy Ashram.https://www.olympicsil.co.il/gal-freidman-gold-medal-athens-2004-bronze-medal-atlanta-1996/ ;https://www.olympicsil.co.il/en/tokyo-2020/.
21. State of Israel. “Women’s Equal Rights Law of 1951.” Pinpoint: § 1 (equal legal status and non-discrimination). Official English text, Knesset of Israel.https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/About/History/Documents/kns1_women_eng.pdf.
22. Supreme Court of Israel. HCJ 721/94, El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. v. Danilowitz (1994); HCJ 3045/05, Ben-Ari v. Director of Population Administration, November 21, 2006. Pinpoints: Danilowitz, equality in employment benefits for same-sex partners; Ben-Ari, registration of same-sex marriages performed abroad.https://www.tau.ac.il/law/aeyalgross/Danilowitz.htm ;https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/iscp-opinions/90/.
23. State of Israel. “Disclosure Requirements Concerning Beneficiaries of Donations by a Foreign Political Entity Law,” 5771-2011, as amended in 2016. Pinpoints: 2016 amendment provisions on quarterly and annual reporting and publication of foreign-state contributions.https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/dynamiccollectorresultitem/hr-2/he/HumanRightsConvention_ICCPR_ICCPR-5th-Periodic-Report-11.10.19.pdf.
24. Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel). “Israeli Emigrants, Returning Israeli Immigrants and International Migration Balance of Israelis.” Table E/4, Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, 2026. Pinpoint: 2025 figures for returning Israeli immigrants, Israeli emigrants, and the migration balance.https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/DocLib/2026/yarhon0226/e4.pdf.
25. Borschel-Dan, Amanda. “There is already pluralistic prayer at the Western Wall. Here’s what would have changed.” Times of Israel, June 26, 2017. Pinpoint: paragraph beginning “Nonetheless, after years of negotiations, on January 31, 2016, the government passed a decision,” and surrounding discussion of the compromise and its subsequent suspension.https://www.timesofisrael.com/there-is-already-pluralistic-prayer-at-the-western-wall-heres-what-would-have-changed/.
26. U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service. “2023 FBI Hate Crimes Statistics.” Updated January 29, 2025. Pinpoint: “Key Findings and Trends,” religion-based hate crimes and anti-Jewish incidents.https://www.justice.gov/crs/news/2023-hate-crime-statistics.
27. International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. “IHRA Non-Legally Binding Working Definition of Antisemitism.” Adopted May 26, 2016. Pinpoint: working-definition text and adoption date.https://holocaustremembrance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IHRA-non-legally-binding-working-definition-of-antisemitism-1.pdf.