In contrast to the view, expressed widely in public and in academic discourses, that ethnic categories are no longer significant in explaining Israeli social processes and that ethnic relations have become less hierarchical, this study demonstrates the continuing importance of ethnicity and hierarchical relations in Israeli society. Their importance is reflected in the social processes undergone by middle-class Mizrachi adolescents. Mizrachi families endow their adolescents with family capital-that is, social and cultural patterns-similar to that of middle-class Ashkenazi families. However, because these social and cultural patterns are identified as Ashkenazi, public discourses and practices signify for Mizrachi adolescents their ethnic identity and thus restore the blurred ethnic boundary. This signification is done through mechanisms of 'hybridization' and 'purification', as discussed in the article. These cultural mechanisms maintain the hierarchical relations between Mizrachi and Ashkenazi Jews within Israel's middle class.
This article analyzes the relationship between middle-class belonging and minority ethnic identification through the narratives of Israeli adolescents in contrasting middle-class spaces. While current literature suggests that middle-class belonging will either weaken or strengthen ethnic identification, this paper demonstrates that the effect of class on ethnic identity varies between different spaces. Analyzing the narratives of 52 middle-class minority adolescents shows that spatial ethnic boundaries operating in the rural middle class lead these adolescents to construct a salient ethnic identity that can produce feelings of incongruence and subordination. However, in the urban middle-class, where spatial ethnic boundaries are less significant, adolescents develop a thin, interchangeable ethnic identity in accordance with shallow and superficial public classifications. These findings demonstrate that the middle classes are not monolithic but diverse within themselves, and point to the need to study the variety of ways diverse middle classes can affect the shaping of minority ethnic identification.
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