Culture

STUDENT EXAMPLE

Intercultural Communication

10-10:50 MWF

Cultural Resume Outline #1

Israel

Geography/Climate (Terri’s comment:*This section was not developed very well, it is rather shallow and could use more information)

• Area

  • The area is 20,330 sq. km (or 7,850 sq. mi.), about the size of New Jersey. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • Israel is 290 miles long and 85 miles wide. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

• Terrain

  • The land itself contains mainly plains, mountains, deserts, and coasts (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • Israel is the location of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. (Birx, pg. 1337).

• Climate

  • The climate is temperate (much like the United States), except in desert areas. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

• Location

  • Israel is located in the Middle East. It borders the countries of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt, along with a coastal border from the Mediterranean Sea. (Cutler, pg. 1337)

• Cities

  • The capital city of Israel is Jerusalem. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • Other main cities in Israel are Tel Aviv and Haifa. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

Government (Terri’s Comment: This section is done very well, lots of in-depth information)

• Type

  • Currently, Israel’s government is a parliamentary democracy. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

• Documents of Law

  • Israel does not have a Constitution, but they do have their Declaration of Establishment, Basic Laws of the Parliament (the Knesset), and the Israeli citizenship law, all of which perform the same duties as a constitution. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

• Branches of Government

  • The Executive Branch is composed of the President and the Prime Minister. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

    • The President is elected for a 5 year term by the Knesset. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

    • The Prime Minister is usually selected by the President or the Knesset. From 1996 to 2001, the Prime Minister was directly chosen by Israeli citizens. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The Legislative Branch is composed of a unicameral Knesset. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The Judicial Branch is composed of a Supreme Court. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

• The Districts

  • Israel is made up of six districts, which are administered by the Ministry of Interior. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The districts are Principal Government Officials, the President, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Ambassador to the United States, and the Ambassador to the United Nations. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

• Political Parties

  • The main parties are the Labor, Likud, and Kadima parties, but there are other minor parties, both secular and religious, and some ran predominantly or completely by Israel’s Arab citizens. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • In the 17th Knesset, there were a total of 12 parties represented. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • Citizens are able to vote at age 18 universally. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

• Economy

  • The GDP, in 2006, was $170 billion. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The annual growth rate was 4.8% in 2006. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The per-capita GDP was $26,800 in 2006. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • Israeli currency is the Shekel. As of 2007, 4.35 shekels equal the value of $1 in the United States. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • Natural resources of Israel include copper, phosphate, bromide, potash, clay, sulfur, bitumen, and manganese.

  • Israel’s agriculture is composed of citrus, fruits, vegetables, beef, dairy and poultry products.

  • Like the United States, Israel has textile industry, tobacco, diamond cutting/cleaning, medical supplies/technology, construction, rubber, plastic, and footwear.

  • Trade

    • Israel’s main trade partners are the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

    • Israel’s main trade partners for imports are United States, Belgium and Hong Kong. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

    • Israel’s main trade partners for exports are United States, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

Education (Terri’s comment: Another well developed section!)

• Israel’s education has gone through many significant reformations over the past 64 years or so when Israel officially became a State in 1948. (Avidor & Pasternak, 2007)

• Mission/Goal of Israel’s Education system

  • Israel has had strong motivation for social integration and diversity in the school system. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

  • The mission or purpose of the Israeli education system is to change immigrant children as well as the entire population by making it easier for immigrants to Israel to adapt to a new culture and new environment. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

• Ministry of Education, the administration which is in charge of education in Israel, serves many purposes.

  • The state is fully responsible for ensuring that every Israeli child is given an acceptable level of education. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

  • The Ministry of Education, along with the culture, is responsible for administering the education system and guiding it. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

  • The Ministry’s functions are to cover the budget, curriculum, and operational aspects of the education system’s activities. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

• Structural Principles of the Education System are important in Israel’s efforts to provide education. (There are three of them in all)

  • The division between sectors of the Israeli population reveals how the education system should be structured. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

    • The Hebrew and Arab educational systems are two separate systems under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

    • The Hebrew education system has two branches of education which are National and National-Religious and Arabic education is its own system. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

    • There also exist “Independent” educational systems, which include systems which are run by various religious groups or political parties. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

  • Another structural principle is the division of the Ministry’s units.

    • There are three units in the Ministry and they are administrating educational personnel, organization and financing, and supervision of areas in pedagogy and curriculum. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

  • The third structural principle concerns routine operations of the educational system.

    • The system operates in six districts, which are North, Haifa, Center, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and South. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 661)

• The gradation in Israel is very similar to the United States.

  • The formal education system begins with preschool, daycare or kindergarten. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 662)

    • These schools serve children ages 2-6 years old. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 662)

    • When children are at least three years of age, they fall under compulsory education in kindergartens run by local authorities and must be supervised by the Ministry of Education. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 662)

    • Daycare centers for ages 2-4 are predominantly private, many run by woman’s organizations, but most are run by local authorities.

    • The educational emphasis at this stage is on technology, culture, literacy, and creativity. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 662)

  • The next step after at least two years of some kind of preschool is primary education, which is either offered grades 1-6 or 1-8, depending on the subsystem or type of education is offered.

    • Elementary schools are the biggest in the system when it comes to enrollment, classrooms, teachers and teaching hours. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 662)

    • Most elementary schools in Israel operate six days a week for about 200 days a year with 4-8 hours of class time. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 662)

    • Almost all elementary school teachers are female. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 662)

    • The lower grades in elementary schools have one teacher who teaches all subjects in one classroom whereas students in grades 4-6 are taught different subjects by different teachers and have a homeroom teacher.

    • The schedules are fixed in elementary schools with no room for programs.

  • The final stage in education is secondary, which includes grades 7-12, like the United States.

    • Grades 7-9 go to junior high schools, which were established during an education reform in 1968, and grades 10-12 go to high schools. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 663)

    • There are three types of high schools, which are academic (mainly comprehensive high schools), technical, and agricultural schools. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 663)

    • Secondary schools serve as places for Israelis to learn trades for the future. (Avidor & Pasternak, p. 663)

• Although the education system appears to be very organized and dedicated to education, the statistics of the quality of education that students are receiving in Israel, however, fail to hold up to its own standards.

  • Since the workforce has grown in Israel throughout the decades, jobs require higher education, but over 50 percent of Israeli youth will not be able to because they are not receiving quality education. (Adva Center, p.19)

  • In 2004, 52.2 percent of 17 year olds failed to receive high school diplomas and many of them attended schools in Arab areas, poor Jewish towns and urban areas. (Adva Center, p.19)

Population (Terri’s comment: good section)

• In 2007, the estimated population of Israel consisted of 6.43 million people. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The annual population growth rate in 2007 was 1.2 percent. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The main ethnic groups in Israel are Jews, which make up 76.2 percent of the population, Arabs, which make up 19.5 percent of the population. Those who responded with ‘other’ make up about 4.3 percent. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The main religions of Israel are Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Druze. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The official languages in Israel are Hebrew and Arabic, but English and Russian are widely spoken in Israel as well, but they are not technically official languages. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The average Israeli gets about 11 years of compulsory education. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

    • The literacy rate in Israel is 96.9 percent. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

      • The literacy rate for females is 95.6 percent and for males is 98.3 percent. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The infant mortality rate in 2007 was 7.03/1000 births. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

    • The life expectancy at birth was about 79.32 overall. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

      • The life expectancy was 81.55 years for women and 77.21 years for males. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

  • The work force in Israel consists on average about 2.68 million back in 2004. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

    • Those who work in agriculture make up 2.1 percent; manufacturing with 16.2 percent; electrical/water with 0.8 percent; construction with 5.4 percent; trade/repair of motor vehicles with 3.6 percent; accommodation services and restaurants with 4.3 percent; transport, storage, and communication with 6.5 percent, banking, insurance and financing with 3.3 percent; business with 13.4 percent; public administration with 4.7 percent; education with 12.7 percent; health, welfare and social services with 10.7 percent; community, social, and personal services with 4.6 percent; and domestic services such as working as a maid or nanny with 1.6 percent. (U.S. Dept. of State, 2009)

Religion (Terri’s comment: This section is lacking – needs MUCH more development especially for the content area)

• Israel, like the United States, has a democratic ideology when it comes to religion and the state. Israel has legislative religious freedom.

  • Historically, Israel has been an exclusively Jewish nation, since the name Israel comes from the name that was given to Jacob by God in order to make the descendants of Abraham (his grandfather) a great nation, but Israel as a State recognized by the United Nations does not have an official religion but recognizes many.

• Along with the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Israel officially recognizes the Druze and the Baha’i faiths as well

  • Within Christianity, Israel recognizes the Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Latin (Roman Catholic), Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, Maronite, Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Chaldaic (Catholic) and Evangelical Episcopal (Anglican) denominations.

  • There have been many attempts to keep Jewish laws and secular laws separate, but over the years it has been observed to be nearly impossible, given that much of Jewish law is already practiced among most Israelis, regardless of whether they are practicing Jews or not.

Bibliography

"Israel." Background Notes. U.S. Department of State, 2009. Gale Power Search. Web. 18 Feb. 2012.

Cutler, Marianne. "Israel." Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Ed. H. James Birx. Vol. 3. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2006. 1337-1338. Gale Power Search. Web. 18 Feb. 2012.

"Education: over half of Israeli youth fail to graduate high school with diplomas." Israel: A Social Report. Adva Center, 2006. 19. Gale Power Search. Web. 18 Feb. 2012.

Avidor, Moshe, and Rachel Pasternak. "Land of Israel: Education." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 10. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 652-674. Gale Power Search. Web. 18 Feb. 2012.

Shetreet, Shemon. “Freedom of Religion in Israel.” Jewish Virtual Library. 2012. Web. 18 Feb. 2012