What is Israeli culture like? My impressions after 7 years
A strange hybrid between the West and the Middle East, what’s it like living in Israel with Israelis?
Having lived in Israel for more than seven years now, I feel like I’ve begun to acclimatize to the culture of Israel.
Israeli culture is an interesting mix of various influences.
On the one hand — due to its geographical location — Israeli food and culture is decidedly influenced by the region that surrounds it (the Middle East).
On the other, the country has also sought to associate itself with the culture of the West, sometimes much to the chagrin of its surrounding enemies.
For those who think that Israeli is by and large an Ashkenazi Jewish country, here’s something that might change your perspective. There are more than three million Mizrahi Jews — those who migrated to Israel from the countries of the Arab world and North Africa — living in Israel.
The result of this initial migration, one could argue, is that the country got a head start in assimilating its citizens into their Middle Eastern milieu within which Israel finds itself (of note of course — Jewish settlement in Israel didn’t begin with the foundation of the State!)
There’s another thing that I think can’t be emphasized enough:
Israeli culture — in international terms — is very much in its infancy. The country, after all, is less than one hundred years old.
As Israel continues to forge relations with new allies — and more international tourists come to Israel — there is a sort of tug and pull going on between Israel’s formative culture and the international norms of its major trading partners.
This can be seen in both the personal and professional spheres.
Small example: during the seven years I’ve lived here, I’ve noticed the “we need this now!” Israeli balagan mentality (best described as: doing things on the go) slowly giving way to the less chaotic “can we set up a time to call?” approach more typical of larger international businesses. Customer service has also gotten markedly better.
For those who decry some of the cultural traits that I’m about to list, I always respond by pointing out the above. It’s very early days. Much can still change. Be patient.
For those new to Israel — whether planning to make a life here indefinitely or temporarily — these are some of my Cliff Notes about the formative culture of Israel.
Israeli Culture Is Very Informal — But There Are Limits To The Informality
The first thing that many visitors and new arrivals remark about the culture of Israel is the degree to which it is remarkably informal.
Israelis are used to growing up in a country with a high population density.
Israel’s population density is 423 citizens per square kilometer (at the time of writing; source: CBS). India’s figure is 411 citizens per square kilometer. By contrast, Ireland’s is just 70 (yes, I’m one of the only people that routinely uses Ireland as my point of comparison with Israel!).
In a country in which everybody lives on top of one another — and with a citizen’s army in which every new recruit goes through the same conscription process — Israel’s have a unique sense of social equality bred, perhaps, by close quarter living and the feeling of a shared destiny as a tiny Jewish country living in the middle of a largely hostile neighborhood.
By and large, Israeli organizations tend to have flat hierarchies. The CEO at a startup could be the guy in sandals and a t-shirt a few doors down and you’re free to knock on this door any time (if he has one).
Formal modes of address — ‘adon’ for a man ‘giveret’ for a woman — exist but are not heard with the same frequency as might be encountered elsewhere.
When my health fund calls me to remind me of an upcoming doctor’s appointment, they begin “Danniielll?” in a curious sort of braying tone meant to verify my identity (I have a recording somewhere). I don’t think I’ve heard the Hebrew equivalent of “Am I speaking to Mr. Rosehill?” since moving here. If I do, perhaps that will be my indication that I’ve really made it here.
There’s one very curious facet of Israeli culture.
New immigrants — olim hadashim — are notorious for attempting to over-compensate their impression of Israelis in an attempt to expedite their integration process. They often, by trying too hard to act Israeli, end up offending even the informally-minded Israelis in the process.
Final note: when one lives here for years, it becomes increasingly obvious that this blanket informality actually has some degrees of nuance attached to it.
Cases in point: IDF commanders command respect wherever they go. Showing up 20 minutes late to a job interview is still unbecoming. And repeatedly bearing one’s boss is equally not likely to advance one’s career prospects.
Israelis are informal … but newcomers to the culture still need to tread somewhat cautiously.
Israelis Are Solution-Oriented And Efficient. But Paradoxically, Bureaucracy Can Be A Pain
As the citizens of a country that started out as a poor socialist backwater with restrictive government practices around imports (among other things), it should come as no surprise that Israelis appear to have an innate love for stopgap solutions and improvisation.
MacGyver may have been named after an American TV show, but he could just as well have been your typical Israeli kibbutsnik who knows how to use Duct tape to hold together a computer.
Israelis tend to be focused on finding quick resolutions to problems. It’s no coincidence, I believe, that startups — which by and large favor agile over any other project management methodology — have mushroomed in Israel.
Israelis excel in getting projects off the ground — again, remember startups. Their weakness, on the other hand, is often in long-term thinking and strategic planning.
A positive manifestation of this live for the moment attitude: Israelis have a unique “live for the moment” kind of attitude. A negative one: Israelis sometimes seem to derive perverse enjoyment from the atmosphere of chaos — Hebrew: balagan — that pervades organizations where everything needs to be done on the fly.
This manifests itself, curiously, in sometimes reckless personal finance decisions (Israelis are notorious for living in overdraft and spending beyond their means). This is also the reason why Israelis can frequently be found thronging bars on Saturday night — the evening before the start of the work week.
Paradoxically — at times, Israel is a land of paradoxes — Israel has a well-deserved reputation for bureaucracy and over-regulation.
My Israeli clients frequently demand that I send over four different ishurim (permits) solely to begin a small consulting project. I need to prove that I own my bank account, have a book-keeper, and am a registered business.
Those who work in the field of building and architecture frequently encounter unwieldy webs of regulation that make getting even basic development projects approved incredibly challenging.
Israelis Have A Unique Conception Of Manners And Social Graces
Israelis are often decried as being rude. But I think it’s more accurate to say that Israelis just have a different conception of social manners than the rest of the world.
This doesn’t mean, by the way, that I don’t often dislike their ideals about manners (excuse the double negative). It just means that, at some point, you have to accept that you’re living in their country rather than the one you came from and that nothing you do, as one person, has the power to change prevailing social norms.
What am I talking about?
When I hold a door open for strangers, in Israel, I almost never receive even a cursory “thank you” in response. Why isn’t that done? I don’t know. Has somebody in Israel once thanked me for holding the door open for them? Probably. But it’s happened consistently enough that it’s become a feature of the culture that I don’t really understand — much less connect with.
Example two: last week I received an SMS notification from a courier telling me that they had to change where a package I had ordered online was being sent to.
But one formulation was conspicuously missing from the notification: “we apologize.”
An American customer service email would undoubtedly have included the stock phrase “we apologize for any inconvenience caused.” But the Israeli courier (or whoever was writing their notification methods) probably didn’t believe that they should apologize for a change probably caused by a third party (the delivery shop). Again, here I disagree and found it rude that the communication was missing a basic apology.
Customer service in Israel unfortunately often sucks. Sometimes this is due to the notion of a social meritocracy being stretched way beyond its usual bounds in Western cultures. At other times, it’s a manifestation of the fact that businesses know consumers have few options, consumer rights are restrictive, and that they have a captive audience which they can exploit.
Israelis can be warm and disarmingly informal. But when it comes to manners, there’s some space between what they regard as normal and what I and much of the world do. As Israelis say: kacha ze (that’s just life).
Israelis Are Obsessed With Not Being A Sucker (Freier)
One more point.
Israelis have this bizarre national phobia of not being a “freier” (sucker).
This is the societal reaction to the fact that — in a society of immigrants — there are unfortunately historically those in Israel who are prepared to take advantage of immigrants.
In other words: there’s a culture — somewhat entrenched in Israel — of shitat mazliach (the successful way). The Irish translation for this is “chancing your arm.” And the more elaborate one is: “trying to pressure somebody who doesn’t know better into taking a bad deal.”
Because of the somewhat pervasive nature of shitat matzliach in Israeli society, Israelis have become wildly obsessed with the idea of not being a “freier. The problem is that this creates a vicious cycle of behavior:
- I won’t let somebody into this lane of traffic because that would mark me out as a freier and other motorists will take advantage of me
- Letting someone go ahead of me in line at the grocery store would be a freier move so I won’t do it
Sometimes, Israelis come off as having a disturbing national “me first” attitude. And yet they are perplexingly also famous for coming to the aid of strangers during times of need.
I believe that this — one of the many paradoxes of living in Israel — can be explained by the national fear of freier culture.(Another one: how can a nation that prides itself on technology sometimes itself be so low-tech).
Israel Can Take A Lot Of Getting Used To
As an immigrant from Ireland, I can scarcely think of two more dissimilar cultures than those that exist in Ireland and Israel.
The Irish — like the British — emphasize politeness, “getting along,” and not stepping on somebody else’s toes. The positives: it’s an easier culture to get used to. The negatives: limited agility; disagreements, both major and minor, can get swept up under an overarching desire for artificial conviviality.
Israelis — by stark comparison — don’t seem particularly concerned by any of these things. The benefits: the opposite of those which flow from the above. Problems can get resolved quickly. Just as disagreements can escalate quickly, so too they can calm down in a moment’s notice. There’s a higher variability in people’s day-to-day behavior.
As a result, to Irish (or British) eyes Israelis can often come across as coarse and needlessly aggressive and abrasive. But that project or disagreement might be wrapped up far quicker than may have been the case had somebody insisted on keeping a stiff upper lip.
Israeli culture, in stark contrast, emphasizes being direct. But once you can get past the sometimes brutal honestly you can often find warmhearted, creative, and passionate individuals who can become loyal coworkers or friends.
