The book shows how minority groups recreate their traditions and employ them as a means to preserve ethnic boundaries, to redefine identity, and to move towards mainstream culture. The result is a variation of ritual syncretism, demonstrating the immigrants’ multiple social locations.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Rachel Sharaby -- Copyright page / Rachel Sharaby -- Preface / Rachel Sharaby -- Acknowledgments / Rachel Sharaby -- General Introduction / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 1 Center/Periphery and Patterns of Protest / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 2 The Mimouna in North Africa: A Symmetry of Symbols / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 3 The Mimouna in Israel—from a Sectoral Festivity to a National Holiday / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 4 A Role Reversal: The Newcomers as Host and the Veterans as Guest / Rachel Sharaby -- Conclusion A Movement to the Center and Syncretism / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 5 A Tradition and Its Revival / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 6 The Seharane Festival in Kurdistan: Closing a Ritual Circle / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 7 Immigration and Settlement in Israel: The Loss of the Ethnic Identity / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 8 The Attempts to Organize a National Seharane Festival in the 1970s / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 9 The First Public Seharane Festival and Its Resemblance to the Tradition / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 10 The 1980s: The Seharane as the Arena of Political Clashes / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 11 The 1990s: A Return to Folk Traditions / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 12 The New Millennium: An Internal and Ritual Split / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 13 The Last Decade: Decline and Retrenchment / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 14 Discussion: An Ethnic Festival that Transcends Social Boundaries / Rachel Sharaby -- Conclusion Syncretism in the Revival of the Seharane / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 15 Pilgrimage / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 16 Community and Family Life in Ethiopia / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 17 The Seged / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 18 The Seged Ritual in Ethiopia / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 19 Discussion / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 20 Identities in the Postmodern Age / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 21 The Immigration of Ethiopian Jews and Their Absorption in Israel / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 22 The 1980s: The Initial Model of the Seged in Israel / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 23 The 1990s: A Constructed and Political Ritual / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 24 The New Century: Cooperation among Organizations and the Campaign for Official Recognition of the Seged / Rachel Sharaby -- Chapter 25 2010–2020: The Seged as a National Holiday / Rachel Sharaby -- Conclusion The Seged in a Multigenerational Perspective / Rachel Sharaby -- General Conclusions / Rachel Sharaby -- Bibliography / Rachel Sharaby -- Index / Rachel Sharaby.

This book deals with how, starting in the 1960s, immigrant groups in Israel constructed their ethnic identity by reviving their ethnic festivals and turning them into part of Israeli society. For the immigrants, these festivals serve as a collective “definitional ceremony,” with an intersection of ethnicity, culture, and identity. They also help them to develop cultural and religious syncretism. The discussion of their social and political leaders’ ethnic activism provides important insights about the ways in which immigrant leaders employ their ethnic tradition as a resource for mobilizing cultural, social, and political capital that will facilitate their penetration of the cultural mainstream.

Description based on print version record.