The new Mizrahi middle class: Ethnic mobility and class integration in Israel

This article argues that in recent decades, following the political “turnaround” (mahapakh) in 1977, a distinct new group has appeared on the Israeli scene: the Mizrahi middle class. This social category no longer fits the traditional dichotomies that have steered academic and popular sociological debate in Israel. On the basis of the geographic-spatial changes and the changes in higher education that have taken place in Israel during the past two decades, the article suggests that the Mizrahi middle class is playing a prominent role in the transformations that Israeli society is undergoing, providing a possible source for renewed social integration on a national scale. Israeli sociology is thus called upon to give due consideration not only to the theoretical significance of this group but also to its empirical significance in shaping the collective identity and the ethno-class arena in Israeli society in the coming decades.