SC - OT Israel

[Marian Deborah Rosenberg]

Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2000 07:34:18 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - sugar

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> Cairistiona commented:
> > Anyway, thanks for the info about making golden syrup, etc.  Is there any
> > comparison list available?  I mean, I can get golden syrup easily enough in
> > Oz, but what do I look for in a country which prefers American expressions?
> 
> Interesting. Is English a second language in Isreal? Maybe I shouldn't be
> surprised since we give them IMHO an outrageously large amount of foriegn
> aid.

My personal opinion is that you're right, given that they have not
always acted like our allies, but there would be a massive outcry from
many Americans if the money stopped flowing. But that's neither here nor
there...

- ---
Currently being in a class which is a mishmash of stuff about Israel (it was
supposed to be a Judaic Thought class but the professor abruptly left and it is
more a Israeli Political Science class with religion, zionism and other stuff
thrown in) I can say some stuff about this.

While Israel does recieve quite a lot of money from the Americans it is nothing
approaching the percentage of its GNP that it used to be and one of the stances
of some of the religious parties is that American Jews should keep our money
and spend it more on things like educating American Jews about Jewry.  The
money from the JNF isn't as important to them now and hasn't been for some
time.

I can't say anything about donations of aid from the American Gov't though as
we haven't really covered that in class.
- ---

English, actually, is almost a first language in Israel, since although
many Israelis speak Hebrew, many speak Arabic and Aramaic dialects as a
primary language, also German, Polish, Russian, and just about any other
language you could name. Also, painful as it is to relate, another
aspect is that a good-sized chunk of Israeli citizens were once
Americans, because American Jews weren't decimated, or more than
decimated, in the Holocaust. English is a sort of common denominator.
I'm not addressing the question of whether this is a good or a bad
thing, it's just how it is, I think.

- ---
English has only been such a major language since the mid-70s when France
actively did not help the Israelis in a war (1974? 76? don't have my notes). 
It is my understanding that before that time French was so widely spoken as to
nearly became an official second language of Israel actually being a lingua
franca between people who had disparate first languages.

Of any country, Israel has the most daily newspapers in different languages.

American Jews weren't decimated in the Holocaust, however American Jews are not
a good sized chunk of Israeli citizens.  In fact, since its inception more Jews
have emigrated from Israel to the US than vice versa.