ABSTRACT
A foreign visitor looking at Israeli society would probably be impressed by its diversity, by its complex tapestry of groups and cultures: Arabs and Jewsreligious and secular; Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews; Arabs with different religious and ethnic backgrounds-Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouins; and immigrants and tourists from many parts of the world. It has a large variety of languages, traditions, worldviews, customs, and norms, out of which a rich multicultural society could emerge and flourish. Israeli society, at this stage of its development, however, can at best be described as plural with certain multicultural features, for it lacks much of the ideology, ethos, and institutional support needed to transform it onto one that “promotes the value of diversity” (Fowers & Richardson, 1996, p. 609) and that strives “to enhance the dignity, rights, and worth of marginalized groups” (p. 609).
