ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that under conditions of persistent ethnic inequality accompanied by widespread acculturation, ethnic convergence processes may proceed in various directions among different subsections of the same group. It focuses on identifying intergenerational changes that have occurred in group boundaries of Jews from Iraq who settled in Israel. The chapter examines both the various directions of ethnic convergence and the different subsections of the group in which they are most apparent. It deals with one group, yet Iraqi Jews comprise the second largest community of origin within Israel's Oriental ethnic subdivision, and, as various studies showed, they are similar in many important respects to many other Oriental groups. The chapter explores the ethnic composition of friendship networks. It looks at friendship patterns, only respondents who answered the relevant questions were included in the analysis. None mentioned Arab friends, a fact that reflects the great residential segregation, and social, socioeconomic and cultural barriers between these two populations in Israel.
