Children In Israel
Profile of Israel

Since the beginning of statehood in 1948, Israel began its process of attempting to provide a comfortable, safe home for all of its inhabitants. For the past 52 years the state of Israel has represented a safe-haven to society's lost children. The fragmented survivors of the holocaust in Nazi Germany constituted the founding inhabitants of the nation. In addition to the large Jewish population that immigrated to Israel, other 'lost' cultures that previously resided in the region, primarily the Arabs, attempted to make the state their homeland. As a result of Israel's need to accomodate the large number of people, it has become a group-oriented society with children as its primary purpose. While Israel is a young, developing nation that has made significant improvements in the status and treatment of children in terms of childcare, kibbutz life, and education, poverty continues to plague the state.

The following table provides pertinent statistics regarding children in Israel:



Total Population5,984,000
Population under 182,011,000
Population under 5579,000
Annual number of births117,000
Adult Literacy Rate
Males97%
Females97%
Percentage of Infants with Low Birth Weight7%
Infant Mortality6/1000
Annual Number of Under Age 5 Deaths1,000


The above statistics were attained through the UNICEF website, last updated December 1999


This web page was created as an informative profile of the status of children in Israel.

The sociological concepts of social structure, diversity and children's agency will be demonstrated through the topics of childcare, kibbutz life, education, poverty and violence:

Childcare Education The History of OrphanagesKibbutz Life Organizations Poverty


You may also access a map of Israel from this homepage.

Sources

Jaffe,Eliezer D. 1983. Special Aspects of Education 2: Israelis in Institutions: Studies in Child Placement, Practice and Policy. New York: Science Publishers Inc.

Svilavi. 1990. Kibbutz Members Study Kibbutz Children. Westport, Ct: Greenwood Press.


This website was created in the Fall of 2000 by Rachel Geller, Allison Miller, Diana Osborn, Iris Travis, students at Tulane University. This website is part of a class project for Professor April Brayfield's Sociology 119: Children and Society Class.