Excerpts from BECOMING TRADITIONAL: SOCIALIZATION TO BUREAUCRACY AMONG AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS IN
ISRAEL by KEVIN AVRUCH, George Mason University
"Seven years ago, when I first came to Israel," said Aaron, "I was surprised by how much life here was permeated with the need for licenses and stamps on official forms. You can get used to that. What I really had to learn was the system. In the U.S., when you go to a government office, the clerk is there to help you. He'll tell you the rules, and he'll help you tollow the rules, and within the rules he might even help you to get around the rules. Not here. Because the rules don't apply to everyone equally, so if the pakid ("clerk," "bureaucrat") doesn't know you, or God forbid doesn't like you, you're dead. This is really part of the whole Israeli complex..."
"Another immigrant, Jonathan, has lived in Israel for five years. In the United States he had worked for a municipal bureaucracy; in Israel he is an educational administrator. His remarks provide a sort of controlled comparison between U.S. and Israeli bureaucracies: "Look, in the States things weren't always so rational either. But at least we had the sense of being 'public servants.' I mean, we may have screwed over some clients in the U.S., but we felt guilty about it--we really did think we ought to be doing something called public service. There's none of that here."
"I hate having to go to any office," said Martin, an immigrant of 1972. "I work myself into a state of rage before I even get there. I know I'm going to get screwed. In Israel there are no rules. Thepakid has all the discretion. If he likes you he gives you more, and if he doesn't like you he gives you nothing. You really have the feeling that thepakid, in his office, is actually dispensing whatever it is--licenses, mortgages, loans--by grace; by his own personal power. In the States bureaucrat acts by grace. His authority comes from his position--the power of the position isn't his own. Every postal pakid in Israel, behind his cage, thinks he's a Jewish Cardinal Spellman."
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The aliyah pushers tell you to "come home." Does this sound like home or the opposite? To me it sounds more like "We don't take kindly to strangers around here."
Is this going to help your Ahavas Yisroel? Is this going to affect your feelings about Eretz Yisroel as you associate the nasty people with the place?
What will this do to your faith in general? You made this big sacrifice and now look at your life. You think, is this what Jews are like when we are running society, when we don't have goyim setting a better example?
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