Youth, Culture and Social Structure in Israel

r NHE PURPOSE of this paper is to analyse some of the most typical patterns of the social life of youth (adolescents) in the Israeli social u , structure. There exists in Israel a great variety of different youth cultures and we shall try to show that they can be related in definite ways to specific elements of social structure. A large part of adolescents in Israel participate in patterns of behaviour and social organizations specific to them. The predominance of groups of agemates in immigration countries has been for long noticed and analysed by some American sociologists, and this tendency can be even more strongly discerned in Israel.2 Youth culture develops here in two different directions. On the one hand we have the different Youth Movements (about twelve in number) which organize the adolescents in formally organized and legitimate groups with a recognized place in the social structure. It has been estimated that about 30 per cent 3 of adolescents are organized within these movements, but the number of those who have passed through them is greater, and they touch, in one way or another, on the social life-space of almost every boy and girl. lEree main types may be discerned: (I) The pioneering type, which emphasizes Zionist and social ideals and whose manifest aim is to make their members into members of agricultural co-operative and communal settlements. (II) Working youth movements whose main aim is the educational and occupational advancement of their members. (III) The third type is mainly a recreational one with strong emphasis on sport and leisure-time