Differential adjustment of Ashkenazi versus Sephardi Jews to a forced relocation: the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai.
This report focuses on a set of findings regarding differential adjustment patterns of Ashkenazi (Western) versus Sephardi (Oriental) Jews when faced with a stressful life event. The event in question was the wholesale evacuation of the Israeli Sinai community of Ophira (Sharm-el-Sheik in Arabic) when the Sinai was handed over to Egyptian control in March 1982. Immediately prior to the evacuation, the authors went down to Ophira to carry out a study of patterns of psychosocial adjustment of community residents designed to assess the relationships between individual coping styles, personal network characteristics, levels of psychological distress, and adequacy of social adjustment. Data were collected from a sample of 66 adult civilian community residents (31 men; 35 women), a sample that by coincidence was composed of two reputedly quite different ethnic subgroups: Israeli-born Jews whose parents were of European origin; and "Oriental" Jews, i.e., immigrants from Moslem countries. This fortuitous mix allowed us to carry out the analyses exploring ethnic differences in adjustment and their possible causes that are to be presented in this paper.
Steinglass
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Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC 20037.
De-Nour
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AK
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007585:Jews / Q000523:psychology*; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008877:Middle East / Q000208:ethnology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012944:Social Support