Israeli society in the late 1980s continued to be characterized by a number of distinctive institutions. Some, like the Histadrut, were legacies of the socialist aspects of Labor Zionism, with its commitments to the socioeconomic reconfiguration of the Jewish people and the establishment of an egalitarian and industrial nation-state society. Others, like the kibbutz and moshav, stemmed from these values but combined them with the practical problems posed by the need to pioneer and settle the land. Still others--the ulpan (Hebrew school for immigrants) or the merkaz klita (absorption center)--arose from the need to settle and integrate large numbers of Jewish immigrants from diverse lands and cultures.
Data as of December 1988