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The objective of this study is to examine a sample of American and Israeli youth, members of societies characterized by different cultural traditions and political ideologies, with respect to (1) their assessment of self, family, and community, in terms of a reciprocal network of rights and obligations, and (2) the role of the family as an intermediary between the individual and the community.
The research instrument was a questionnaire consisting primarily of open-ended questions. It was administered to 252 Israeli 11th and 12th graders, approximately 17 years of age (June 1973), and to 458 American students from the same grades and age group (April 1974). Both samples were drawn from middle- and upper-middle-class neighborhoods and contained a negligible proportion of “minorities” (refers to non-Caucasians in the United States and to Jews of non-European extraction in Israel). By virtue of their socioeconomic background and education, these students may be assumed to be the bearers of the prevailing cultural norms and future occupants of leadership positions in their respective societies.
After a brief comparison of Israeli and American societies in relation to the central theme of the individual, family and community, the findings of the investigation are discussed in terms of family and self and then in terms of family and community.
Comparing American and Israeli societies in terms of the “majority culture” — that is, the major value orientations of the high-status groups in these societies — it becomes apparent that they differ significantly with regard to the position accorded to the individual, relative to the family and community, in the respective hierarchies of cultural values. In the Jewish tradition the family and community are endowed with sacredness; the individual derives his significance through his membership in his family and