Social education of immigrants as a national socialization agent in the new state of Israel

Facilitating the integration process of new immigrant students in Israel was a major goal of the Israeli social education policy during the 1950s-1960s. Apparently, the state schools served as a crucial interface between the host society and the new Jewish immigrant children, who comprised nearly half of the student population at that time. Examination of various aspects of this phenomenon is the main focus of this article. The education system attempted to use social educational tools to activate peer groups and to empower student councils and committees, as well as employing various other techniques. These educational means at the disposal of the student society, based on progressive educational theory in tandem with Zionist educational goals, were employed in order to create a new society. The Hebrew national education system theorized that the schools should act as key acculturating agents, in expectation that the socialized younger generation would promote the acculturation of other members of the immigrant families, as well as that of the immigrant students.