Living Together develops practical knowledge, and implements activities and programs in order to create a real change in the ability of various groups in Israeli society to “live together”. The quality of living together is difficult to measure and quantify, as is the extent to which the practical actions taken by Living Together make a difference with regard to the quality of living together measured. However, we place a great emphasis on developing measurement capabilities in this unique content field, which is why we chose to develop the Living Together Index from the very first steps. Initial results were collected during 2019, and the main findings were presented at the Living Together Partners Conference held by Living Together in June 2019.
The purpose of this paper is to present the development process, model and main findings of the index a little more extensively, and to give whoever is interested access to the full presentation in order to investigate the results and findings in depth. At the end of this introductory document, you will find a link and explanation of the comprehensive presentation in Hebrew.
The Index Goals:
The goals as defined in the planning process are as follows: To capture a snapshot of the extent of living together among the various communities and groups in Israel society, to measure changes in the index components over time, and to develop an instrument that will assist in guiding our work and the work of other organizations involved in this field.
The Index Development Process:
We began developing the Living Together Index in 2017 in partnership with the ERI, a research and strategic consulting company that specializes in social and economic research for the public and thirds sectors. The development and measurement were led by Tamar Feldman and Dr. Daniela Shidlovski of ERI together with Dr. Gali Sambira from Living Together.
The Index, that defines the levels and dimensions of living together, was developed based on the concepts and language formulated by the Living Together Task Force (a diverse group of leaders who founded the knowledge and operation modes of Living Together). It was created through a series of thinking sessions held by ERI researchers together with professional staff at Living Together and Task Force representatives.
Measurement Model:
The concept of Living Together is based on the challenge brought about by the tension between a unique community identity and a shared Israeli identity. It necessitates the recognition that Israeli society has a variety of cultural identity groups, and that the individuals that make up society carry with them the cultural baggage of their cultural affiliation group. As a result, they act in the public sphere and perceive themselves and the members of other groups through their cultural identity.
Thus, our basic and fundamental unit (the “atom”) is not the individual, rather his / her identity group, and more precisely his / her cultural identity group. It is upon this foundation that his/her relationships with the various other identity groups are built: the level of acquaintance with them, recognition of them and of their added value to the shared space, as well as the ability to identify with their pains.
The model consists of three levels as shown in the following diagram:
Level A- Relationships between groups, familiarity, and recognition. This level includes three different dimensions: formal and informal relationships, culture as an asset, and empathy and recognition of pain. This level examines the attitude of individuals in the various groups towards other groups.
Level B – The public sphere. This level includes three main dimensions: Cultural expressions of communities in the public sphere, participation in decision making and in shaping the public sphere and recognition of my culture as an asset by other groups. This level expresses the subjective feeling of the various individuals to the extent that they are represented in the public sphere.
Level C – Values and beliefs. This level includes four dimensions: a shared “Israeliness”, multiple cultures as an asset, a commitment towards a future of common good and an acceptance of a unique expression for each community, enabling and legitimizing spaces of togetherness as well as spaces of separateness for each community. This level of values and beliefs expresses respondents’ general worldview about the basic principles of Living Together, without addressing a specific group.
The survey was conducted among a representative sample of Israeli society – a total of 1161 respondents – some answered the questionnaire online and some via telephone. The sample quotas corresponded to the proportion in the general population, and among the minority groups the percentage of the respondents was higher than their percentage in the population.
A total of 330 secular Jews were sampled, 268 traditional Jews, 132 religious Jews, 116 ultra-Orthodox Jews, 210 Muslim Arabs, 51 Christian Arabs, and 54 Druze. Additionally, an emphasis was put on a representative sampling of men and women, holders of liberal and conservative worldviews as well as various origin groups (immigrants from the former USSR and Ethiopia, Mizrahi Jews, Ashkenazi Jews etc.).
Key Findings:
General Findings:
- The Index score for Living Together for 2019 is 5.86 (out of 10), with a higher score signifying a higher ability of “Living Together”. The score is a weighting of the scores at each level of the model.
- The Level C score – Agreeing with the beliefs and values of Living Together – is slightly higher than the level B score – the sense of representation of groups in the public space, as well as that of the Level A score – the relationships between groups in society.
- The group with the highest Living Together Index score is the Druze community, who hold more than any other group the values and beliefs of Living Together, feel represented in the public sphere equally to the Jewish community and have better relationships with the other groups.
Level A- Relationships between Groups:
- Within Jewish society, the most negative relationship is between secular and ultra-Orthodox Jews. The relationships between religious Jews and traditional Jews is better on average.
- The attitude of Arabs toward Jews is significantly less negative than the attitude of Jews towards Arabs.
- The attitude of ultra-Orthodox Jews towards the other groups is more positive than the attitude of the other groups towards them.
- The attitude of secular Jews towards the other groups is more negative than the attitude of the other groups towards them.
- Liberals recognize the cultural value of secular Jews, immigrants and Arabs more than conservatives do. However, liberals’ recognition of the cultural value of religious and ultra-Orthodox communities is lower than that of conservatives.
- The ultra-Orthodox community is the group with the lowest level of recognition towards the cultural values of immigrant groups. Secular and traditional Jews have the highest recognition towards the cultural values of Russian speakers, and traditional and religious Jews have the highest recognition towards the cultural values of Ethiopian immigrants.
Level B – The Public Sphere
- The sense of representation of Druze and Jews in the public sphere is significantly higher than that of Muslims and Christians.
- Of the Jews, the groups who feel most represented in the public sphere are the traditional and secular Jews.
- Arabs (regardless of religion) have a lower sense of inclusion and representation in decision making relatively to other groups, and the ultra-Orthodox community has a lower sense of public expression relatively to other groups.
- Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Middle Eastern or African descent) feel that they receive more cultural recognition than other communities, while Russian speakers feel they receive the least cultural recognition.
- People who define themselves as liberals feel a higher sense of representation in the public sphere compared to people who perceive themselves as conservative.
Level C- Beliefs and Values:
- Most groups identify to the same extent with the values of Living Together (such as a common “Israelines”, multiple cultures as an asset, striving for common good and unique expression).
- In general, liberals are more sympathetic to the values of Living Together compared to conservatives, but by reference to specific values - liberals identify more with values of common good and multiculturalism as an asset, and less with the value and legitimacy for the unique expression of communities in the public sphere.
- The Druze community score higher than other communities in their identification with the values and beliefs of Living Together.
- When divided by gender and nationality, there are differences between Arab women and Arab men. Generally speaking, Arab women both identify with the values of Living Together and feel represented more than Arab men. This difference does not appear in the Jewish society, meaning there isn’t any gender difference on the level of beliefs and values in Jewish society.
Uses, Adjustments and Lessons:
- Already in 2019, adjustments were made to the national general index and a local version has been developed that has been implemented at seven centers at which the Living Together Communities Program operated (Ma’alot-Tarshiha, Safed, Carmiel, The Mate-Asher Regional Council, Beit Shemesh, the French Hill in Jerusalem and Kiryat Hayovel in Jerusalem).
- We are currently working on developing a shorter version of the index, tailored to measure and collect data from participants in short-term workshops and training sessions, in order to regularly expand the database.
- Additionally, we are currently drawing conclusions in order to make running and publishing the results of the 2020 Index easier, faster and more accessible.
In this link you can find the Hebrew presentation that includes all findings at the different levels (Level A, level B and level C) as well as the various segmentation.
The presentation is interactive and enables scrolling directly to topics / segments that interest you.
