Lifelong Political Socialization, Consciousness and Political Agency in Israel Today

Abstract

This article deals with the nexus between biographical experiences in political extraordinary times of crisis, disaster and terror and their influence on political orientations. At the centre of interest is the reconstruction of political orientations related to two different historical-political groups of Jewish Germans who had immigrated or escaped either to Palestine before May 1948 or to the State of Israel after the Second World War. The first group of German Zionists emigrated to Israel at the time of the British Mandate and the second group were German Jews who survived the German concentration camps. The extraordinary background of the life courses, i.e. the ‘Zionist period’ in Palestine or the German concentration camps, were the historical-political experiences that both groups had to face in their childhood and youth. These extraordinary life experiences are analysed in connection with their political attitudes regarding contemporary Israeli internal politics as well as political questions dealing with the Middle East conflict.