The Journal of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children

Abstract
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Shoshana Rosemarin
Since its establishment in 1948, the state of Israel has acquired a lot of experience in absorbing Jews who
migrated from different parts of the globe. Two very different groups have immigrated into Israel during the last
two decades – Ethiopians (100.000) and Russians (700.000). Due to the basic differences between those groups
and cultures, the integration of each of them and the issue of giftedness related to them involve different
considerations and strategies.
Keywords: Gifted Immigrants; Ethiopians; Russians; cultural integration; issues of giftedness;
strategies.
Introduction
By defining culture as “a certain way, proper to each people, of feeling and thinking, of
expressing itself and of acting", cultures are no longer liable to be placed in the same historical time
and ranked as advanced or backward. This "certain way", or character, is the symbiosis of the
geography and history, of race and ethnic group. Cultures express the pluralism of humanity rather
than evolutionary stages. Yet, Western racism assigns lower human capabilities to "non-Westerns"
(Kebede 2006, p. 819).
“Immigrant children, or children of immigrant parents, face many difficulties:
They have to learn a new language, adapt to a new educational system, deal with academic
challenges, establish a new social network, and adjust to new customs and normative behavior.
They need to redefine certain aspects of the self (ethnic identity, values, and perception of self
competence), while dealing with the gaps often dividing their home culture from the surrounding value
system and norms.
It may be noted that the extent to which the culture of origin differs from the host culture may affect
adjustment in general and self concept construction in particular”
(Tannenbaum, 2008, p. 189).
Two different cultures: Ethiopian and Russian
A - Ethiopian immigration
Because of continuous wars due to internal religious conflicts, foreign invasions and regional
rivalries for the control of the imperial power, Ethiopia deteriorated from a state of a ruling empire (1 st
century) to a state of a stagnant system in which increasing poverty and an arrested state of
knowledge and techniques of production became its defining features (Kebede, 2006, p. 817).
Thus, Baykedagn (an Ethiopian scholar, who was raised in Europe in the early 20 th century)
maintains that people struggling for a stable state desire for wealth and knowledge as well as their
innate abilities are equal to those of Europeans (Kebede, 2006, p. 820).
With the help of the Israeli government, over 70,000 Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel in
the two large waves of 1984 (Operation Moses) and 1991 (Operation Solomon) (Shuval & Leshem,
1998). Since then, Ethiopian Jews have continued immigrating to Israel in‘ smaller numbers.
Recently, the last group of 8000 was granted permission to immigrate:
(http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMO/Archive/Decisions/2010/11/des2434.htm).
Specific difficulties of Ethiopian immigrants
Despite its years of experience in immigrant absorption, the state had difficulty
understanding the uniqueness of the Ethiopian community (Shabtay & Kacen, 2005). Due to their
Gifted and Talented International – 26(1), August, 2011; and 26(2), December, 2011. 105