Individual Redemption and Family Commitment: The Influence of Mass Immigration to Israel on the Crypto-Jewish Women of Mashhad

The purpose of this paper is to chart the influence of communal heritage and social history on the absorption of the Mashhadi community in Israel during the 1950s, with a special focus on its women. The central argument is that the status of Mashhadi women continued to be shaped by their past membership in a crypto-faith community.

Interviews with Mashhadi women who immigrated to Israel during the 1950s suggest that this heritage was the basis for two contradictory patterns of absorption. Their close-knit ethnic communal ties would continue in Israel—as they have indeed been sustained in other lands of immigration. At the same time, their vision of Israel as the land of ultimate redemption allowed for the dissolution of the underground community and for individual assimilation into the wider Jewish-Israeli society. These women echo a yearning for past communal warmth and mutual help while expressing a deep satisfaction in taking part in the process of redemption.