Ethnicity and mixed ethnicity: Educational gaps among Israeli-born Jews

This paper analyzes gaps in the college graduation rates of third-generation Ashkenazim and Mizrahim (the two major ethnic groups among Israeli Jews), in comparison to the same gaps among members of the second generation. The empirical analyses have been performed using a special file of the 1995 Israeli census which matched records of respondents to their parents in the 1983 Census, thereby allowing identification of the ethnicity of the third generation for a representative sample of men and women, 25-34 years of age in 1995, as well as the identification of persons of mixed ethnicity. The results suggest that the gaps between the two major ethnic groups are not smaller in the third generation than in the second generation. Persons of mixed ethnicity -- of both the second and third generations -- are located about midway between the two ethnic groups with respect to their college graduation rates. Much of the ethnic-based gap in college graduation is due to differences in family background, especially among women. The same pattern of results is observed among persons of mixed ethnicity: holding parental characteristics constant, women of mixed ethnicity are as likely as Ashkenazi women to be college graduates, while among men, the chances of college graduation depend on the mother's ethnic origin. We discuss the implications of these results for the future of ethnic-based stratification in Israel.

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