Family Culture Vs American Culture

To best understand one’s own culture and values, it’s helpful to compare to and contrast to another. Nearly 7,000 miles away from America is a captivating country packed full of a diverse population, that county is Israel. There are many differences and strong parallels between the two countries in the areas of family life, military, and language. Family life and values have changed over time for both Israel and America, but there are some significant differences. For example, in Israel for a woman to be socially accepted she must hold her family together, “Women who do not accept that model (being the center of the family) are often seen as failing their natural role as a woman and their national role as an Israeli”(The Centrality of). Consequently,

This importance around the mother often causes a strong respect towards the mothers and strong values towards family involvement. This center around family stems from the Jewish beliefs that family must come first. Whereas in America “there is no longer one dominant family form in the U.S.”(The American Family). Family life greatly differs from household to household and that may be because “more moms have entered the labor force, more have become breadwinners”(The American Family). There may be respect towards the mother and father, but daily life typically does not depend on one or the other. Also American households are often primarily secular, so there is nothing really binding them to a devoted family life. Although the structure of families in Israel and America are different, many of the same values are shared. For example both value

However, both countries have different reasons and impacts in their military success. For example, America’s military force is on volunteer basis, no one is forced to enlist unless there are desperate measures. People step up to protect their country, because they’re full of nationalist pride, which is a strong American value. One American recruit says “I feel it is necessary for myself -- more for my children, to secure their future”(Voa.). Americans are prideful of their country and will risk their lives to see that it is protected. Conversely, “all Jewish men are required to do 3 years of regular army service”(Kaplan) and “The Jewish population makes up 6,484,000 (74.7%)”(Vital Statistics). One may think that because the Jewish are forced to serve they would be remorseful about their duty. However, it is on the contrary. Like America, the people of Israel are also proud to the serve and protect their country, and many continue to serve even after the their three years are up. Another similarity, is that both countries are ranked in the top 15 for highest military spendings (McCarthy). This clearly proves that protection of the people is a high value in both countries. However this high spending is definitely going to affect their economies, and therefore affect their people. Their people are going to feel more secure that their homes are properly protected. But they may also feel as though