Culture & Identity of Israel
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Introduction
The way of life in Israel has no true standard as the people are quite diverse in nearly every sense of the word. For many of the people religion is important and drives the weekly routine, but there are numerous people who are only religious in name. In fact it is religion that divides the people in most ways, but in the sense of schedule religion does little to alter life from one religion to the next in the country. The differences in way of life come more in the form of culture.
Most of the people living in Israel are either Jewish or Muslim, both of which share Friday as their holy day. Due to this, the weekend in Israel is Friday and Saturday. The Christian minority celebrates Sundays as the holy day, but the majority creates the weekend. In terms of food and diet, the Jews and Muslims again share some similarities, such as abstinence from pork, but the Jews and Christians drink alcohol.
For many devout Muslims the day is also centered around the five daily prayers, although only a minority of people in the country partake in these five prayers. All the people, Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike seem to find most jobs in the services industries, particularly in cities, where working hours are more consistent. Most people in these positions work about eight hours a day.