Israel
The small, intense Middle Eastern nation founded as a Jewish homeland, a gathering of Jewish people from across the world, a land of ancient faith and modern innovation, of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, of Hebrew reborn and the holy places of three religions. The complete guide.
Israel is a small country at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Middle East, home to about ten million people, founded in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish people after centuries of exile and the catastrophe of the Holocaust. It is the only country in the world with a Jewish majority, a gathering place of Jews from across the globe, alongside a large Arab minority and communities of Christians, Druze, and others. Israel is a land of striking contrasts: of the ancient holy city of Jerusalem, sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the modern, secular, Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv; of deep religious tradition and cutting-edge technology; of the revival of the ancient Hebrew language as a living modern tongue. It is also a country shaped, throughout its existence, by conflict with its neighbours and with the Palestinians. This guide describes the land, the people, the faith, the food, and the customs, ending with the present.
Overview
Israel is a small country in the Middle East, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the southwest, and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Despite its small size, it holds a remarkable variety of landscapes, from Mediterranean coast to desert. About ten million people live there, most of them Jewish, alongside a large Arab minority, with the main cities being the modern coastal hub of Tel Aviv, the great port of Haifa, and the ancient holy city of Jerusalem, which Israel regards as its capital, though its status is disputed internationally.
Israel is a parliamentary democracy, with a president as ceremonial head of state, currently Isaac Herzog, and a prime minister who leads the government, a post long held by Benjamin Netanyahu, with the parliament, the Knesset, dissolved in 2026 ahead of new elections. The country was founded in 1948 as a homeland and refuge for the Jewish people. Its people are mostly Jewish, gathered from across the world, with a large minority of Arab citizens, mostly Muslim along with Christians, and smaller communities such as the Druze. The main language is Hebrew, revived as a living tongue, with Arabic also widely spoken. The currency is the Israeli shekel.
A few deep forces shape life in Israel. There is the small, varied land between sea and desert. There is the founding idea of a Jewish homeland and a gathering of Jews from across the world. There is the ancient faith and the holy land shared by three religions. There is the revival of Hebrew, the drive of innovation, and the central place of the army. And there is the long, unresolved conflict that has marked the nation's whole existence. The sections that follow trace these and walk through the customs, ending with the present.
A small land between sea and desert
Israel is a small country, but one packed with a remarkable variety of landscapes within a short distance, running from the Mediterranean coast in the west to the deserts of the east and south, and from the green hills of the north to the dry, rocky wilderness of the Negev. Along the coast lies a fertile plain with fine beaches and the modern cities, while inland rise the hills and mountains of Galilee in the north and the Judean hills around Jerusalem, and to the south stretches the great desert that makes up much of the country.
The land holds some of the most storied places on earth. The Jordan River runs down a deep valley to the Dead Sea, the saltiest of seas and the lowest point on the surface of the earth, where the water is so dense that bathers float, and further north lies the freshwater Sea of Galilee. The hills, valleys, and deserts of this small country are filled with sites sacred to billions, places named in the Bible and walked by the figures of three great religions, so that the land itself is steeped in history and holiness.
The climate is Mediterranean along the coast, with hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, growing hotter and drier inland and in the desert south. Israel has turned its often harsh and dry land to remarkable use, becoming a leader in farming the desert, in water technology, and in making the most of scarce resources, so that green fields and orchards flourish where there was once only dust. This small, varied, ancient land, between the sea and the desert, is the setting of Israeli life and the focus of the nation's deep attachment.
The Jewish homeland
Israel was founded in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish people, and this founding purpose, to be a national home and a place of refuge for Jews after nearly two thousand years of exile and persecution, lies at the very centre of what the country is. For most of those long centuries the Jewish people had no land of their own, scattered across the world in the diaspora, often suffering discrimination, expulsion, and violence, while keeping alive, in their prayers and traditions, a longing to return to the ancient land of their origins.
That longing became a movement, Zionism, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as Jews began to return and settle in the land, then under other rule, with the aim of rebuilding a Jewish national home. The drive gained terrible urgency from the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews in Europe during the Second World War, the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history, which convinced many that the Jewish people needed a state of their own as a guarantee of survival and a refuge from persecution. In 1948 the State of Israel was declared.
From its founding, Israel set out to gather in the Jewish people, and its law gives any Jew anywhere in the world the right to come and settle as a citizen, a principle known as the right of return. Over the decades, millions of Jews have come, from the survivors of Europe to communities from across the Middle East, North Africa, the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia, and the world over. The idea of Israel as the homeland and refuge of the Jewish people, the one place where Jews are the majority and masters of their own fate, remains the deepest foundation of the nation and its identity.
A gathering of the exiles
Israel is a nation of immigrants and their descendants, a remarkable gathering of Jewish people from almost every country on earth, who came together in one small land bringing the languages, customs, foods, and traditions of the many places they had lived, making Israel an extraordinary melting pot. The ingathering of these scattered communities, and the effort to weld them into a single people, has been one of the central stories of the country.
The Jewish population falls into broad groups shaped by the lands of the diaspora. There are the Ashkenazi Jews, whose families lived for centuries in Europe; the Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, whose roots lie in Spain, the Middle East, and North Africa, and who came in great numbers after 1948; large communities who arrived from the former Soviet Union; the Ethiopian Jews, with their own ancient traditions; and many more. Each brought its own customs, music, cooking, and ways of worship, and the blending and sometimes the friction of these communities has shaped Israeli society.
Israel is also home to a large Arab minority, about a fifth of its citizens, who are mostly Muslim along with Christians, and who have their own language, culture, and traditions as Palestinian Arabs holding Israeli citizenship, as well as smaller communities such as the Druze, with their own distinct faith, and the Bedouin of the desert. This makes Israel a diverse and often divided society, where many communities, Jewish and Arab, religious and secular, live together in one small and crowded land. The gathering of so many peoples from so many places is a defining feature of the Israeli nation.
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
Two cities capture the contrasts at the heart of Israel, and the difference between them says much about the country: Jerusalem, the ancient holy city of stone, and Tel Aviv, the young, modern city of the Mediterranean shore. The two lie less than an hour apart, yet they can feel like different worlds, and Israelis often describe their country as pulled between them.
Jerusalem is one of the oldest and most sacred cities on earth, holy to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike, a place of immense religious meaning, history, and tension. Within its ancient walls lie the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews pray, the last remnant of the ancient Temple; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered by Christians as the place of the crucifixion and resurrection; and the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, among the holiest sites in Islam. Jerusalem is a city of deep faith, of stone and history, more religious and more divided, where Jews, Muslims, and Christians live side by side amid layers of the sacred.
Tel Aviv, by contrast, is the modern, secular, and worldly face of Israel, a vibrant Mediterranean city of beaches, cafes, nightlife, and high-rise towers, the country's commercial, cultural, and technological heart, famous for its liberal, fast-paced, pleasure-loving energy and its lively arts and start-up scene. Where Jerusalem looks to heaven and the past, Tel Aviv lives in the moment by the sea. Between the holy city and the city of the shore lies much of the range of modern Israel, from the deeply religious to the wholly secular.
The revival of Hebrew
One of the most remarkable achievements of modern Israel is the revival of Hebrew, the ancient language of the Jewish people, which for many centuries had survived almost only as a language of prayer and scripture, no longer spoken in daily life, and which was brought back, in a single lifetime, to become the living, everyday tongue of a whole nation. No other language in history has been revived in this way, from a sacred and scholarly language to the speech of millions, and Hebrew is now the heartbeat of Israeli culture and identity.
For nearly two thousand years of exile, Jews around the world spoke the languages of the lands they lived in, and developed Jewish tongues of their own, while Hebrew was preserved for prayer, study, and the reading of the Bible. The revival began in the late nineteenth century, driven above all by pioneers determined that the returning Jewish people should share a single national language, who worked to turn ancient Hebrew into a modern tongue able to express every part of daily life, coining new words for a new age.
Today Hebrew, written in its ancient alphabet from right to left, is the main language of Israel, spoken by all, taught in schools, used in government, business, literature, and song, and learned by the immigrants who arrive from around the world. Arabic, the language of the Arab minority, is also widely spoken and holds a special status, and many Israelis speak English as well. The bringing back to life of the ancient Hebrew language, against all odds, is a source of deep national pride and a powerful bond uniting a people gathered from many lands.
Judaism and the Sabbath
Judaism, one of the oldest religions in the world and the faith of the Jewish people, lies at the foundation of Israeli life and identity, shaping the nation's calendar, its laws, its festivals, and its sense of itself, even though Israeli society spans the full range from the deeply devout to the wholly secular. Judaism is built on the Hebrew Bible and the teachings drawn from it, on the covenant between God and the Jewish people, and on a rich tradition of law, learning, and observance reaching back thousands of years.
The rhythms of Jewish observance shape the week and the year. The Sabbath, the Shabbat, the day of rest from Friday evening to Saturday evening, is central, a time when observant families gather for a special meal on Friday night, attend the synagogue, and rest from work, and when, in Jerusalem and many places, much of public life pauses. The dietary laws of kashrut, which set out what is kosher and fit to eat, govern much of the country's food, and the milestones of Jewish life, from the circumcision of baby boys to the coming-of-age ceremony and the wedding under its canopy, mark the passage of life.
Israeli Jews span a wide spectrum of observance. There are the secular, who may keep little of the religion beyond its festivals and traditions; the traditional, who keep many customs; the religious, who observe the faith fully in a modern way; and the ultra-Orthodox, the Haredi, who live deeply devout, traditional lives apart from the secular world. The relationship between religion and the state, and between the religious and the secular, is one of the great ongoing questions of Israeli society. Judaism, in all its forms, remains the deep root of Israeli identity and life.
A holy land of three faiths
The land of Israel is holy ground for three of the world's great religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all of which trace sacred history and revere sacred places within this small country, making it one of the most spiritually significant lands on earth and a destination of pilgrimage for billions. Nowhere is this clearer than in Jerusalem, where the holiest sites of the three faiths stand close together, but the whole land is dense with places sacred to one or more of the religions.
For Jews, the land is the biblical homeland and the site of the ancient Temple, with the Western Wall in Jerusalem the focus of prayer and longing. For Christians, it is the Holy Land where Jesus lived, taught, died, and rose, and the sites of his life, in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and around the Sea of Galilee, draw pilgrims from across the world. For Muslims, Jerusalem is the third holiest city in Islam, where the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque mark a site of deep sacred meaning. These overlapping holy places are a source of profound devotion and, at times, of bitter dispute.
Israel's population reflects this religious variety. The majority are Jewish, but there is a large Muslim minority among the Arab citizens, a smaller community of Arab Christians, and the distinct community of the Druze, with their own secretive faith, along with others. These communities live together in one small land, with freedom of worship and access to the holy places generally protected, even as the sacred sites can become flashpoints of tension. The standing of this land as holy ground for three faiths is one of its most profound and defining features.
The festivals of the Jewish year
Life in Israel moves to the rhythm of the Jewish calendar, and the festivals of the Jewish year, rooted in the Bible and in thousands of years of tradition, shape the nation's public life, its holidays, and its family gatherings, observed across the country whether in deep faith or simply as cherished national tradition. Because Israel follows the Jewish calendar, these festivals are public holidays, and the whole rhythm of the year is set by them.
The high point of the year is the autumn season of the holy days: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, a time of reflection and family gatherings; and, ten days later, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the most solemn day of the Jewish year, a day of fasting and prayer when the entire country falls silent, the roads empty, and even the secular pause. Soon after comes Sukkot, the harvest festival when families build and eat in leafy booths.
The spring brings Passover, the Pesach, perhaps the most widely kept festival of all, when families gather for the ceremonial Seder meal to retell the story of the ancient liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt, and eat unleavened bread for a week. Other beloved festivals fill the year: the joyful, costumed carnival of Purim; the winter festival of lights, Hanukkah, with its candles; and the modern national days that mark the Holocaust, the fallen soldiers, and the founding of the state. These festivals, family-centred and woven into the calendar, bind the nation together through the year.
The Start-Up Nation
For a country so small and so young, Israel has become one of the most innovative and technologically advanced nations in the world, so famous for its booming world of high technology, science, and new companies that it is widely known as the Start-Up Nation. Israel produces a remarkable number of new technology companies and inventions for its size, and is a global centre of research and development in fields from computing and medicine to agriculture and defence.
This drive of innovation has deep roots. A young nation with few natural resources, surrounded by hostility and reliant on its wits, Israel poured its energy into education, science, and ingenuity, and a culture that prizes cleverness, boldness, questioning, and improvisation has proved fertile ground for invention. The army, too, has been a great engine of technology, training many in advanced skills, and Israel leads the world in areas such as water technology, turning the challenges of a small, dry, embattled land into sources of strength.
This modern, inventive Israel grew out of an older pioneering spirit. The early settlers built the land through hard physical labour and through bold collective experiments, above all the kibbutz, the communal farm and community where members shared property, work, and child-rearing in a striking socialist ideal that shaped the young nation's character. Though the kibbutz has changed greatly, the pioneering, can-do spirit it embodied lives on in the inventive energy of the Start-Up Nation, a defining feature of modern Israel.
The army and the nation
The army holds a place in Israeli life unlike that in almost any other country, for Israel, founded amid war and surrounded through its history by conflict, maintains a citizen army in which military service is a near-universal part of growing up, and the armed forces and the experience of service run deep through the whole of society. Most young Israeli Jews, both men and women, are called up for compulsory military service when they finish school, serving for a period of years, with many continuing as reservists long afterward.
This shared experience of service shapes Israeli society profoundly. The army is a great mixing place, bringing together young people from every background and community, and it is often described as a school of the nation, instilling responsibility, comradeship, and skills, and forging bonds and networks that last for life. The deep security consciousness of a country that has known many wars and lives with constant threat is woven into daily life, and the soldier is a familiar and respected figure.
Military service is not universal across all of Israeli society. The Arab citizens are generally not conscripted, and the exemption long granted to many of the ultra-Orthodox, who study religious texts instead, is a deeply divisive issue in Israeli politics and society. For most Israeli families, though, the army is a central and unavoidable part of life, a rite of passage, a source of pride and anxiety, and a powerful force binding the nation together. The central place of the army and of service is one of the defining features of life in Israel.
Hummus, falafel, and the Israeli table
Israeli food is fresh, varied, and delicious, a vibrant cuisine that blends the cooking of the Jewish communities gathered from around the world with the flavours of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, built on sunshine, fresh vegetables, olive oil, herbs, and spices. Because Israelis come from so many lands, the country's food is a rich mixture, drawing on the dishes of Jewish communities from Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, alongside the Arab and Levantine cooking of the region.
At the heart of the everyday table are the beloved dishes shared across the eastern Mediterranean: hummus, the creamy chickpea dip eaten with warm pita bread, a national passion debated and devoured with devotion; falafel, the deep-fried chickpea balls served in pita with salad and sauces, a favourite fast food; shakshuka, eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce; and the great Israeli salad of finely chopped tomato and cucumber. The famous Israeli breakfast, a generous spread of salads, eggs, cheeses, breads, and more, is a beloved institution.
The food markets, the bustling shuk such as the famous Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem, are a feast of fresh produce, spices, breads, sweets, and street food, and the heart of the country's food culture. Jewish tradition shapes the table too, in the dishes of the Sabbath and the festivals, from the braided challah bread to the foods of Passover, and in the dietary laws of kashrut. Generous, fresh, and gathered from many cultures, Israeli food is one of the great pleasures of the country and a delicious expression of its mingled peoples.
The sabra spirit
Israelis are known for a distinctive character, often summed up in the word sabra, the name of a local cactus fruit that is prickly and tough on the outside but soft and sweet within, used to describe the native-born Israeli: blunt, direct, and brash on the surface, yet warm, generous, and deeply loyal underneath. Israelis are famously straight-talking and informal, saying what they think without fuss or ceremony, ready to argue, debate, and question, in a manner that can seem abrupt to outsiders but is rooted in honesty and a lack of pretension.
This directness goes with a quality Israelis themselves call chutzpah, a bold, cheeky nerve and refusal to be cowed by rules, rank, or convention, which feeds the country's inventive, improvising spirit. Israeli society is highly informal and egalitarian in manner, with first names and casual dress the norm, and a warmth and immediacy in dealings between people. Beneath the brash surface, Israelis are intensely warm, welcoming, and hospitable, treating guests with great generosity and drawing strangers quickly into the circle of family and friends.
Family is at the very centre of Israeli life, close, warm, and important, with the Sabbath and festival meals bringing the generations together, and children much cherished. Shadowing the national character is the deep memory of the Holocaust and of a long history of persecution, honoured each year on a solemn day of remembrance, which feeds a powerful determination that the Jewish people must never again be without a refuge, and a resilience forged by hardship and threat. For a visitor, the keys to Israel are warmth, directness, a readiness to debate, and an open heart in return. Behind the prickly sabra exterior lies a generous and passionate people.
The nation today
Israel today is a developed, prosperous, and highly advanced nation of about ten million people, a parliamentary democracy with a vibrant economy, a world-leading technology sector, a strong cultural life, and a high standard of living. Yet it is also a country marked, throughout its existence, by conflict, and the present is dominated by war and by deep divisions at home. Founded in 1948, Israel has fought repeated wars with its Arab neighbours and lives in an unresolved and often violent conflict with the Palestinians over the same land, a conflict that remains the central fact of its political life and one of the most intractable in the world.
In recent years that conflict has been at its most severe. After Hamas militants launched a deadly attack from the Gaza Strip on Israel in October 2023, killing and abducting large numbers of Israelis, Israel waged a long and devastating war in Gaza that has killed many tens of thousands of Palestinians, caused immense destruction and suffering, and drawn intense international controversy, including legal proceedings and grave accusations against Israel's conduct, even as ceasefire efforts have repeatedly faltered. The fighting has spread into wider regional conflict involving Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. The human cost, above all for the people of Gaza, has been enormous, and the suffering and the divisions it has caused run deep.
Within Israel, the war and its handling have brought bitter division, mass protests, and political upheaval, with the parliament dissolved in 2026 ahead of new elections, amid deep arguments over the war, over the place of religion in the state, and over the country's future. Beneath the conflict, the enduring Israel remains: the small, ancient, holy land; the gathering of the Jewish people; the living Hebrew tongue; the faith, festivals, food, and the warm, blunt, resilient character of its people. Israel carries its deep traditions and its unresolved struggles together into an uncertain future, in one of the most contested lands on earth.