Alcoholism among the Jews in Israel: a pilot study. I. Research rationale and a look at the ethnic factor

There is a marked difference in the extent of alcoholism and related problems among Israeli Jews of the three major ethnic communities--Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Oriental (in ascending order)--which may be explained sociologically in terms of historic differentiation of Jewish minorities from the drinking norms of surrounding majorities, liturgical differences prior to immigration, and differentials in the social stresses of post-immigration adaptation to life in modern Israel.