Jewish assimilation

Jewish assimilation (Hebrew: התבוללות, hitbolelut) refers either to the gradual cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture or to an ideological program in the age of emancipation promoting conformity as a potential solution to historic Jewish marginalization. In Israel, Hitbolelut is a derogatory term that mainly refers to the highly uncommon Jewish interfaith couples within it, which in turn gets local criticism for and marked as anti-Zionism (or anti-Israel); especially when the coupling is done with the clashing nationalism of Arabs who are predominantly Muslims and of Palestinian ancestry – mainly because of the ongoing Arab–Israeli conflict, which began even prior to the declaration of independence by the State of Israel in 1948.