Judaism is the “super-glue” that keeps us Israelis of the Jewish faith together, giving us the capacity to sustain a country or a civilization – as Huntington might put it – despite being so culturally diverse. For the last two decades, Israeli governments have been encouraging cultural diversity and teaching inter-cultural tolerance. Israel is an immigrant society by definition, and we feel committed to absorb Jews from everywhere, anytime. The result is a very colorful and multi-facetted society, where Jews from Ethiopia, Russia, France, Morocco, Iran and the United States live together in the same apartment building, while their children attend the same classes in the neighborhood’s public school. I won’t lie to you. It is not always silky smooth and we do have our share of problems, but we do our best to fix things as we move along.

The writer is an Israeli Diplomat serving in the Consulate General of Israel  in L.A.