Flores de Mayo in Rehovot: Ritual and rhetorical strategies of Filipinos’ presence in Israel

Abstract

A Catholic Filipino community in Rehovot, Israel, celebrates the traditional feast of Flores de Mayo every year within a totally Jewish environment. Drawing on long-term ethnographic observation of the community, and based on several in-depth interviews, this article presents the rhetorical strategies involved in ritual performances, which position migrant workers within both Israeli and Filipino society. Through irony, synecdoche, and metaphor enacted in the Flores de Mayo ritual, the community makes its “presence” in the migration framework.