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This article analyzes the role of UN sanctions in the context of peace negotiations in South Sudan from the outbreak of the civil war in December 2013 until the signing of the peace agreement in August 2015. Drawing on the literature regarding third-party intervention in civil wars, it explores whether the UN sanctions regime--established in March 2015--was conceived as an instrument of leverage to get the parties to agree to a settlement. The article asks two questions: Have sanctions and mediation been coordinated? Has the interlink between sanctions and mediation been successful? First, there has been little coordination between sanctions and mediation. Second, UN sanctions did not appear to play a crucial role in the mediation process. This analysis is based on desk research and nineteen interviews with officials from the UN, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and other regional actors conducted between 2017 and 2018. Keywords sanctions - mediation - South Sudan - conflict - crisis management - United Nations - Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), 1 Introduction International conflicts and crises are often mitigated, and sometimes resolved, through mediation processes. Indeed, sanctions can be adopted to change the cost-benefit analyses of parties/actors, thus supporting mediation [...]

The article discusses a round-table conference titled, "Constructing and Deconstructing Jewish Art" sponsored by the Israel Science Foundation and Ars Judaica that was held at the Bar-Ilan University on September 10, 2015.

An essay is presented about the making of giant Hebrew Bibles in the context of ritual developments of later medieval Ashkenaz. The author looks into a group of monumental manuscripts, the alternation of Hebrew text and Aramaic targum verse by verse, and initials in monumental square script encircled with figurative micrography. Also tackled is whether the morphology could reflect contemporary rabbinic discussions regarding the rituals of Torah study.

The article discusses the role of women fighters in the liberation movements in Eritrea and southern Sudan. It examines the female access to the sphere of male-dominated fighter construction and their influence in peacetime activities. It reveals that fighter status for women has been made difficult by the societal norm and the exclusivist construct of male fighters in both nations.

Consumption of pizza, salad and iced tea was assessed in four separate tests at a central location. Three aspects of context were added in successive tests—social interaction during consumption, the physical environment in which the food was consumed and choice among foods—so that the fourth test had all effects present. The proportion consumed averaged from 79 to 82% of the food presented and increased significantly in the presence of one or more of the context manipulations. Salad consumption was higher when there was a choice of dressings in an enhanced environment. Pizza and tea consumption were higher in an enhanced restaurant-like environment. Social interaction alone has no detectable impact on food consumption. It is concluded that people eat more in enhanced contexts and careful consideration should be given to the environment in studies of food consumption. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article investigates the significance of the Torah ark and the Torah curtain which have been the visual focus of Ashkenazi synagogues in central and western Europe. It demonstrates that the architectural setting of the Torah ark and the use of the twisted-column motif was a new phenomenon and was due to an altered perception of the symbolism of the interior decoration of the synagogue. The article also attempts to examine the reason behind the fact that the new mode of representation developed only since the high Renaissance.

The article offers information on Johann Valentine and Johann Michael Schüler's Hanukkah lamps found at the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. It states that Hanukkah lamps are the most notable group of ritual objects surviving from the Judengasse in Frankfurt in 1680 up to 1720. The lamp was used as wedding gifts and the characteristics of the lamp are a unique document of the traditional wedding customs of the Judengasse in Frankfurt, and they also shed light on the intense life of the Jewish community. It also notes that the menorah and the other ritual objects owe their highly original forms to the patrons of the Judengasse, whose high standard of Jewish learning led to a close examination and alteration of traditional forms of Jewish ritual silver.