Search

This document, authored by Ira M. Sheskin, provides a comprehensive list of research updates in the field of Jewish studies. It includes a wide range of topics such as LGBT activism and Jewish Orthodoxy in Israel, the impact of Jewish culture on cultural identity, Jewish engagement in Canada and Australia, community studies in different regions, child custody struggles in a Hasidic court, the use of digital media in religious communities, Jewish migration to Germany, and more. [Extracted from the article]

By examining reports and discussions among Israeli diplomats from 1982 to 1984, this paper seeks to expand the discourse on Israeli-Latin American-Jewish relations, investigating Israel's perceptions of Jews' safety in Argentina during the end of its dictatorship. The analysis deepens the understanding of the experiences and dynamics in Israel's approaches towards Argentine Jews in contexts of crisis, tracing the development of Israeli views, including difficulties in maintaining relations with the Jewish community during times of political uncertainty. Despite the numerous critical political crises in Argentine and Latin American history, Israeli diplomats' attempts to cope with Latin American political ambiguity has not received enough attention in Latin American-Jewish studies, especially in terms of the triangle of the Israeli-Latin American-Jewish community. This article proposes to refine these approaches, exploring Israel's decisions and attitudes in terms of its relations with Latin America and with Jews, not only according to the dichotomy between the politics and ethnicity of the Jewish State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Zionist movement in Israel with reference to the social conditions of Jews population in the country. The article discusses the plight of Jews as they are in minority and are also facing prolonged territorial conflict. It further analysis the failure of decision of mass removal of Arab population from the country in solving the demographic problem of the Zionism, despite having substantial political and psychological support from the government.

Most scholarship on Jewish conversion in Israel emphasises the precarious entanglement between the process and the politics of the Jewish State. This article, instead, unpacks the uncertain modes of converts’ belonging from an unexplored yet central angle - that of a Jewish habitus. I trace the challenging apprenticeship that aspiring converts undertake in developing a Jewish habitus, and the deeply ambiguous modes of belonging that such an apprenticeship shapes. By evaluating ethnographically the discourses and practices that aspiring converts are introduced to, this article detects how attempts to help them adopt the Jewish insiders’ embodied dispositions and materially embedded engagements simultaneously, albeit inadvertently, mark them as profoundly outsiders. The case study of Jewish conversion in Israel offers a compelling example with which to consider the conceptual links between belonging, habitus and conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the ways in which the mimouna, a distinct Maghrebi Jewish spring holiday, is framed by the Israeli mainstream as a non-serious event, and its practices as primitive. Yet, while manifesting excluding practices and utterances towards it, the holiday is also endorsed by most Jewish Israelis. It asserts that this duality results from a single and unified socio-political mechanism employed by mainstream Israelis to marginalize Israelis of Moroccan descent: a mechanism of exclusion-by-inclusion. The article begins by tracing the early versions of it in Zionists' reports on the mimouna in the beginning of the twentieth-century Morocco, moves quickly to Morocco under colonial regime, and ends by demonstrating these practices in present-day Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper examines the willingness of Israeli Jews and Arab Palestinians for intergroup contacts during daily activities in diverse functional spaces and spatial organisational contexts within the metropolitan area of Tel‐Aviv, Israel. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted among visitors to public spaces in three mixed Arab‐Jewish areas: a mixed city; two adjacent Jewish and Arab suburban townships; and two relatively distant Jewish and Arab towns. The research findings indicate that higher‐order functional spaces (e.g. shopping mall), municipal separation and relatively large geographic distance between Jewish and Arab towns enhance willingness for inter‐group contacts, feelings of comfort and security and a shared ethnic identity of sites. We relate this tendency to the unique geographic distribution of Jewish and Arab localities in Israel which allows the separation between functional and residential spaces and thus a reduction of feelings of threat and discomfort experienced upon inter‐group exposure and contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on immigrant adaptation has been criticized for ignoring the perspective of migrant communities, for framing migrants within a binary categorization of insiders/outsiders, and for focusing on the traumatic aspect of migration. This paper addresses these criticisms, by using a narrative approach to study the adaptation processes of one community of Jewish migrants from Cochin in India to Israel, from a resilience perspective. The study incorporates participant observations and life-story interviews with this first generation of migrants. The preeminent theme running through the life stories was that of the reconciliation of contrasts. This theme is demonstrated through identified patterns, in the life of the community, of both integration and separation from the wider society. The findings highlight the significant role played by cultural influences in the adaptation process and the potential that exists for active learning and the building of bridges to the inner world of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the growing role of social media in conflict management, the current study analyzes the interrelationship of online political participation of Israeli Jews, the frequency of their online contacts with Arabs, and Jews’ perceived social distances from Arabs. The research was conducted through an online survey of a representative sample of 458 Israeli Jews who use the social media at least 3 times a week. Overall, although causation cannot be inferred because of the correlational design of our study, results suggest that frequency of online contacts may positively affect closeness to Arabs in line with contact theory. In keeping with the socialization perspective of political engagement, the findings indicate that the impact of online political participation on social distances from Arabs was mediated by interactions between Jews and Arabs in the social media. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses research which indicates that unsupportive social interactions associated with poorer self-reported health in Israeli patients with diabetes, and it mentions how negative dimensions of social support such as interference and insensitivity impact Arabs and Jews in Israel. A diabetes management type of lifestyle is examined, along with telephone interviews involving diabetics. Population research and the Maccabi Healthcare Services organization are assessed.

Why are the negative effects of social diversity more pronounced in some places than in others? What are the mechanisms underlying the relationship between diversity and discriminatory behaviors, and why do they vary in prevalence and strength across locations? Experimental research has made advances in examining these questions by testing for differences in behavior when interacting with individuals from different groups. At the same time, research in American and comparative politics has demonstrated that attitudes toward other groups are a function of context. Uniting these two lines of research, we argue that discriminatory behaviors should be strongly conditioned by the ways in which groups are organized in space, allowing us to make predictions about the relationship between diversity, segregation, and intergroup behavior. We examine this claim in the context of intra-Jewish cleavage in Israel, using original data compiled through multisite lab-in-the-field experiments and survey responses collected across 20 locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the complex social reality of mixed ethnic residential areas, as reflected in drawn perceived neighbourhoods of Jews and Arabs living in homogenous and mixed neighbourhoods in Jaffa, Tel Aviv. Through in-depth interviews conducted among 89 Jaffa's residents, it illustrates how different perceptions about the residential area and its residents (including attitudes, emotions, feeling of fear/safety, collective identity and tolerant relations) are reflected in the form, size and consensus area of residents' perceived neighbourhoods. The study finds a clear association between tolerant attitudes and the size and consensus area of the perceived neighbourhoods. Arabs perceive their neighbourhood as significantly larger than Jews do and are characterised by a larger consensus area. These findings are explained by the Arab's strong social cohesion, common national identity, rootedness in Jaffa, as well as by tolerant attitudes towards Jaffa's Jewish population. The study demonstrates the interrelation between the spatial, social and perceptual dimensions associated with the mixed residential area, and illustrates how these dimensions are reflected in drawn perceived neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Historical analogies, and historical reasoning, enable policy-makers to overcome major fundamental difficulties in the process of crisis decision-making. By employing lessons and conclusions from past experience, leaders believe they can avoid future failures and make better choices. This paper identifies, for the first time, the key analogies David Ben-Gurion and other key Israeli policy-makers employed prior to the eruption of the Sinai War of October 1956 and their reasoning. It demonstrates that Ben-Gurion was highly sensitive to historical occurrences, personal, national and international, and exhibited great inclination to engage the crisis with Egypt according to the lessons he drew from it. The analogical framework explains the timing of the offensive against Egypt and its distinct nature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the phenomenon of minoritarian regimes in the Middle East, focusing on Bahrain, Syria and Israel/Palestine. It considers, in each, how minority rule was established, the mechanisms through which it is maintained, and the means through which it is legitimated. Although these regimes are not typically analyzed as a category, they have important features in common. In all three, the state's political and security institutions are controlled by members of an ethnic/religious group that is a numerical minority in the country, at the expense of a majority group with a competing claim to indigeneity. While the legal and political mechanisms that these regimes use to restrict access to power vary, they employ similar strategies for legitimating minority rule, presenting democracy as a threat not only to the regime's survival, but also to the security of the group whose interests it claims to represent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the digital divide between the Jewish majority and Arab minority in Israeli society as manifested by Internet access and patterns of use. The goals of this paper were to examine the digital divide between these two groups and to identify the factors that influence these gaps. The study is based on data from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics Annual Social Survey, collected in 2011 through face-to-face interviews of 5872 interviewees aged 20–65 years. Jews were found to have an advantage over Arabs in terms of Internet access and in terms of the two types of uses: capital-enhancing and recreational. Our important conclusion is that, theoretically, with background variables being the same, the first-level digital divide between Jews and Arabs can be considered closed; in contrast, the second-level digital divide remains even if human resources in both groups are the same. This gives reason to assume that beyond the impact of human resources, the second-level digital divide between Jews and Arabs originated from their cultural background. Israeli Arabs are a unique minority indigenous group with two affinities – to Israeli modern society (because of citizenship) and to the Arab traditional world (because of their religious and cultural roots). Closing digital gaps requires changes in basic social, economic, and cultural aspects of the Arab sector on the individual level, i.e., personal motivation, as well as on the community level, including collective sociocultural preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores the prevalence and multilevel risk factors of 1,309 Israeli Arab and Jewish adolescents' experiences of unwelcome sexual behaviors by peers in residential care settings (RCSs) for at-risk children. I examine the links between adolescents' reports of sexual victimization, adolescents' individual characteristics, and RCS-level characteristics using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Approximately 40 percent of adolescents reported having been victims of at least one sexually violent act by peers in the month prior to the survey. Adolescents with more adjustment difficulties, those who experienced more physical maltreatment by staff, and those who perceived the institutional antiviolence policy as less clear, fair, and consistent were at higher risk for peer sexual victimization. Sexual victimization by peers is also positively associated with concentrations of males and adolescents with adjustment difficulties and with residence in Jewish and group settings. The link between staff maltreatment and sexual victimization by peers was stronger among adolescents from Jewish than Arab RCSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses allegations that ethnic inequality and discrimination against Israeli Arabs are problems in Israel. Topics include the relation between numerical homogeneity in representation and discrimination, analysis of salaries and wages in relation to the Israeli labor market, and the relation of education or human capital to economic outcomes for Israeli Arabs and Jews. Differences in earnings among Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, and Sephardic Jews in Israel are noted. The notion of apartheid is addressed in light of purported discrimination against Israeli Arabs.

A reprint of the article "Israel Aims to Silence Growing International Criticism With Texas A&M Deal in Nazareth," by Jonathan Cook, which appeared on the news-centric blog "Mondoweiss" on January 3, 2014. The article discusses U.S. Christian Zionists' role in creating a Texas A&M University "Peace Campus" in Nazareth, Israel, including in regard to its impact on Israeli Palestinian education and Christian Zionists' support of Jewish Israelis. The economic impact of the establishment of the Texas A&M "Peace Campus" is discussed.

This study investigated the role of the news media in the lives of Jewish and Arab children in Israel. A survey of 1657 children (ages 8–18), including analysis of open-ended questions, reveals that Jewish and Arab children in Israel live in two different worlds of news. They are exposed to different sources, stories, and interpretations; they take different messages from the news; and they hold to some degree different attitudes toward their roles in their lives. The news also seem to be more heavily integrated in the lives of the Jewish majority young people than it is in the lives of the Arab ones who treat it as more important to adults. If anything, it seems that the consumption of news serves mostly to contribute to separatism and further alienation of the minority Arab young people group from Israeli society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores how gender in part shapes the contours of small worlds or 'elsewheres' (Haraway 1992), constructed by Jewish Israelis as they pursue 'ordinary lives' in a context of conflict and sustained political violence. Situating as central the experiences, perceptions and behaviours of the dominant sector in Jewish Israeli society-middle-class Ashkenazi Jews living in Israel's urban centres-the article appraises the work done by the production and maintenance of dual worlds, what lies at stake in their loss and their implications for political change. By building upon the work of feminist and queer theorists who consider the centrality of intimacy to politics, here relational ties binding communities of varying size and composition emerge as more important than the material trappings of newly created worlds. Drawing on the narratives of Jewish Israeli women and men living in West Jerusalem and its suburbs, this article demonstrates how gender intersects with geopolitical location, social class, religion, race and ideology to create intimate spheres whose maintenance ultimately becomes bound up in stasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the notion of citizenship as a form of political identity in a multi-national and multi-ethnic state such as Israel. In an effort to understand the strategies by which citizenship of Palestinians and Jews in Israel is defined, this research analyses civic studies textbooks currently used in Israeli public schools. The study asks whether the notion of citizenship is drawn from universal or particularistic- ethnic principles; what the boundaries of the demos are, and how citizens ' economic, social, political and civil rights are defined. It focuses on the analysis of the ethos of citizenship and the internal Logos that sustain it as a coherent discourse in civic studies textbooks. Theoretically, the study examines basic concepts of citizenship and nationhood in a multi-ethnic society such as Israel. It re-examines ethnic groups ' right to self-determination against individual and collective minority rights based on universal principles. This case adds to the understanding of the complex relationship between the particularistic and the universal forms of political identity, nationalism and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses community engagement and political activism within Israeli's colonial community from the 1920s through the early 2010s, through examining the Palestinian Student Movement in Israeli universities. The relationship between the Zionist colonization of Palestine and the social marginality of Palestinians living in Israel, including the latter's putative status as second-class citizens and Israel's establishment as a Jewish state, is discussed. An overview of the collective-national identity of Israeli Palestinian students is provided.

Copyright of Journal of Middle Eastern Studies / Ortadoğu Etütleri is the property of Turkmen Cooperation & Cultural Foundation Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The expanding recognition of the two-state solution for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict ostensibly removes an immediate demographic threat to Israel that the Arab inhabitants between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River will soon outnumber the Jews. The demographic and social concern of maintaining the character of the State of Israel as the place where the Jewish people can realize their right to self-determination and can ensure a solid Jewish majority should be directed inward. Israel also wishes to continue to be a prosperous and developed country. This paper examines the changing proportions and characteristics of specific population subgroups and their effect on Israel's future as a Jewish and prosperous state. Further it argues that the demographic composition does not allow Israel to accept the demand for the ‘right of return’ whereas the two-state solution should involve the settlement of the Palestinian refugees in the new Palestinian state. The article discusses broader meanings of the demographic dimension for the Jewish and Arab populations in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relations between Jewish and Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel since the events of October 2000, when massive Arab protests and riots took place and thirteen Arab demonstrators were killed. In the decade since then Arab-Jewish relations have been characterized by growing mutual mistrust, fear, and hostility. Together with these negative attitudes, political polarization between the two communities has also increased. This poses a serious threat to Arab-Jewish coexistence in Israel and to Israeli democracy itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the responses of Israelis to the religious conflicts of political elites in the public arena by exploring Israeli discourses from discussions in a focus group. The authors examine rival frames, the organization of mass media discourses, and the role of religion in Israeli society. The responses of religious Jews and non-religious Jews to the debate are analyzed. The authors emphasize differences between Israel and the U.S. regarding dynamics of religious conflict. Topics addressed include religious coercion, assimilation, and parasitism.

The article discusses the ways in which Israel's national identity, democratic character, and territorial disputes create political problems. It describes the growing Arab population and its effect on Jewish national identity, the tensions between a free and democratic state and the impulse to preserve a Jewish cultural identity, and the territorial disputes between Israel and Palestine and its effect on Israeli national identity. Other subjects under discussion include the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the effect of Arab immigration into Israel on Jewish social, religious, and national identities, and Jewish populations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

This study examines the integration of immigrants via their satisfaction with life in the new country. While most studies on immigrant integration have focused on objective integration parameters such as education, occupation and salary (e.g., Borjas in Friends or strangers: the impact of immigrants on the US economy. Basic Books, New York, ), subjective parameters have traditionally received less attention. However, in recent years it has become increasingly clear that subjective perceptions carry considerable weight in the social-integration process of immigrants (McMichael and Manderson in Human Organ 63(1):88–99, ; Massey and Redstone in Soc Sci Q 87(5):954–971, ). The study group consists of Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel during the past two decades from two different regions of origin: Western countries, and the Former Soviet Union (FSU). All of these immigrants are generally highly educated and skilled, but they came to Israel from different societies and contrasting motives. The objective of this study is to learn about the integration of these immigrants via their satisfaction with life in Israel and to understand the factors that explain it, taking into account the differences between the immigrant groups. The findings, based on the 2007 Ruppin representative survey data (The data for this study was obtained with the support of the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.), point to significant differences between the two immigrant groups under discussion. Western immigrants are more satisfied with their lives in Israel than FSU immigrants and have higher scores in most of the independent variables tested. The multivariate analyses for predicting an immigrant’s life satisfaction reveal that those reporting the greatest satisfaction are women, religious, with a high standard of living, with no academic education, and stronger Israeli identity (personal and as perceived by others). In addition, different variables play a role in predicting the life satisfaction for each immigrant group. This knowledge may be of service to Israeli policymakers dealing with the immigration and integration of highly skilled immigrants in Israeli society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in most areas of Israeli historiography, studies in the history of the educational system rely mostly on sources concerning the leaders of the system, and above all, the political arena. However, quite surprisingly, the Israeli government had almost no part in the formation of the secondary education system. With no legal or budgetary sanctions, the Ministry of Education had no authority over the multitude of institutions. High schools were founded according to the parents' demand for education, and maintained by their tuition fees, without any governmental intervention. Thus, any historical account of the system and its ramifications should take into consideration that it was shaped not by politics and ideology, but by an “Invisible Hand.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with one of the most dominant elements in Israeli national identity—the Shoah. The paper asks how the Mizrahim in Israel related to it, since for most of them it was a remote historical chapter. The answer is given through an analysis of three generations of Mizrahim—those who lived during the Second World War and immigrated to Israel during its formative years; their children, most of whom were born in the Jewish State and educated in the Israeli educational system; and their grand children. The first generation viewed the destruction of the European Jews with profound compassion, but felt that the Shoah was a chapter in the history of the European Jews. Their children attempted to connect, facing, to a large extent, resentment and alienation. Their grand-children already have the Shoah burnt in their souls—being an integral part of their self-definition as Israelis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]