Life In Israel Research Articles

Re-imaging a country beyond its conflict: evaluation of an Israeli public diplomacy intervention for youth in Germany

AbstractOutcome evaluations of public diplomacy programs remain scarce. Addressing this gap, this study evaluated Israel Project Day, a seminar-based Israeli intervention designed to improve Israel's image among German youth. The intervention provides a unique real-world application of the “Life in Israel” model that spotlights Israel’s cultural diversity and achievements beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Utilizing a quasi-experimental pre-post design and mixed-linear models, the study shows that participation significantly improved overall attitudes toward Israel, interest in Israeli society, and perceptions of Israel as a democratic, multicultural, and safe place. Although the program avoided direct conflict-related messages, it facilitated more favorable views on Israel's policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, demonstrating potential spillover effects to the conflictual-political realm. Additionally, effects on German-Israeli cooperation and responsibility were modest, highlighting a challenge for the Israeli-German unique relationship. Finally, the effects on interest in Israeli society and politics and support for German-Israel cooperation were stronger for participants with low media exposure. By moving away from conflict-centric presentations and focusing on contributions and advancements, nations like Israel can potentially cultivate a more positive national image. Practical implications are discussed for crafting impactful outreach, upscaling, and sustaining flexible efforts attuned to sociopolitical developments and challenges.

Israel, As Hurt‐Geography

In this autobiographical narrative, Nigel Rapport recounts how his time as a volunteer at Kibbutz Yas'ur in Israel in 1975 profoundly affected his identity and sparked a deep emotional connection to the country. Despite initial reluctance to visit Israel and engage with his Jewish heritage, Rapport's experiences living and working on the kibbutz ‐ including labouring in the citrus groves, bonding with the kibbutz youth and being embraced by the community ‐ instilled in him a strong sense of belonging, pride, and loyalty to Israel. The essay conveys Rapport's newfound understanding of the precariousness and preciousness of life in Israel, constantly under threat of war and violence. It also expresses his anxiety and protective concern for the country's survival against what he perceives as the hatred and prejudice of its enemies. Rapport's connection to Israel is further cemented by the normalcy of Jewish life there, a stark contrast to the marginalization he felt growing up in Britain. The recent Hamas attacks in 2023, with their devastating loss of life, underscore the enduring ‘hurt geography’ of Rapport's relationship with Israel. The essay ultimately presents a highly personal account of the author's transformative encounter with Israel and Zionism and the complex emotions and loyalties it engendered.

Peace between Israel and Palestine?

Talking to a relative of mine who lives in Israel, we exchanged by email about the Hamas terrorist attack and the brutal re-sponse of the Israeli Armed Forces that affected the entire Pal-estinian population of Gaza. He spoke to me about the moral right of the Jewish people to exist and I replied that the Pales-tinian people also had the moral right to exist. That ended the respectful dialogue we had. The Palestinian people's right to ex-ist remained unanswered.

Flourishing through Prayer by Singing in a Liturgical Choir

Prayer in human life enables directing attention to God and a transcendent goal beyond Earthly life. Singing has been present in the life of Israel since the oldest times, which is proved on the pages of the Holy Scriptures, in the Books of Exodus and Psalms. In the New Testament, there is a lot of encouragement to sing the glory of God in psalms and songs, as well as praising God Most High in Revelation. The Catholic Church is concerned with the quality of liturgical music through a number of recommendations and requirements defining the pieces that may become a part of the liturgy. Liturgical choir singing is a special form of common prayer. The aim of the present paper is to examine the effect of prayer by choral singing on human flourishing. The aim was achieved by analyzing recommendations of the Church on liturgical music, presenting the assumptions of the theoretical model investigating the effect of art on human flourishing, and then conducting empirical studies. Sixteen in-depth interviews were carried out with members of fourteen choirs. There were four groups of respondents according to their gender and family status. All obtained codes were organized into five main themes with four subcategories. They confirmed the assumptions of the model presented in the theoretical part and made it possible to identify the effect of choral singing on the performers’ health and the improvement of their skills. In addition, they showed a direct relation between prayer and spiritual well-being when singing in a choir, a coherence of activities with values as well as the striving for happiness.

DELAYED RETIREMENT IN ISRAEL: FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEW POLICY SUPPORT

Abstract Policies that defer retirement age are fiscally justifiable, but not unanimously supported by the citizens. Studies in other countries (United Kingdom, Sweden, and Norway) show that occupational environment (feeling unappreciated at work, having a physically demanding job) affects workers’ support for pension reform. Israel is a unique national context for this question because of the high proportion of immigrants who had not spent their working lives in Israel. This study used The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Israel (2005-2006) to examine how the current job conditions (having a physically demanding job, having a job that allows workers to develop new skills, receiving support from the supervisors, job satisfaction) affect Israeli workers’ attitudes towards delayed retirement age. The analysis was limited to 482 respondents. The average age of the participants was 64.1 (SD=10.1) years. The participants included veteran Jewish-Israelis, Arab-Israelis, and new immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Nearly 40 percent of the respondents were very interested in working until the new retirement age yet 24.73% were not interested at all. Multiple correlation showed that low job satisfaction, having a physically demanding job, and having a job that does not allow one to develop new skills were associated with low interest in prolonged retirement age. Gender, birthplace, and having adequate support at work were not associated with workers’ support for delayed retirement. These findings indicate that older adults in demanding, low-reward work most strongly oppose extended working life.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the strengthening of Ukrainian identity among former Soviet immigrants from Ukraine: Israel as a case study

ABSTRACT This research examined the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian war on identity changes among educated Ukraine-born women who have lived their adult lives in Israel. The data, collected in July 2022, were determined to be representative of educated women aged 25–60 who emigrated from Ukraine during 1988–2018. Findings revealed a strengthened Ukrainian identity in over half of the respondents. The Ukrainian-born Israelis, who held a hybrid Russian-Israeli identity, strengthened their Ukrainian identity. However, this strengthening was not uniform. It was associated with (a) frequency of exposure to Ukrainian news and social media that support the Ukrainian government; (b) attitudes toward the Russian-Ukrainian war; (c) the presence of the war in daily life; and (d) the geo-political place of origin in Ukraine. The study underscores the importance of researching identity shifts in people indirectly affected by crises in today’s information-rich age.

Migration Decision-Making Process: Dialectic Contradictions Experienced by Asylum-Seeking Women

ABSTRACT Increasing numbers of migrants have fled human rights abuses, seeking refugee status. This study, involving semi-structured interviews with 12 African asylum-seeking women in Israel, explores their decision to leave home, journey to, and enter Israel without legal authorization. It further examines their retrospective view of leaving home amidst their experiences in Israel. Guided by a qualitative descriptive approach, the analysis reveals contradictory themes: autonomy/absence of autonomy in migration decision-making and positive/negative sentiments about life in Israel. We discuss these findings in relation to international migration determinant theories, relational dialectic theory, and research on communicative tensions experienced by refugees.

Palestinian workers of Israel Railways

ABSTRACT During the 1948 Palestine war, the British Palestine Railway Company became Israel Railways—a government owned railroad company, regarded by its management and by the state as an important Zionist enterprise. Yet this enterprise faced a challenge of nationalist character: Israel Railways could not be operated by Jews alone, since most Palestine Railways workers were Arabs. In the meantime, Palestinian workers, many of them now refugees in neighbouring countries, were addressing Israel Railways asking to return to their positions. The need to hire skilled Palestinian workers in an enterprise of national importance undermined state policies of isolating Palestinians and the segmentation of the labour market along ethnic and national lines. In this article I wish to trace the paths of these workers, place them in a wider historical context, and through this to contribute to wider historiographic discussions; Palestinians as active agents in shaping their lives in Israel; the process of shaping Israel’s segregated labour market; the making of early-day-Israel’s industrial relation system.

On Choice and Freedom in Transnational Migrations: The Soviet Jewish Migrants in Europe Who Were Left Behind

Abstract This article discusses the experiences of several thousand Jewish migrants from the Soviet Union who failed to adapt to life in Israel and moved to Western Europe during the 1970s and 1980s in an attempt to gain immigrant admission to Western countries. The difficult multi-year sojourn of these people in Europe (mainly in the Roman Metropolitan Area in Italy) highlights the nonlinear and precarious trajectories of emigration from the USSR as well as the political controversies that accompanied this population movement. At the center of analysis are the activities of Western and Israeli government agencies and international organizations that tried to restrict and inhibit the unexpected abandonment of the Israeli destination by ex-Soviet Jewish migrants. The article focuses on a contrast between the ideology and practice of transnational migrations in a divided world. Although the concepts of freedom, legality, and individual choice rhetorically framed the act of leaving the Soviet Union during the Cold War, in practice those benefits were not available to many migrants. Agencies routinely handled migrations on grounds of political calculation, in which the rights, freedoms, and well-being of the migrant were subordinated to policy objectives and institutional priorities, often without much regard for the law. The article pays special attention to the values, language, and mechanisms of political action that the former Soviet people employed in order to reach their goals in the unfamiliar Western world.

Uprooted Memories

Abstract This article examines two documentaries on Iraqi Jews, Forget Baghdad and Remember Baghdad, that focus on the expulsion of Iraqi Jews from Iraq and their lives in Israel and Britain. The exile of Jews from Iraq heralded the end of a vibrant social and political space that Iraqi Jews shared with fellow Iraqis. This article argues that by focusing on questions of forgetting and remembering, the two documentaries foreground memory and nostalgia as sites to explore issues related to home, dislocation, and subjectivity at physical and symbolic levels. Moreover, the acts of remembrance in the films emerge as a dynamic terrain upon which political, generational, and class differences were inscribed and invoked. Iraqi Jews found themselves trapped within a binary framework of Arab nationalistic and Zionist discourses whereby Arabness and Jewishness emerged as an antithesis and denoted otherness, and their position within nation-states became unintelligible. The films, however, reconstruct, in different ways, the possibilities where Arabness, Jewishness, and Iraqiness could overlap, live side by side, and challenge national narratives. Reading the films alongside each other challenges any monolithic or essentialist narratives about an Iraqi Jewish experience by shedding light on the diversity of political projects among Iraqi Jews.

Contemporary Catholic Approaches to the People, Land and State of Israel. Edited by Gavin D’Costa and Faydra L. Shapiro

Recognizing the multidimensional challenge of the Israeli–Palestinian situation, the editors (lay Catholic and Orthodox Israeli academics) led a June 2018 conference in Jerusalem where Catholic scholars presented papers before Jewish and Arab respondents. Many revised their papers in light of questions and discussions. The book contains twelve essays in four sections. Sections include essays written around the themes of “Listening Again to Scripture,” “Mining the Tradition,” and “Seeking Justice and Peace,” with a final section containing two Jewish responses. The biblical heritage is examined from the perspective of the Second Vatican Council, its Declaration on the Church’s Relation to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra aetate), and recent developments in the Catholic teaching authority. Lawrence Feingold (USA) sees the Jewish return to the Land as a sign pointing to the fulfillment of history with the coming of the Messiah, but without reference to certain Evangelical Protestant interpretations. Etienne Vetö (Rome) explores the place of Palestinians (Christian and Muslim) in the Land under Jewish control. He argues that “what is at stake is a purified or transfigured conception of the land … which includes a call to share the land” (p. 23). Christian Rutishauser SJ (Switzerland) discusses the Land and State of Israel with a sketch from the Hebrew Bible to the present, pointing to the final days. He draws attention to major questions to be discussed by Catholics in contact with Jewish scholars, especially with regard to Israel. Gavin D’Costa (England) discusses the biblical background for a Catholic view of Jews in the State of Israel. Palestinians have a right to a state/homeland as well. David Neuhaus (Israel–Palestine) offers a decades-long personal experience that bridges the dichotomies of life in Israel and the West Bank. All should “be at home and enjoy citizenship in a political entity that guarantees the common good” (p. 190).

Two Russian Poems from Saint Petersburg and Tbilisi

Two Russian Poems from Saint Petersburg and Tbilisi Alexander Skidan (bio) and Linor Goralik (bio) Translated by Kevin M. F. Platt (bio) and Ivan Sokolov (bio) "too late to scroll through news and facebook …" too late to scroll through news and facebook too late to write on personaland collective guilt too late to read hannah arendt and carl schmitt both in love with schwarzwaldtoo late to become provost of the state of emergency too late to stand on the troitsky bridge and gaze at the most beautiful city in the world too late to gaze at the ice of the most beautiful river in the world too late to go out on the ice of the most beautiful river in the world and write fuck war on it too late to raise and lower bridges too late to cry over bridges too late to build bridges too late to say too late to loved onestoo late to embrace them too late to rename the troitsky bridge as the trotsky bridge too late to sayneither peace nor war too late to say my grandma was born in poltava in 1909 too late to sayher name was trepke von trepke too late to say we are pissing our pants too late to remember valery podoroga in 2001 after getting the bely prize in that café on leteiny and him saying who have we elected not only elected but with these very hands helped gleb pavlovsky and his media outlets too late to say blockade patriotic war lydia ginzburg too late to say i warned you in 2003 caution religion caution too late to say genocide wwi turn the bayonets against imperialismas bakunin kropotkin taught and bruno schulz dreaming of maggots when he went down vinnytsia's streets to drink with arkady too late to say dehumanization mobile crematoria special operation it remains to be saidreread antigone give us back our dead i want to mourn them this precedes the polis precedes its violence and the law the law-as-violencethis is sister this is brother becoming a bottomless grave and the promise of love it's still maybe not too late to stop the mobile crematoriato bury our children [End Page 54] March 21, 2022 "A concentration camp is built like a stadium or a Grand Hotel …" Click for larger view View full resolution Linor Goralik, The Assumption of the Deserters (2022), black, gold, and red cardboard, paper, black watercolor, red acrylic, colored pencils, pen / Courtesy of the artist / linorgoralik.com A concentration camp is built like a stadium or a Grand Hotel.You need geodetic surveys,subcontractors, estimates,competitive bids—and, no doubt, a bribe or two.Any style will do, it's all leftto the imagination: Swiss style,garage style, Japanese style, a metamodernistdegree zero of cinegenicdegree zero, an intergalactic pod on the tipof the corbusier, a Ground Zero of the Grand Stylefor the strings of a state symphony orchestraon tour through the uranium mines. The architectural firm is called "Night and Fog," Monsieur Klein."Night and Fog," Monsieur Fritz von Klein. [End Page 55] March 21, 2022 Alexander Skidan Alexander Skidan is a poet, critic, essayist, and translator. He is the author of more than ten books, including, in English, Red Shifting and the pamphlet Golem Soveticus: Prigov as Brecht and Warhol in One Persona. He has been recognized with the Andrei Bely Prize and a Joseph Brodsky Fellowship. Skidan is a member of the working group "What is to be done?" and editor of the "Practice" section of New Literary Review. He lives and works in Saint Petersburg and Tbilisi, Georgia. Linor Goralik Born in 1975 in Soviet Ukraine, Linor Goralik is an artist, writer, and poet who lives in Israel and addresses Russianspeaking audiences across the world. In 2022 she began to produce a series called A Few Icons about the War, including these works after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kevin M. F. Platt Kevin M. F. Platt is a professor of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He works on...

The reception of contemporary Israeli literature in China: the case of Etgar Keret

ABSTRACT In contrast to the steady increase in discrimination against Jewish and/or Israeli scholarship in Western academic circles over the past decade, supported by traditional antisemitic conspiracy tropes, Chinese academia, encouraged by government support for translation and publication of Israeli literature, has consistently expanded the opportunities for studying Israeli literature. This article analyzes the reception of Jewish and Israeli literature in China today, principally through assessment of the popularity of the writings of Etgar Keret, a contemporary writer well-known for his surrealist and sardonic writing style grounded in the hard realities of daily life in Israel. It will demonstrate a positive approach to contemporary Israeli literature in mainland Chinese universities and assess the reasons for it.

Inconstant Care: Public Attitudes Towards Force Protection and Civilian Casualties in the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel

The choice between protecting friendly soldiers or foreign civilians is a critical strategic dilemma faced in modern war. Prevailing theories suggest that casualties among both groups depress war support in Western democratic societies. Yet we know little about how ordinary citizens balance force protection and civilian casualty avoidance, and whether public opinion differs across Western democracies. Using survey experiments, we test three micro-foundations for what we call individuals’ “harm-transfer preferences:” self-interest, perception of soldiers’ consent to risk-taking, and nationalism. We find that respondents’ perception of soldiers’ consent and respondents’ nationalism explain individual-level variation in harm-transfer preferences. Moreover, Israeli citizens are significantly more likely than American or British citizens to prefer protecting friendly forces over avoiding foreign civilian casualties. This is associated with higher levels of nationalism and the perceptions that soldiers do not consent to risking their lives in Israel compared to the United States and the United Kingdom.

The impact of trauma, flight and protracted displacement on the mental health of Eritrean refugees living in Israel: An exploratory study of coping strategies

Multiple studies have found that refugees significantly underutilize mental health services. Yet, little is known about how refugees who live in contexts of protracted displacement cope with and recover from violence, trauma and chronic stress. The unique experiences of refugees living in Israel, particularly those fleeing the violence of Eritrea, is even less understood. This study sought to explore strategies of coping used by Eritrean refugee men and women living in Israel. In-depth interviews were conducted with 34 Eritrean refugees aged 26–40 having been identified as suffering or having suffered from psychological distress. Participants reported experiencing severe violence and upheaval in Eritrea, during flight, and struggled with daily life in Israel. Reported coping strategies were rooted and shaped by the Eritrean cultural context, systems of knowledge, values, and cultural perspectives. They included concealment, silence and forgetting, engaging in religious and spiritual practices, seeking social support, and, for some, accessing formal health and psycho-social services. Our findings underscore the profound effects of protracted displacement, with participants noting the anxiety, stress, uncertainty, and inability to build their lives brought forth by their liminal status. Findings also reveal the ways in which structural considerations in Israel, particularly law and policies, negatively impact upon the daily lives of Eritrean refugees, contributing to their ongoing distress. Taken together, these elements may deplete refugees’ coping resources and undermine their natural processes of recovery and healing. Our findings justify the need to re-think traditional models of trauma and recovery, integrate spirituality and cultural healing into interventions, consider how structural realities impact daily experience, and account for refugees' unique perspectives on distress within the care process.

Towards an Anti-Supersessionist Theology: Race, Whiteness, and Covenant

Supersessionism in the Western Christian theological tradition remains an issue to be remediated. The problem of supersessionism is the problem of Gentile Christians’ wrongly viewing themselves as the exclusively favored object of God’s desire. This misplaced prioritization of Gentile belonging within the life of Israel’s God mirrors dynamics found in Euro-American racism or whiteness. Just as theories of anti-racism are useful for confronting the challenges of whiteness, in this paper I argue for an explicitly anti-supersessionist theology. This theology offers possibilities for deepening an understanding of the covenantal relationships among God, Israel, Jesus Christ, and the Gentile Church. As such, it transcends the binary of supersessionism and post-supersessionism.

The normal life of settlers

This paper concerns Let me tell you a story about Israel, a theatrical play tasked with influencing existing perceptions of the Palestine/Israel conflict amongst international audiences. Drawing on the work of philosopher Baruch Spinoza, I explore the complex issue of how to address the need to change people’s political perceptions by using theatre as a form of activist persuasion. The play attempts to create an image of the conflict mostly absent in the commentaries of international observers who are unaware of the full implications of the conflict’s settler colonial character. Typically, they understand it in terms of two sides competing over land, frontiers and recognition. The sense of balance that this perception conveys pre-empts coming to grips with the colonial history of Palestine beginning with the advent of Zionism from late 19th century. Such a view also obscures the nature of current forms of Israeli domination and fails to take into account a major historical factor: that the settler colonial dynamic in Palestine rests on the ways social life in Israel is organised and reproduced. Hence, the play aims to make perceptible the relation between the social mechanisms of subjectivity formation in the Israeli society on the one hand, and the everyday performance of settler colonial power on the other. Making this relation observable is a necessary step towards rethinking where change could possibly come from.

Out-of-Pocket Spending for Cancer Medication, Financial Burden, and Cost Communication with Oncologists in the Last Six Months of Life in Israel.

Honest communication between oncologists and patients is important in alleviating the financial burden of cancer care. This study explored patient–relative–oncologist communication regarding the affordability of out-of-pocket (OOP) medication and the extent to which this communication addresses itself to the families’ financial burden. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among primary caregivers of deceased cancer patients. About 43% of relatives said that they and/or the patients had paid out of pocket for medications during the last six months of the patient’s life. Most (73%) oncologists suggested an OOP medication without asking about financial ability, 43% hardly explained the advantages of an OOP medication, and 52% hardly explained any treatment alternatives. Older age and female gender were related to less communication about an OOP medication, and better education, greater affluence, and having private health insurance were related to more communication. About 56% of relatives said that OOP payment for medications inflicted a very heavy or heavy financial burden on patients and their households. Physicians’ interest in financial ability and giving explanation lightened the burden. Given the difficulty of explaining the complex interactions of cost and clinical outcomes, oncologists need to be better educated in skills that would enable them to communicate costs more openly and should consider the cost of a treatment when prescribing it.

Helena Grabschrift-Taffet, a Krakow artist born in Tuchów

Helena Grabschrift was born on 18 April 1909 in Tuchów. Starting 1929, she studied at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, taught by such artists as Władysław Jarocki, Wojciech Weiss and Stanisław Kamocki. In late 1930s she became involved with the Krakow Association of Jewish Painters and Sculptors. She was one of the most active members of the organisation, and made arrangements for the last Krakow exhibitions of the works of Jewish painters before the war. For a long time, nothing was known of her life after the end of the Second World War; she was considered either dead or missing. The author of the present article managed to find sources confirming that the artist had survived the war, and to contact her family in Israel. Consequently, it was possible to add to the artist’s biography many new details from pre-war years, the period of Nazi occupation, as well as her later life in Israel, where she moved with her husband Henryk Taffet. Unfortunately, not much has survived from the artist's pre-war output, therefore the inter-war press remains the most important source of information about her work.

The Role of God’s Mighty Acts in Joel : The Book of Joel as an Example of Trauma Literature

The Book of Joel abounds in the descriptions of God’s mighty acts, including his interventions in the workings of nature and the unfolding historical events in the life of Israel and the so-called heathen nations. It has long been recognized that these acts are important in structuring the book as a whole. They can be labelled as negative or positive for the life of Israel, depending on which part of the book we interpret. In the final form of the work there is a centreline between its two major parts (1:1–2:17; 2:19–4:21), separating the descriptions of divine punishment and lament from the accounts of restoration and joy when it comes to the relationship of the covenant community with God: “Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people” (Joel 2:18). This verse also serves as an introduction to 2:19–4:21. What has not yet been examined in detail, however, is that the descriptions of God’s working in the nations’ history and in nature can help read the book from the viewpoint of trauma/crisis and tenacity. In the midst of crises Israel’s only hope is to repent and turn to the Lord to have mercy. In repentance, the prophet’s resilience and compassion is also significant; his words are handed down to us in a form that resembles the terminology, mood and theological teaching of certain lament psalms of the Hebrew Bible, yet representing the tradition of the day of the Lord especially important in prophetic literature. This paper aims at investigating the Book of Joel from the perspec­tive of trauma and tenacity with a view to the scriptural allusions the author employs.