Representation In Israel Research Articles

Slouching Toward Bethlehem: A Critique of Jewish American Literary-Historical Zionism

This article critically examines the development and machinery of a Jewish studies–based literary historical approach to Israel-Palestine organized by the largely unexamined assumption that all things "Israel" are fundamentally or properly "Jewish," in the sense of being primarily or even exclusively Jews' responsibility to face and/or address. This includes the political and moral debate that the state and the occupation occasions but also the discursive frameworks in which representations of Israel, Zionism, and the condition of Palestinians are elaborated and analyzed. The article elaborates this assumption as a Zionist form of intellectuality—"Zionist" because it colonizes a field of discourse in the name of Jewish self-consciousness. Like the presumption that American Jews see Zionism and an attachment to Israel as simply part of the experience of Jewish identity—which went hand in hand with a wider American embrace of Zionism and Israel—a Jewish American literary interest in Israel, and the hegemonic rise of Jewish American literary Zionism, are not self-evident, and they have histories. It should be the work of a critical Jewish studies to destabilize the practice and protocols of this epistemological privilege.

Preface

Preface Arieh Saposnik and Natan Aridan, Co-Editors Over the past quarter-century, Israel Studies has established itself as a journal that reflects and stimulates innovative and multi-disciplinary research on Israel. This issue, we believe, continues that tradition of innovative approaches to the study of Israel and dynamic, incisive discussions regarding complex and controversial issues in Israeli society, culture, and history. It features a special section, part of our ongoing “Israel Dialectics” series, which brings together a range of viewpoints on a central topic that concerns the diverse community of scholars who work in Israel Studies. We are grateful to Professor Ilan Peleg for guest-editing the section, which addresses questions related to religion, politics, culture, and society in Israel. While the issue of religion and state in Israel tends to focus specifically on Jewish religious practices in the public sphere and their attendant political and legal dilemmas, the contributors to the special section expand the scope of the discussion to include dilemmas and tensions faced by Palestinian citizens of the state and their encounter with Israel’s religion-state quandary; implications of the religion-state-society intersection for Israel-Diaspora relations; questions of conversion; and the impact of religious tropes on contemporary cultural discourse in Israel. Although reminders of the centrality of religion-state questions in Israel are multiple, and new ones appear virtually daily, the two articles in this issue that accompany the “Israel Dialectics” serve in this capacity as well. The focus of each is entirely different from that of the Dialectics section, of course (and from one another): Daniel Mahla’s innovative article examines Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest as a window into shifting cultural and diplomatic relations between Israel and Europe, and Orit Oved provides a compelling look at education and the construction of Israeli identity during the early decades of the state. Yet, in addition to the novel contributions that each of these represent to their particular subject matters, they also testify to the role of religious considerations and religious parties in Israel’s cultural, social and political discourse—as in the opposition of some Orthodox figures to the transgender singer Dana International’s representation of Israel in the Eurovision contest, or in the challenges faced by a “secular” educational system in seeking to inculcate Jewish identity in its pupils. It is precisely the fact that these are not the [End Page 1] central themes of these pieces that highlights the penetration of these issues into so many facets of Israeli life. This issue, then, offers a range of perspectives on questions of religion, state, and society in Israel, even beyond the Dialectics section devoted to that question. It is not, however, limited to that. The contributions by Mahla and Oved offer important new insights into a range of other questions, including Israel-Europe relations, connections between diplomacy and cultural activity, the development of Israel’s educational system, and the evolution of Jewish identity in Israel. Copyright © 2022 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism

Ultra-orthodox representations in Israeli radio satire

ABSTRACT The growing power of the media to define social values and perceptions is a conspicuous feature of contemporary life. Radio is one such shaper of social reality perceptions. While much of the media research focuses on secular organisations operating in a Western, liberal context, not much attention has been paid to this tension between religion and modernity within media outlets. This article examines representations of Israel’s Jewish ultra-orthodox minority in Israel’s daily radio satire shows, a popular and intuitive medium. It shows that content is usually based on the broadcasters’ spontaneous feelings contrary to other media. The findings in the article depict an isolated community out of touch with public consensus and mainstream society.

Representations of Israel, literal and allegorical, in X-Men comics

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to argue that the Zionist idea offers an effective lens through which we can understand the X-Men comics. Through the metaphor of mutants as Jews, Marvel has presented readers with both literal representations of Israel and what can be read as a Jewish state. Early storylines placed allegorically Jewish characters in Israel and appear to endorse the need for a mutant nation. Later comics, following shifts in international perception of Israel, feature the Israeli superhero Sabra, whose Zionist rhetoric is perennially ignored or curtailed. Most recently, the mutant nation of Krakoa, which provides safety and unity for a historically persecuted and globally-dispersed people, can be productively understood as a Zionist utopia, fulfiling the potential offered in earlier comics.

The Hemorrhaging Woman and Jairus’ Daughter as Representatives of Israel

The scope of the present study is the symbolic analysis of the two interwoven Markan narratives about the healing of the woman with the flow of blood (5:25-34) and the raising of Jairus’ daughter (5:21-24.35-43). The principal thesis of this work consists in interpreting both women as symbols of Israel. The study begins with the presentation of the methodological premises of symbolic analysis. The main methodological premise of this work is the conviction that the literary sense of this pericope is in fact imbued with symbolism. Then there is a presentation of three criteria which help in detecting symbols in the biblical text: textual probability, conventions probability and contextual probability. Subsequently, in order to lend credence to the principal thesis of the article, seventeen literary elements found in Mark 5:21-43 are discussed; each of them meets the first two criteria and lends itself to symbolic interpretation of the two women as representations of Israel. The cumulative weight of these seventeen elements creates a rather strong cumulative argument in favor of the main thesis. Finally, the conformity between the symbolic interpretation of these women and both the immediate and global contexts of this pericope is discussed. The presence of this conformity meets the third criterion of contextual probability. The article thus offers a convincing case for the symbolic interpretation of the hemorrhaging woman and Jairus’ daughter in Mark 5:21-43 as representations of Israel.

Representation and De-legitimation in Semi-democratic Regimes: The Case of the Arab Citizens in Israel

In this article, I offer a brief examination of the political model in Israel and review Arab representation in the Knesset on the basis of the model I propose for describing Israel's political system—that of the semi-democratic regime. I do not believe that the models proposed by other scholars are applicable to the Israel case. My assumption is that the parliamentary representation of Arabs in Israel is blocked and ineffective; hence, Israel cannot be seen as a full democracy. I will review the evolution of Arab parliamentary representation in Israel, its function, and its outcomes as a test case for the claim of the manipulation of representation and exclusion from the political sphere. I cannot discuss all the aspects of the Israeli regime that lead to this proposed model, but will focus on the patterns and trends in Arab Knesset membership, until recently, as a blatant example of a semi-democracy. I will assert that the Arabs' exclusion from the centers of political power means that Israel cannot be a democratic and egalitarian regime, but only an ersatz democracy, whose goal is to paint Israel as a democracy for external consumption, but nothing more.

Back to the Land

Back to the Land

Visualizing Jewish Narrative: Jewish Comics and Graphic Novels ed. by Derek Parker Royal

VISUALIZING JEWISH NARRATIVE: JEWISH COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS Edited by Derek Parker Royal. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016. xiv + 294 pp.Whether one is a scholar or a teacher whose classroom has been happily infiltrated by graphic novels, memoirs, comics, or other sequential narratives, this volume of twenty-one essays offers much to cherish and ponder (alas, due to its steep price most readers will require access to a research library). Its highlights include an exemplary introduction by editor Derek Parker Royal that succinctly presents some of often charged debates about both prominent role of in early comics industry and nature of their contributions.At outset, it should be noted that even among volume's less accomplished essays (a few more descriptive than genuinely analytical) there is something valuable to glean. While structured in four wide-ranging thematic sections (Picturing Identity; Jewish Engagements with Comic Genres; Jewish Comics, Holocaust, and Trauma; Representation of Israel, Biblical Text, and Legend), more often than not contingent nature of in Diaspora-its joys as well as grave uncertainties-form a unifying theme. A gripping exemplar occurs in a memorable discussion of acclaimed French artist Johann Sfar's Klezmer, where James and Nicole Goldberg argue that Sfar redirects our cultural memory of shtetl from 'Tradition' to unpredictability and improvisation of klezmer music. Their observation that Sfar's outsider musician characters perform in a space between unity and cacophony, unsure of whom or to trust and yet confident enough to embrace fragmentary nature of living in diaspora applies to many of figures addressed in Visualizing Narrative.No collection of this scope can overlook seminal influence of Will Eisner, and both Lan Dong's and Royal's respective contributions are among collection's many highlights. Dong ably addresses intersection of life writing and graphic novel, while Royal argues that neo-naturalistic . . . fatalistic reading of ethnoracial relations distinguishes Dropsie Avenue from sensibility of Eisner's other urban works. Jules Feiffer, a very different artistic witness to American urban experience, receives his due in a lovely essay from Ira Nadel, who hails him as the visual poet of interior angst and choreographer of urban tensions, a fine description of Feiffer's sophisticated yet invariably bewildered characters' extravagantly frenzied and whimsically neurotic interactions with their environment (he calls them victims of misfortune and heroes of endurance). For Nadel, what Feiffer explains is inability to explain. His characters collapse into self-defeat. The explanatory agencies of family, institutions, and psychology fail to help. The self is left flailing.Other gems include Eli Valley's gleefully provocative comic Jews and Superheroes, a witty sendup of American literary tropes and preoccupations. In another illustrated essay, Al Wiesner delineates how his early frustration at lack of characters in superhero genre inspired his pedagogical Shaloman series. Robert Weiner's essay addressing superhero genre will appeal to those interested in portrayals (oblique and overt) of Jewishness in Marvel Comics pantheon; his account of their frequent flirtation with Golem legend adds important new layers to that story. Tahneer Oksman, to my mind one of most sophisticated and consistently interesting scholars in entire field, delivers a penetrating comparative discussion of Leela Corman's Unterzakhyn alongside Mary Antin's ardently assimilationist 1912 memoir, The Promised Land. In addition to highlighting Corman's creative response to suppressed voice of Antin's sister, Oksman addresses artful ways that Unterzakhyn illuminates immigrant's experience with the vernacular . …

Francophone Jewish Writers Imagining Israel . By Lucille Cairns

This interesting and unusual study tackles forty-four novels by twenty-seven French-language writers of Jewish identity written over the last forty years, the majority since 1995. Few of them have been widely read in France and only five of them seem to have appeared in English translation. (Cairns omits the most influential French and Jewish writer on Israel, Elie Wiesel, perhaps because he has spent most of his life in the United States.) Cairns uses this fascinating collection to track not so much the representation of Israel in French literature (to which many non-Jewish writers have contributed) as the feelings and attitudes towards it of these specific writers, taken as individuals and as representatives of recognized groups such as Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Mizrahim. Her psycho-sociological approach explains why in lieu of extended literary analysis she supports her exposition with the results of face-to-face interviews with some of the authors and questionnaire responses from others. Her chapters focus on the ways that these novels, taken as direct testimony of the personalities of the novelists, elaborate and communicate passionate feelings about, respectively, the historical foundation of the State of Israel; modern paradigms of Israeli identity (principally, Zionism, the kibbutz movement, gender roles in the military, and Israeli perceptions of France); intra-Israeli conflicts (mainly, ostracism of Maghrebi and also Mizrahi Jews and disputes over the Occupied Territories); and the Arab–Israeli conflict itself and the French–Israeli stand-off it has engendered. The last chapter engages with feelings about Jerusalem and about the Hebrew language (Ivrit) in a way that cuts across the historical and political orientation of the preceding parts of the work. Cairns conveys a great deal of detailed information about a field that despite, or perhaps because of, its political sensitivity is actually rather little known. However, this is not an easy book to read, with its constant switching between quotation in French and in English, its paraphrases of quotations already given, and its thesis-like recourse to defensive definitions of terms. As emigration from France to Israel continues its upward trajectory and the francophone community in Israel rivals its counterpart in London, students of contemporary French society will find much to ponder in this intricate study of how Israel has been imagined in French fiction written by Jews over the last decades. Cairns takes literary fiction as unmediated testimony of individuals’ feelings and attitudes. This is not the only way to read literature, of course, but in the case of the corpus studied here, it may not be the least pertinent.

A Message for Peace or a Tool for Oppression? Israeli Jewish-Arab duo Achinoam Nini and Mira Awad’s Representation of Israel at Eurovision 2009

Israel's contenders for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest (known as the ESC or, as here, Eurovision) were the Israeli Jewish-Arab duo Achinoam Nini and Mira Awad. The chosen song was "There Must Be Another Way," a tri-lingual appeal for peace and reconciliation sung in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. The decision to nominate Nini and Awad as Israel's representatives to Eurovision was announced in early January, in the midst of a full-scale war Israel launched on Gaza and its inhabitants, which came in response to several years of rockets ired into Israel from the Hamas-led territory. Given the timing and the high proile of the ESC, an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the duo's collaboration generated much public debate in Israel and beyond. The debate highlighted the symbolic charge of the song and its performers, and it continued throughout the year, animated by the political situation, the duo's activities, and the media that closely followed the process leading to the May 2009 contest and its aftermath. This article will analyze the meanings given to the artistic collaboration of the two performers that were circulating in the public sphere to show how, in this war-torn region, cultural and political domains are intertwined such that wars are fought not only with guns and rockets but also within cultural spheres, and that both domains are constitutive of highly contested social constructions of ethnic and national afiliations. Eurovision is a site in which the intersection of popular culture with national and international politics is especially visible, due to its country-centered format, the voting processes, and the extent of mass mediation--over 100 million viewers each year (Haan, Dijkstra, and Dijkstra 2005). The voting process takes place at the national level irst when the representative song is chosen, and later during the Eurovision Song Contest, when each country votes for other countries' representative songs. Since the late 1990s, the voting process at both stages typically combines popular votes counted in local telethons with votes cast by a panel of experts commonly associated with each country's broadcasting apparatus (Cleridos and Stengos 2006). (1) Songs must be newly written for the occasion, and the participatory nature of the selection process serves to mobilize citizens to share in the creation of what Benedict Anderson calls the "physical realization of the imagined community" (1983:145). According to Anderson, the moments in which songs are publicly shared to signify an event--for example, anthems sung on national holidays--create an experience of simultaneity in which people who are unknown to each other come together in a special kind of imagined community: the nation. What Anderson is pointing to is that music provides one of the ways in which nationhood is culturally constructed. The participatory nature of Eurovision provides for similar moments of simultaneity, both when the public votes for the song and image that would represent the nation, and when it votes for other nation's songs. At the same time that Eurovision is a participatory event, the Eurovision voting process also leaves much of the control in the hands of government-affiliated institutions. In other words, what represents "the nation," and also determines the relative value of cultural production of other nations, combines both popular vote and government control. This process highlights the important role cultural policy has in the creation of the imagined community, and in the delimitation of the cultural boundaries of this community with respect to other communities. Miller and Yudice (2002) analyze cultural policy as a conflation of two registers: the aesthetic register and the anthropological register, which, when combined, provide for the training of citizens to share common values. The songs represented at Eurovision provide the musical and lyrical content that is interpreted at the aesthetic register, while the context of national representation directed by government institutions inculculates nationalist sentiments among citizens in a manner deemed appropriate by such institutions. …

Let Me Flee for Help . . . Israel as “I” and the Teqi‘ot of Yose ben Yose

The representation of Israel in the first-person singular (as an “I”) occurs sporadically in early liturgical poetry. This article examines the unusually complex use of this technique in the teqi‘ot liturgy of Yose b. Yose. Close analysis of Yose’s teqi‘ot situates his use of the collective first-person singular at the nexus of an array of performative elements, i.e., elements that construct the poems as performances, situated in space and time, and vis-à-vis an audience. The article contextualizes Yose’s achievement against the backdrop of the teqi‘ot of Yose’s predecessors and contemporaries, and those of his great successor, Qillir.

Negotiating representation in Israel and Palestine

In the summer of 2012, I travelled to Israel and Palestine to explore the notion of photographic representation in this heavily documented region and to understand how local visual practitioners negotiated the work of photography in relation to their own identities and opinions on the conflict. I was interested in how they dealt with issues such as victimhood, the ambiguous nature of photography and their position in relation to the press and broadcast media. The photo-essay presented here combines my photographs with quotations from interviews I conducted with photographers and arts practitioners during this visit. It does so in order to develop a reflexive interpretation of the practice of making images and the place of photography in this situation of political conflict.

The Quest for the Roots of the Judaic Monotheism in African Perspective

History has made us to understand that the beginning of Judaism can be traced to the Israelites’ Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who lived up to 1900BCE. After Jacob went to Egypt, an African country, with his twelve sons who later became symbolic representation of Israel’s twelve tribes genealogical arrangements and with his seventy grand children, the Jews experienced a great multiplication which is as a result of the fulfillment of promises made to Abraham, their progenitor during his initial call (Gen. 12:1-7, Gen. 15:1-3, Gen. 17:1-9). However, the actual beginning of Judaism as a religion has been opened to rigorous academic debates over the years. Ideas like Judaism as a religion started with Abraham during his call or with Moses at Mount Sinai at the great revelation in about 1400BCE or when God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites are prevailing issues. These have been carefully examined within the context of Israelites’ historical development, the biblical narratives and archaeological discoveries from the Middle Ancient Near East studies. This has helped to find out that Judaic monotheism evolved as an off shoot of contacts with religious traditions from Egypt in Africa by Moses, the Law giver and an “Egyptian Prince” under the influence of the religious reform led by Pharaoh Akhenaten.

Diaspora and Homeland—Israel and Africa in Beta Israel's Hebrew Literature and Culture

Diaspora and homeland, seemingly opposite concepts, constitute the foundation of a historical narrative in which immigrant groups are forced to leave their homeland and live in a foreign country, while continuing to dream of returning to their old home. In the case of Zionism, specifically the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia, the conditions were set to fulfill the dream of returning “home”—to Jerusalem. Yet, the realization of this collective dream uncovered a complex relation between the concept of “diaspora” and “homeland.” This article discusses the relationship between diaspora and homeland—Africa and Israel—in Hebrew Ethiopian-Israeli literature. It focuses on two major biblical narratives, the Exodus from Egypt and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and explores the transition from the representation of Israel as “home” and Africa as “diaspora” to its invert picture in which Africa is the “home” and Israel is the “diaspora.”

A Message for Peace or a Tool for Oppression? Israeli Jewish-Arab duo Achinoam Nini and Mira Awad’s Representation of Israel at Eurovision 2009

Israel's contenders for 2009 Eurovision Song Contest (known as ESC or, as here, Eurovision) were Israeli Jewish-Arab duo Achinoam Nini and Mira Awad. The chosen song was There Must Be Another Way, a tri-lingual appeal for peace and reconciliation sung in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. The decision to nominate Nini and Awad as Israel's representatives to Eurovision was announced in early January, in midst of a full-scale war Israel launched on Gaza and its inhabitants, which came in response to several years of rockets ired into Israel from Hamas-led territory. Given timing and high proile of ESC, an annual competition held among active member countries of European Broadcasting Union (EBU), duo's collaboration generated much public debate in Israel and beyond. The debate highlighted symbolic charge of song and its performers, and it continued throughout year, animated by political situation, duo's activities, and media that closely followed process leading to May 2009 contest and its aftermath. This article will analyze meanings given to artistic collaboration of two performers that were circulating in public sphere to show how, in this war-torn region, cultural and political domains are intertwined such that wars are fought not only with guns and rockets but also within cultural spheres, and that both domains are constitutive of highly contested social constructions of ethnic and national afiliations. Eurovision is a site in which intersection of popular culture with national and international politics is especially visible, due to its country-centered format, voting processes, and extent of mass mediation--over 100 million viewers each year (Haan, Dijkstra, and Dijkstra 2005). The voting process takes place at national level irst when representative song is chosen, and later during Eurovision Song Contest, when each country votes for other countries' representative songs. Since late 1990s, voting process at both stages typically combines popular votes counted in local telethons with votes cast by a panel of experts commonly associated with each country's broadcasting apparatus (Cleridos and Stengos 2006). (1) Songs must be newly written for occasion, and participatory nature of selection process serves to mobilize citizens to share in creation of what Benedict Anderson calls physical realization of imagined (1983:145). According to Anderson, moments in which songs are publicly shared to signify an event--for example, anthems sung on national holidays--create an experience of simultaneity in which people who are unknown to each other come together in a special kind of imagined community: nation. What Anderson is pointing to is that music provides one of ways in which nationhood is culturally constructed. The participatory nature of Eurovision provides for similar moments of simultaneity, both when public votes for song and image that would represent and when it votes for other nation's songs. At same time that Eurovision is a participatory event, Eurovision voting process also leaves much of control in hands of government-affiliated institutions. In other words, what represents the nation, and also determines relative value of cultural production of other nations, combines both popular vote and government control. This process highlights important role cultural policy has in creation of imagined community, and in delimitation of cultural boundaries of this community with respect to other communities. Miller and Yudice (2002) analyze cultural policy as a conflation of two registers: aesthetic register and anthropological register, which, when combined, provide for training of citizens to share common values. The songs represented at Eurovision provide musical and lyrical content that is interpreted at aesthetic register, while context of national representation directed by government institutions inculculates nationalist sentiments among citizens in a manner deemed appropriate by such institutions. …

The veto on images and the aniconic God in Ancient Israel

Throughout the long history Israel was quite familiar with the phenomenon of cultic images, a familiarity which it acquired by contact with other cultures. From the pre-monarchic period we have the traditions—which in all probability were originally neutral—about the bronze serpent and Aaron's bull; the polemic in the latter narrative appears not to be original. We may here include the stories of Gideon's ephod and Micah's image as well. The official Jerusalem cult was undoubtedly aniconic, but the absence of images had scarcely taken on the character of a command in a fixed prohibition. The ark had not yet been rationalized into a mere container for the tablets of the testimony. In the Northern Kingdom the bull image in Bethel (and in Dan?) escaped prophetic criticism for one and a half centuries. Jehu's reforms did not alter this fact, nor do Elijah and Elisha seem to have expressed misgivings. First in the eighth century the prophetic polemic against images is formulated by Hosea immediately in its full force. The prohibition is one expression of the reaction against Canaanite culture and religion which found its most extreme form in the Rechabites' stubborn fight for nomadic ideals and their consequent refusal to live in houses, take up agriculture, or drink wine (Jer 35,6-7). When the prohibition is seen in this perspective, the question becomes little more than academic whether the ban was directed against images of foreign gods or representations of Israel's God. It is directed against both, the intention being to prohibit all cultic images. Its place in the decalogue is thus quite appropriate: it forms the transition from the prohibition of other gods to the commands regarding the divine name and the sabbath, both of which refer to the JHWH cult. The prohibition is of course not to be understood in an exclusively negative sense, as a safe-guard against syncretism. It may also be understood as positively expressing the distinctive character of Israel's understanding of the deity.

Bureaucratic Representation in Israel

Bureaucratic Representation in Israel

Representation in Israel

Representation in Israel

Legislative Recruitment under Proportional Representation in Israel: A Model and a Case Study

Legislative Recruitment under Proportional Representation in Israel: A Model and a Case Study