ultra-Orthodox Jews Research Articles

Making peace with your “difficult patient”

Differences have been reported in incidence rates of fractures in the pediatric population, between countries and over time. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence and characteristics of fractures over 20 years among Israeli children.Incidence rates of fractures were derived from the electronic database of Meuhedet Health Services, a health maintenance organization providing healthcare services to 1.2 million people in Israel. Demographic and clinical data were extracted of all the fractures in individuals aged <18 years during 2000–2019. Fracture sites were determined according to ICD9 definitions. Fracture data were analyzed by age, sex, season and sector (general Jewish population, ultra-orthodox Jews and Arabs).During the study period 188,283 fractures occurred in 142,049 individuals. The most common were fractures of the upper limb (65%), followed by fractures of the lower limb [20%]. The overall fracture rate was 251 per 10,000 person- years (PY), and was higher for boys than girls (319 vs. 180 per 10,000 PY, p < 0.001). During 20 years, standardized fracture rates decreased significantly in the general Jewish population, among both boys (from 457 to 325 per 10,000 PY, p < 0.001) and girls (from 244 to 196 per 10,000 PY, p < 0.001); increased among ultra-orthodox Jewish boys (from 249 to 285 per 10,000 PY, p = 0.002) and girls (from 147 to 194 per 10,000 PY, p < 0.001); and did not change significantly among Arab boys and girls. The fracture rate peaked among girls aged 10–11 years and among boys aged 12–13 years. Seasonal variation showed a bimodal distribution with peaks during spring and autumn.The incidence of pediatric fractures is affected by age, gender, sector and season. Recognition of fracture characteristics may help identify specific populations and conditions for targeted prevention strategies.

Rescued from the Reich: how one of Hitler's soldiers saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe

When Hitler invaded Warsaw in the autumn of 1939, hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of them Jewish, were trapped in the besieged city. The Rebbe Joseph Schneersohn, the leader of the ultra-orthodox Lubavitcher Jews, was among them. Followers throughout the world were filled with anguish, unable to confirm whether he was alive or dead. Working with officials in the United States government, a group of American Jews initiated what would ultimately become one of the strangest, and most miraculous, rescues of World War II. The escape of Rebbe Schneersohn from Warsaw has been the subject of speculation for decades. Historian Bryan Mark Rigg has now uncovered the true story of the rescue, which was propelled by a secret collaboration between American officials and leaders of German military intelligence. Amid the fog of war, a small group of dedicated German soldiers located the Rebbe and protected him from suspicious Nazis as they fled the city together. During the course of the mission, the Rebbe learned the shocking truth about the leader of the rescue operation, the decorated Wehrmacht soldier Ernst Bloch: he was himself half-Jewish, and a victim of the rising tide of German antisemitism. A harrowing story about identity and moral responsibility, Rescued from the Reich is also a riveting narrative history of one of the most extraordinary rescue missions of World War II.

How Communities Create Economic Advantage: Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York

This article argues that Jewish merchants have historically dominated the diamond industry because of their ability to reliably implement diamond credit sales. Success in the industry requires enforcing executory agreements that are beyond the reach of public courts, and Jewish diamond merchants enforce such contracts with a reputation mechanism supported by a distinctive set of industry, family, and community institutions. An industry arbitration system publicizes promises that are not kept. Intergenerational legacies induce merchants to deal honestly through their very last transaction, so that their children may inherit valuable livelihoods. And ultra-Orthodox Jews, for whom participation in their communities is paramount, provide important value-added services to the industry without posing the threat of theft and flight.

Discrimination and Nepotism: The Efficiency of the Anonymity Rule

We develop an experimental test to distinguish between discrimination against and nepotism. The experiment compares the behavior toward individuals of different groups with the behavior toward anonymous individuals (those having no clear group affiliation). Not only is the distinction between the different types of discrimination important for the study of social segmentation, but it has interesting policy implications regarding the effectiveness and the efficiency of antidiscriminatory legislation. We study two segmented societies: Belgian (Flemish versus Walloons) and Israeli (religious versus secular). In Belgium, we find evidence of discrimination. Both the Walloons and the Flemish treat people of their own group in the same way as anonymous individuals while discriminating against individuals of the other group. In contrast, the behavior of ultraorthodox religious Jews in Israel can be categorized as nepotism: they favor members of their own group while treating anonymous individuals in the same way as secular individuals.

What Does It Mean to Be Photographed as a Jew?

ON A FRIDAY in early August 1982, my classmates and I in the YIVO/ Columbia Summer Yiddish Program had just celebrated our siyembazmnan, marking the conclusion of six weeks of intensive study of Yiddish language, literature, and culture. Before heading our separate ways, we gathered in front of the YIVO building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 86th Street to pose for a picture. As we lined up before the camera, an elderly couple suddenly rushed over to us from out of nowhere and shouted, Take our picture! We're Jews, too! We're from the Bronx! The photographer, one of the other students in the program, explained to them that this was a class picture and motioned them out of the way, and then we resumed taking our group picture. At the time this seemed to be nothing more than a brief, comically awkward moment. But in thinking about it over the years, I've found it to be a revealing and, in a way, strangely moving interaction. What should we make of this couple's wanting to be included as fellow Jews in a group portrait, of their desire to be photographed as Jews? Indeed, what does it mean to be photographed as a Jew? Since the mid-nineteenth century, shortly after the invention of this medium, photography has presented Jews, as it has many other communities, with the unprecedented opportunities and challenges of a new means of representation and communication. Jews' negative responses to photography may come to mind more readily, such as the resistance of some ultraorthodox Jews, to this day, to being photographed-whether because they understand it as a violation of the prohibition against image-making or because they regard photography as a problematic challenge to Jewish notions of modesty in public, or for some additional reason. There are other unpleasant associations some Jews have with the medium -the use of photography as a tool of anti-Semites to stigmatize Jews as a pernicious racial type; its use as an instrument of state control for the purposes of inventory, restriction, and at its worst, annihilation.

Social phobia in ultra-orthodox Jewish males: culture-bound syndrome or virtue?

Social difficulties of the performing variety are reported by ultra-orthodox male referrals to a psychiatrist in Jerusalem and confirmed by key communal informants. Three cases of social phobia are presented, and the content concerns performing, either speaking on religious matters publicly, a role associated with status and authority, or leading prayers and ceremonies, a role of sanctity and duty. The absence of women sufferers may be understood as a consequence of the value placed on modesty in women and there being no expectation of women to participate in study and public prayer, while the absence of complaints of interactional social phobia may be a consequence of the general discouragement of social intercourse not related to religious study. Aymat zibur, literally meaning fear of the community, is a term used by ultra-orthodox Jews to describe these fears of performance, although in its original meaning the term expresses the respect that the leader of prayers is expected to have for his awesome role. The cases described, however, were motivated by personal shame, similar to social phobia of the performance variety found in other cultures, rather than fear and respect. The values of ultra-orthodox religious life are presented that invest a person who avoids interactional social behaviors with the status of zaddik (a righteous person) while one who avoids the performance behaviors of speaking publicly on religious matters or leading prayers suffers from an idiom of distress in this particular society. Religious law and societal mores appear to be critical factors in deciding whether symptoms of social phobia are perceived and experienced as idioms of distress.

Liberalism and the Right to Culture

Avishai Margalit and Moshe Halbertal Liberalism and the Right to Culture SETTING UP THE PROBLEM HUMAN BEINGS HAVE A RIGHT TO CULTURE— NOT JU S T ANY CULTURE, but their own. The right to culture has far-reaching implications for the liberal conception of the state. A culture essentially requires a group, and the right to culture may involve giving groups a status that contradicts the status o f the individual in a liberal state. The right to culture may involve a group whose norms cannot be recon­ ciled with the conception o f the individual in a liberal society. For exam ple, the group may recognize only arranged m arriages and not those resulting from the free choice of the partners. Protecting cultures out of the human right to culture may take the form of an obligation to support cultures that flout the rights of the individual in a liberal society. And this is not the only difficulty—there is also the problem that this right may be used to protect cultures within a state that reject the “civil religion,” the “ethos,” the “narrative” or the “metanarrative,” or any other appellation you may choose for the shared values and symbols o f the state’s citizens. But these shared values and symbols are meant to serve as the focus for citizens’ iden­ tification with the state, as well as the source of their willingness to defend it even at the risk o f their lives. A central problem for the liberal society’s protection of the right to culture—especially if the culture involved is not itself liberal—is ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SOCIAL RESEARCH VOL. 6 l, NO. 3 (FALL 1 9 9 4 ) social research Vol 71 : No 3 : Fall 200 4 529 that protecting it often requires the state to use illiberal means. For exam ple, granting a particular cultural group the opportunity to preserve its cultural homogeneity in a given region under certain circumstances may exact the price of preventing outsiders from living there, even if they are willing to pay the going price for homes in that area. Another problem is posed by the prevalent view among liberal thinkers that the state m ust be neutral with respect to its citizens’ way of life. The right to culture demands that the state abandon its neutral position and actively assist needy cultures, even when these cultures preach their own view of the good life that conflicts with other views within the state. In our opinion, the right to culture in a liberal state permits the state to be neutral, if at all, only with respect to the dominant culture of the majority, on the assumption that the dominant culture can take care of itself. But a liberal state may not be neutral with respect to the cultures of minorities, especially those in danger of dwindling or even disappearing. The state is obligated to abjure its neutrality, in our view, not for the sake of the good of the majority, but in order to make it possible for members o f minority groups to retain their identity. Kymlicka’s discussion of the rights of minority groups in a liberal state has become well known (Kymlicka, 1989). One of the reasons this discussion is so powerful is that it uses the concrete example of native Canadians. We, too, will use two concrete examples to illustrate our principled discussion—two minority cultural groups in Israel: Israeli Arabs and Ultra-Orthodox Jews. Both of these groups are comprised of Israeli citizens living within the borders of Israel proper. We are not discussing the case of the Palestinian Arabs who have been living under Israeli occupation since 1967 and are not Israeli citizens. This group of nearly 2 million people living against their will under military occupa­ tion presents a much harder problem for Israel’s aspiration to being a liberal state. Some background inform ation about the Ultra-Orthodox is in order: Ultra-Orthodox culture is essentially antiliberal. There is no 530 social research aspect of its m em bers’ lives in which it does not actively interfere, som etim es to the extent o f compulsion. This includes aspects...

Taking the law into one's own hands on ideological grounds

This study presents a model in which the willingness to take the law into one's own hands on ideological grounds is predicted by non-commitment to the law, perceptions of procedural justice, and alienation. The model was examined using data from three identical surveys, conducted in three consecutive years, of Israeli citizens from the following groups: a representative sample of the general Jewish population ( N=2680), ultra-orthodox Jews ( N=400), settlers in the occupied territories ( N=889), and Israeli Arabs ( N=1507). Willingness to take the law into one's own hands was examined in relation to conflict between the law and moral and religious values, national security, and minority group rights. Structural equation modeling shows that non-commitment mediated the relationship between willingness to violate the law, on one hand, and perceptions of injustice and alienation, on the other. The model was found to be valid across the different social groups included in the study, different times of measurement, and different types of values.

Parents' Satisfaction With Care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: The Role of Sociocultural Factors

This study explores factors related to parents' expectations and assessments of care in a newborn intensive care unit (NICU) in Israel. Sixty-three couples, including Moslems, ultraorthodox Jews, and secular or traditional Jews, were interviewed shortly following admission regarding their expectations of the NICU staff and again 2 to 3 weeks following discharge regarding their assessments of the actual care, using both closed and open-ended questions. Mothers' expectations were higher than their assessments of actual care. They were also higher than fathers' expectations in both Jewish groups, but not for Moslem parents. Differences among groups were observed for expectations regarding communication and emotional support from the staff. Differences were also observed regarding parents' assessments of physician, nurse, and social worker behaviors. Implications of the findings for child health care in multicultural environments are discussed.

Interviewing and case presentations in the presence of patients in undergraduate psychiatry: an experiment

A project to teach psychiatry to medical students in a protected workshop is described. The aim was to provide extended exposure to mental illness in the community but also for the students to present their findings to their peers and teacher in the presence of the patient. From a content analysis of the comments of the students and the patients, it emerges that while the experience was a positive one overall, the students were uncomfortable asking personal questions, and had particular difficulty presenting the patient's mental state and diagnosis in the patient's presence. Many of the patients were ultra-orthodox Jews and the conditions of the interviews often caused them religious concern. The experience was important for its emphasis on communication, and the feedback from the students and patients succeeded in identifying areas for change, such as accommodating religious concerns, and discussing with the patient sensitive issues such as the meaning of a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Teaching English in Israeli Haredi Schools

Studying English in countries even where it is not used in daily speech has become a pre-requisite to professional advancement, particularly in the fields of science, communication and technology. Simultaneously,English has become a cultural conduit to Western culture, a sensitive issue in certain societies wishing to retain their non-Western ethnic or religious nature. This article deals with the attitude of educators among four groups of Hebrew-speaking Israeli Haredim (ultra-orthodox Jews) towards teaching English at the elementary- and the high-school level,examining issues of language policy, and gender and age differentiation. The article focuses on three broad categories of Israeli Haredi attitudes towards teaching English, which have been termed the “particularistic”, the “proselytizing” and the “pragmatic”, and discusses what we can learn from Haredi language policy vis-a-vis its view of and interaction with the non-Haredi and non-Jewish world. The article also touches upon the broader repercussions of this discussion, which include issues of language policy, globalization, and the spread of English throughout the world.

Education for Autonomy, Education for Culture: The Case of Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel

Political theorists often argue that education for autonomy is one of the central goals of schooling in a liberal society. In order to participate meaningfully and effectively in a democratic society a person must have the ability to deliberate critically, to develop and communicate her particular conception of the good, and to act upon this conception. However, individual autonomy is not the only virtue that the citizens of a liberal state promote and pursue. The question posed in this essay is whether a liberal state that fosters autonomy can also accommodate communities that value group solidarity and adherence to traditions over autonomous action. Israel exhibits this tension in an especially stark form since its political project of being a liberal and democratic society is challenged by its identity as a Jewish state.

Who Benefits the Most? The Unequal Allocation of Transfers in the Israeli Welfare State

Objective. This article critically examines contradictions within the Israeli welfare system, and asks how welfare transfers affect poverty for different social groups. Methods. Using data from Israel’s 1996 Income Survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics, the analysis focuses on households with working‐age heads, and compares poverty rates, before and after transfers among three groups: (1) recent immigrants; (2) Arabs; and (3) ultra‐orthodox Jews (Haredim), distinguishing between couple‐ and female‐headed households. Results. The results show that social welfare policy is more effective in aiding recent immigrants, who are entitled to special benefits, than aiding Arabs. The findings also show that transfers have a stronger effect in reducing poverty among female‐headed families than among couple‐headed families, thus reducing the gap between these two types of households. Conclusions. Israeli welfare policy reduces poverty, but this effect differs substantially by social group. While formally Israel is considered a universalistic welfare state, for historical and ideological reasons certain social groups, such as Jewish immigrants, have been favored and granted extra benefits, while others, such as Arabs, were neglected.

Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry (review)

Reviewed by: Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry Leonard Dinnerstein Jew vs. Jew: the Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry, by Samuel G. Freedman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000. 397 pp. $26.00. Although in most other lands acceptance of Jews lasted for relatively short periods, throughout American history Jews have had a home in this country. Only between the ends of World Wars I and II (approximately 1919–1945) did Jews seriously worry about the pervasiveness of American antisemitism. Some Jews even feared that what was happening in Hitler’s Germany could also occur in the United States. At the end of the Second World War, however, American attitudes began to change, and in 1955 historian Oscar Handlin wrote that the position of Jews in the United States was far better than anyone could have possibly imagined only two decades earlier. By the 1970s laws and customs had evolved so that educational, employment, and social barriers (except for exclusive country clubs) had all but disappeared. One still finds animosity amongst disgruntled members of minority groups, skinheads, and religious fanatics. But these groups constitute a small minority of the American population. According to the Anti-Defamation League, in 1998 about 12 percent of the population harbored strong negative feelings about Jews. [End Page 166] Now that acceptance is no longer a significant issue in the United States, Samuel Freedman informs us that the greatest problem for American Jews is the attitudes and prejudices of other Jews. Through personal observation, extensive interviews, and use of secondary sources, he has concluded that the biggest divide within American Jewry stems from differences in behavior and belief. From Great Neck to Jerusalem he has witnessed “the struggle that pits secularist against believer, denomination against denomination, gender against gender, liberal against conservative, traditionalist against modernist within each branch. It is a struggle being waged on issues ranging from conversion standards to the peace process [in Israel], from land use to the role of women in worship. It is a struggle that has torn asunder families, communities, and congregations” (p.23). His narrative then takes us from a Jewish summer camp in the Catskills to orthodox congregations in Jacksonville, Florida, Denver, and Los Angeles. There are discussions of Jewish secularists, Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, Conservadox Jews, Modern Orthodox Jews, and ultra Orthodox Jews. It seems that most of them find difficulty living with Jews whose religious practices differ significantly from their own. Should the ultra Orthodox dictate who is and who is not a Jew? Should Reform Jews and Jewish secularists try to keep Orthodox institutions from expanding in their communities? Should women be granted the same rights and privileges as men in synagogues and temples? These topics dominate Freedman’s analyses, and they seem to plague many individual Jews as well. Some Jews want to assimilate into, while others want to accommodate to, the dominant culture. Since the late 1960s when the Six Day War in Israel gave Jews the world over a great sense of confidence and belonging, there has been a much more positive attitude about being Jewish. In the United States the war coincided with the great changes of the decade and ethnicity soon became chic. People wore pins indicating their pride in being Italian or Polish. Michael Novak wrote a book (The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics) praising Slavs and Greeks. In 1973 the federal government passed legislation encouraging celebrations of one’s ethnic heritage. And a number of Jews raised in secular homes suddenly decided that they would be more comfortable living a more observant life. Although it is unlikely that observant Jews constitute even 10 percent of the American Jewish population, they receive disproportionate attention in the media. Many Jews who have striven their entire lives to be accepted as Americans are somewhat uncomfortable with religious Jews and their practices. In fact, the more religious individuals and groups are, the more intense is the Jewish hostility towards them. It is one thing, of course, to have the freedom to observe one’s faith; it is quite another to insist that all Jews in the community behave in similar fashion. Freedman is quite...

Working Women/Cloistered Men: A Family Development Approach to Marriage Arrangements among Ultra-orthodox Jews

Concern about stress in women’s lives arises from increasing levels of women’s labor force participation while meeting the demands of family life. Using a family development perspective, this study focuses on ultra-Orthodox Jewish women in the United States who are the main economic support of their families during the first years of marriage. The economic and normative pressures on these woman are examined as well as the adaptive strategies they use in coping with multiple roles. The data are based on participant observation and interviews with 30 present and past kollel wives from three ultra-Orthodox groups. The larger implications for adaptive strategies and variable sequencing of life events are discussed.

Between commandments and laws: Religiosity, political ideology, and legal obedience in Israel

This paper presents three surveys designed to examine the effect ofreligiosity and political ideology on legal disobedience among Israeli citizens. In addition to samples of the general Jewish population (N = 1,728), thesurveys included samples of three groups characterized by a combinationof religiosity and right-wing political orientation: Yeshiva (religiousseminary) students (N = 464), ultra-orthodox Jews (N = 217), andsettlers in the occupied territories (N = 361). The results show thatacceptance of the rule of law is weaker among ultra-orthodox andright-wing respondents. Furthermore, compared to the general populationof Jews, Yeshiva students and ultra-orthodox Jews expressed lower levelsof commitment to legal obedience. Comparison of attitudes before andafter the occurrence of controversial legal and political events indicated thatsuch events have a generalized effect on legal obedience.

Is Profane Work an Obstacle to Salvation? The Case of Ultra Orthodox (Haredi) Jews in Contemporary Israel

In this article I demonstrate how devotees interpret and shape traditional components in a complex process of 'bricolage.' I discuss this process through the examination of explanations and interpretations given by members of the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel for their choice of studious life devotion over paid work and livelihood. An examination of the conceptions, attitudes and values regarding work and learning bears upon the way the community relates to worldly affairs and individual existence in the world. My analysis and findings indicate a shift from mainstream Judaism, which stresses work and the importance of wage-earing. In contrast, Haredi male members have revived religious interpretations derived mainly from well-known Biblical narratives and combined them with quotations from specific texts derived from the rabbinical tradition. Accordingly, interpretations that have been considered marginal in the Jewish hermeneutic tradition, and often suppressed by key rabbinical figures, have been drawn out of the concealed textual shelves and reintroduced into the center of religious discourse, thought and practice. In this process, the traditional rabbinical view that stressed hard work and activism in the world is transformed. This is accomplished through the redefinition of work by condemning the productive and activist image of human action bringing about new modes of thought, religious symbols and economic behavior.

Political Disobedience in the IDF: The Scope of the Legal Right of Soldiers to be Excused from Taking Part in Military Activities in the Occupied Territories

AbstractAt issue is the appropriate legal reaction to so-called “selective” conscientious objections in the current Israeli context, accounting for both consequential considerations and deontological ones. It is argued that a relevant distinction in this respect is between objections committed by members of a permanent minority, which are based on views that are practically excluded from the political discourse, and objections which are guided by what Rawls calls “political principles”, that is, “the principles of justice which regulate the constitution”. This distinction can explain and justify the current policy of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of granting exemptions to Ultra-Orthodox Jews and to Arabs (even if not all these cases reflect so-called “full” conscientious objection) while denying an exemption to those who refuse to serve based on their opposition to the IDF's activities in the Occupied Territories. However, it is argued that the important expressive role of such refusals requires a more measured approach, by either legitimizing a limited number of such acts or imposing only minimal sanctions (while formally de-legitimizing such acts). These arguments are preceded by an assessment of an alternative possible justification of legitimizing refusals, to prevent the implementation of unlawful activities by the IDF. It is argued that this purpose does not justify legitimization of refusals except in particular instances that are specified.

Reduced Spinal Bone Mineral Density in Adolescents of an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community in Brooklyn

Reduced Spinal Bone Mineral Density in Adolescents of an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community in Brooklyn

KAMRAT: The Story of a Virtual Multicultural Learning Community in Israel

Israel is a multicultural country, a country made up of different ethnic groups : many having their own culture, language and even religion. There isn’t much contact between some of the groups, especially between the secular Jews and the ultra orthodox Jews and between the Jewish population and the Arab population which comprises about 1/6th of Israel’s population. The new technologies and especially the technology of on-line computer telecommunication endow us with new tools and possibilities for on-going multi- cultural and multi- age communication between different ethnical groups. The new technologies know no stigma and no prejudice and as such easify and make possible neutral, less biased communication between groups, which are much apart. This paper is about the creation of an on- going learning community Kamrat, a multicultural on-line learning community, between two schools, in Israel, in 2000: One Israeli Arab school (A) and the other Israeli Jewish school (J). The tools used for the creation of this community were two: a closed network in Hebrew and the internet. Participants were learners in 7-9 grade. The project was conducted between Jan- May 2000 (with one introductory meeting in November 1999). The communities participating in the project, master two different languages: the language of the Jewish Israeli community is Hebrew, where as the language of the Arab community is Arabic. The project was conducted in the Hebrew language, and the Arab learners were encouraged to write some of the material uploaded in Arabic in Hebrew letters.