The heroes of this book are the rabbis of small and medium-sized communities in Eastern Europe. Who were these rabbis? What were their training processes? Did they get their job because of their scholastic or rhetorical skills, because of their family ties, or because they had the capital to buy this position? Did they win "permanence" or was the threat of dismissal constantly hovering over their heads? How were their terms of employment and wages determined, and what was their economic situation? Were they perceived as spiritual leaders? What was their relationship with the community's power centers? How did they navigate between their duties as halakhic authorities and their desire to engage in learning and teaching? The book attempts to answer these questions based on an examination of the world of over a thousand rabbis. Click here for the English edition, published by De Gruyter in collaboration with Magnes Press

The book includes articles, documentation and a catalog of the Ethnographic Department of the Museum of the Contemporary. It is the fruit of a long-term project carried out at the Mamuta Art and Research Center and curated by the Sala-Manca Group. It contains articles by Yoram Bilu, Rachel Elior, Freddie Rokem and Diego Rotman on the Dybbuk; by Galit Hasan-Rokem and Daphna Ben-Shaul on Sukkot, and on the Eternal Sukkah project; by Shalom Sabar on electric Shabbat candles, and by Lea Mauas and Diego Rotman on different art projects. The book also includes documentation of artworks and a project by Itamar Mendes-Flohr, Yeshaiahu Rabinowtz, Ktura Manor, Hannan Abu Huseein, Reuven Zehavi, Sala-Manca, Samuel Rotman, Shira Borer, Nir Yahalom, Chen Cohen, Pessi Komar, Adi Kaplan, and Shahar Carmel, among others.

The public discourse in Israel relates to girls mainly in connection to their body and associates their body with appearance, sexuality, vulnerability and victimization. The book Girls and their Bodies calls attention to the social construction of girls' bodies in Israel which tend to disavow, disregard, objectify and expose them simultaneously. This is the first time a book about the developing field of Girlhood Studies is published in Hebrew. The book chapters, written by a group of researchers and professionals who work with girls and are interested in advancing the understanding and support of girls, create a fascinating interdisciplinary mosaic regarding girls' bodies in Israel. They investigate from a critical gendered perspective, how the body is present, active, confined and silenced within cultural, educational, social, health and legal arenas. This collection illustrates a possible roadmap for future research in this field that will enrich the academic discourse and professional knowledge about girlhood, and in this way facilitate social action with and for girls.

Restorative justice is a social Mechanism used to replace or complement the criminal, legal process. It is designed to bring together offenders and victims, to meet in a safe and respectful environment in order to discuss the crime, the pain and suffering that it entailed - and look together for ways to repair these harms. Restorative Justice Conferences operate under state supervision and control. For over twenty years, restorative justice conferences have been practiced in Israel. Changes in the Israeli Youth Criminal Law have increased the number of such offender-victim conferences in recent years . Recent reforms in adult criminal justice law are also likely to encourage greater use of restorative justice conferences in cases of crimes conducted by adult, confessing offenders. Restorative justice theory and practices have facilitated and encouraged the emergence of Restorative Discourse programs. Such developments are important as they facilitate effective discussions and decision making among the different, sometime conflicting groups in Israel. Furthermore, restorative discourse promotes understanding between these groups and local and national authorities. Restorative Discourse enables people to discuss their exigencies, their wishes and preferences not only among themselves but with government agencies and officials as well. Such discourse is helpful and effective in improving the quality of life of individuals and communities in Israel. From Wrongdoing to Righting the Wrong is the first book addressing theoretical and practical aspects of Restorative Justice and Restorative Discourse in a unique Middle East context. The different chapters in this book were written by prominent scholars, practitioners and professionals who lead restorative justice and discourse programs in Israel.

Kochvei Yitzhak, The Hebrew Journal of the Haskalah in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1845–1873), is a monograph and an annotated index, covering the literary belles lettres and scholarly articles published in that periodical. It discusses and analyzes the various authors who contributed to the journal, in the context of the times and the needs of the Jewish community in Europe, following the ideology of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) in improving Jewish education, fostering the ideals of humanism and advocating the purity of Judaism and its practices. This is the sixth book in the series of monographs and annotated indices of periodicals of the Hebrew Haskalah (Enlightenment).

Articles Dina Stein - Rabbinic Tales in the Israel Folktale Archives: Holy Men and Tricksters Osnat Sharon - Elephant, Leviathan and Nineveh the Great City: Sibbuv Rabbi Petachia and Midrash Yonah, Printed Side by Side Nina Pinto-Abecasis - The Piropo as a Bridge between Cultures in Tetuan (Northern Morocco) Adam Ratzon - Al ma yismash kbiru , ya alt tadbiru [Whoever would not listen to elders will not manage in life]: A Literary-Cultural Reading of the Proverbs and Personal Narratives of an Egyptian-Israeli Woman Jacqueline Laznow - ‘I didn’t know I wanted to be a rabbi, there was no name for what I wanted to be’: Life Stories of Women Rabbis Living in Israel Towards a History of Folklore Meir Nizri - Israel and the Sabbath as Bride and Groom in Various Sabbath Hymns

Moshe Caspi is the founder of the first Experimental School in Jerusalem and of the Chofen Institute for Open Experimental Education at the David Yellin Academic College of Education, Jerusalem. He was among the first to draw up the guiding principles for experimental education in Israel. Caspi teaches a different way of learning. He envisions a process where the student - the Self-Remaker - opens up to personal change, and moves along this path with curiosity, love of learning, creativity and humor. In order to do so, Caspi explains how to combine the refreshing and innovative vision of the child with adult qualities such as discipline and control. In this way, the Self-Remaker can achieve a greater degree of independence, and a whole new level in applying and implementing his ideas in all areas of human activity. The work of Self-Remaking can be carried out within a group framework or on an individual basis. This book offers practical suggestions which can be applied within learning frameworks, for individuals or groups, in order to enrich the learning encounter, and to change the way the student (and the facilitator) perceives the world. The reader is invited to investigate professional and personal wishes and preferences, and to develop a unique "User's Manual," a handbook which will accompany him throughout his life's journey. The material is explained with Professor Caspi's characteristic blend of insight and humor. The book presents elements of Caspi's teaching which have been published in the past in his many books in Hebrew, together with newer ideas developed by the author more recently. Self-Remaking reflects Caspi's entire life's work in this field. The wisdom of children is demonstrated through examples presented in the final section of the book, translated from Moshe Caspi's work: Children’s Wisdom - Cosmic Starlight: - from the gray world of adults to the magical journey of the child, published in Hebrew by Mofet in 2013.

This book present for the first time a comprehensive outlook at the field of internationalization in education combining a solid theoretical background with empiric studies within Israeli educational settings. This book contributes to the theory on globalization and education and it provides novel insights for scholars, students and practitioners within the discipline.

An exorcism which took place in 1696 in Nikolsburg, Moravia (today Mikulov, Czech Republic) is the focus of this book. The description of this grandiose magic event reached us in two different versions: one well-known, in Hebrew became a model for this folk-genre in the 18th century; the other in Yiddish, remained unknown until now and is published here in full for the first time .The analysis includes a thorough comparison between these two competing descriptions, the identification of the participants – with special emphasis on their Sabbatean background and connections, as well as an identification of the specific ‘manual for exorcism’ used in this event (also published here in full, along other esoteric manuals of its kind). Through a thorough examination of the paradigmatic exorcism which took place in Moravia in 1696 and of its deep influence on the exorcism tales of the following generations, this book sheds new light on the central role magic in general and exorcism in particular played in the rich and multi-faceted cultural life of Ashkenazic Jews in the early modern period.

Elementary School Mathematics is written for elementary school teachers as well as parents who wish to be involved in their childrens first steps in mathematical education. The reading of this book will benefit educators - whether at home or at school - by consolidating their content knowledge, while exposing them to both complexity and beauty of elementary mathematics.

The book deals with the formative years of Israel's evolving symbolic landscape. The research covers the story of a few dozen Jews who passed away in the Diaspora and later their remains were taken to be buried for the second time (and sometimes for the third) in Israel. These were Zionists and politicians, writers and poets, heroes and public activists whose common denominator was that they all passed away in the Diaspora, far and detached from the national homeland that they fought for before their tragic death. Only later, in an act of repair, their coffins were sent to be buried in the "sacred" Zionist soil, in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Dgania. These graves became pilgrimage sites and contributed to the design of Israel's symbolic landscape. The book was published in English in cooperation with De Gruyter Oldenbourg and can be found here .

The book focuses on the deviant behaviors of troubled Israeli youth, including juvenile delinquents, their accounts for their behaviors, and the steps taken by the agencies responsible for their treatment. The articles were written by experts in the various fields and academics who have an intimate familiarity with the reality of the subjects about which they write.