Folk-culture is typically associated with continuity; how can one engage folk-culture in situations of destruction and extermination - the reality Zionist folklorists confronted facing the Shoah? With the first bits of information regarding the destruction in Europe, many of them assembled in Tel Aviv to form the Yeda Am folklore society; in tandem, the Institute for Jewish Folklore was formed in Jerusalem. The two competing organizations dealt with fragmentary lives in the Diaspora in different ways, in their quest to find new meanings from them. This book examines Zionist folkloristics at this dire hour from a perspective that views fractured reality as a fundamental principle in studying cultures in general, by combining approaches from folklore studies and science and technology studies. This book undermines the distinction between individualist scholarly knowledge and collective folklore by examining everyday scholarly habits: Archival practices, the use of letterheads, jubilee celebrations of scholars as well as practices of editing and laying out scholarly publications. The tension between national culture and ethnic cultures is revealed in new ways, as is the relationship between avant-garde and folklore studies.

Baruch Kimmerling (1939-2007) was one of Israel's outstanding critical sociologists. In this volume, Israeli and Palestinian scholars of several disciplines and generations offer a series of studies on Israel and Palestine, past and present, in dialogue with the research agenda Kimmerling has advanced. Essays discuss Zionism and militarism, frontier and colonization, social protest and the limits of democracy, the sociology of fear and the politics of home -- and Kimmerling's own trajectory.

The self is one of the most important concepts in Western culture and in philosophical, sociological, and psychoanalytical literature. This title sheds light on the elusive nature of the concept, addressing it from an interdisciplinary perspective that examines the contribution of various social structures to the human self.

The ‘Jewish mother’ figure is a hallmark of Jewish culture, one which appears in the works of rabbis, artists, poets, and activists across time and place. While depictions of mothers and motherhood abound in Jewish writings, they vary significantly according to social context. These representations therefore offer important insights into the Jewish cultural imagination, and the ways in which writers resort to the figure of the Jewish mother to comprehend and construct their world. The contributors to this volume highlight the complex network of symbols and images associated with Jewish mothers and motherhood as well as the vast array of social, historical, and cultural patterns that characterizations of mothers reflect. Each essay treats the topic from a specific perspective, spanning from mother--daughter relationships in the Talmud to depictions of mothers in twentieth-century American Jewish children’s literature. Collectively, they present a provocative examination of the ways mothers shape and problematize Jewish identity. This volume seeks to give the figure of the mother a new and enhanced place at the heart of Judaism: not only as a central figure in family life, but also as a key agent in the transmission of Jewish religion and culture.

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

This book examines a particular aspect of the hatred of women in nineteenth and twentieth century Russian literature. A man is involved in a romantic relationship with a woman. He feels he is superior to the woman and almost divine, deserving the woman's admiration or even worship. But instead of demonstrating her esteem and respect toward him, she treats him as if he were inferior to her. He feels humiliated and despised by the woman. He feels castrated by her, because she behaves like a man and assigns him the role of a woman. He wishes to restore his own self-respect and avenge himself on her for the bad feelings she gives him. He wants to murder her, and if it is not in his power to hurt her, he harms himself. He becomes an alcoholic, mentally ill or commits suicide. The book discusses the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Lev Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Michail Zoschenko, Yuri Trifonov, Nikolai Leskov, Ivan Turgenev, Alexandr Kuprin, Michail Bulgakov, Boris Vasilyev, Vasily Grossman, Valentin Rasputin, Sergei Dovlatov, Yiri Nagibin, Yuri Polyakov, Galina Tcherbakova, Dina Rubina, Lyudmila Ulitzkaya, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya and Irina Grekova.

This publication, the first of its kind, analyzes the new evolving middle class among professional Bedouin women in the Negev. It examines the paradox that arises from this class category mainly as it encounters the ethno-colonial and collective-male hegemonies within both Arab and Jewish labor markets. Simultaneously, it reveals the power and contribution of this class category to the domestic spheres of marital, family and community circles. Dr. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder's study is based on interviews with dozens of Palestinian-Bedouin women who have obtained economic and human capital recognized by their communities but not by the hegemonic labor market. The Emergence of a Class Identity unveils colonial and patriarchal practicalities which do not acknowledge the women’s professional identity, implementing cultural, religious and collective signifiers that create a paradox of class marginality.

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.

The Martin Buber Society of Fellows explores how individuals, groups, and societies in a variety of cultural contexts, political settings, and time periods respond to the perpetration of injustices. Approaching the concepts of revenge, retribution, and reconciliation from interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives, it opens a fruitful discussion among scholars of history, literature, psychology, biology, political science, communications, sociology, religious studies, law, and philosophy. The book investigates how social groups reach and maintain an equilibrium between an emotional thirst for an immediate and unmediated response to injustices and societies’ need to adjudicate measures and sanctions that seem proportional to the breech of justice. This volume is the third in the Martin Buber Society of Fellows Notebook Series.