New Article: Arar et al, Academic Choices and Motivation: Diverse Groups in Israel

Arar, Khalid, Ruth Abramovitz, Hanna Bar-Yishay, and Neta Notzer. “Academic Choices and Motivation: Diverse Groups in Israel.” Journal of Further and Higher Education (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2016.1159291

 
Abstract

Israel is a multi-cultural society with a Jewish majority and a large Arab minority. This study aims to examine whether Israeli Arab and Jewish students have different motivations and consider different factors when choosing a college for postgraduate studies. A case study, during the academic year 2010–11 administered questionnaires to 290 Jewish and Arab postgraduate students in a private academic college in order to investigate students’ motivations for postgraduate studies and choice of college. Findings indicated that the strongest motivation expressed by all the students is a desire for self-fulfilment. Motivation for social mobility and to help to empower their society is more important for Arab students. Convenience considerations (proximity to home, flexible entrance standards and employment prospects while studying) determined college choice for Jews and Arabs more than college reputation and teaching quality. Yet Arab students attach more importance than Jewish students to the college’s quality. It is concluded that postgraduate programmes should be more sensitive to diverse students’ needs.

 

 

New book: Khattab et al, Socioeconomic Inequality in Israel

Khattab, Nabil, Sami Miaari, and Haya Stier, eds. Socioeconomic Inequality in Israel. A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

 

 

This volume addresses different aspects and areas of inequality in Israel, a country characterized by high levels of economic inequality, poverty, and social diversity. The book expands on the mechanisms that produce and maintain inequality, and the role of state policies in influencing those mechanisms.

 

Table of Contents

The Correlates of Household Debt in Late Life
Lewin-Epstein, Noah (et al.)
Pages 13-40

Household Inequality and the Contribution of Spousal Correlations
Plaut, Pnina O. (et al.)
Pages 41-57

Religious Schooling, Secular Schooling, and Household Income Inequality in Israel
Kimhi, Ayal (et al.)
Pages 59-72

First-Generation College Students in an Expanded and Diversified Higher Education System: The Case of Israel
Ayalon, Hanna (et al.)
Pages 75-96

Ethno-Religious Hierarchy in Educational Achievement and Socioeconomic Status in Israel: A Historical Perspective
Friedlander, Dov (et al.)
Pages 97-121

Overqualification and Wage Penalties among Immigrants, Native Minorities, and Majority Ethnic Groups
Khattab, Nabil (et al.)
Pages 123-149

The Gender Revolution in Israel: Progress and Stagnation
Mandel, Hadas (et al.)
Pages 153-184

Gender Earnings Gaps in Ethnic and Religious Groups in Israel
Kraus, Vered (et al.)
Pages 185-204

The Role of Peripheriality and Ethnic Segregation in Arabs’ Integration into the Israeli Labor Market
Schnell, Izhak (et al.)
Pages 207-224

Horizontal Inequality in Israel’s Welfare State: Do Arab Citizens Receive Fewer Transfer Payments?
Shalev, Michael (et al.)
Pages 225-252

 

New Article: Hackl, Privilege, Diversity, and Identification Among Cross-Border Activists in a Palestinian Village

Hackl, Andreas. “An Orchestra of Civil Resistance: Privilege, Diversity, and Identification Among Cross-Border Activists in a Palestinian Village.” Peace & Change 41.2 (2016): 167-93.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/pech.12186

 

Abstract

Fluctuating forms of diversity have evolved as a result of cross-border interventions by civil resistance activists. Such diversity is nurtured by the inflows and outflows of individuals form very different backgrounds on a local stage of action. Discussing civil resistance as an arena in which such fluctuating diversity produces multilayered patterns of identification, this paper looks at Israeli and international activists who interject themselves temporarily into the local sphere of civil resistance in a Palestinian village. Here, solidarity activists form a highly diverse and shifting assemblage of actors who divide among themselves according to power-related ascriptions and privileges. As in a musical orchestra, individual activists and groups of activists each follow their own “score,” but align their distinct functions with one another to wage a struggle collectively. Within this orchestra of civil resistance, diversity is not the obstacle to collective action but its very basis.

 

 

 

Lecture: Goldscheider, Ethnic and Religious Diversity in Israel (Berkeley, Feb 4, 2016)

 

Thursday, February 4

PUBLIC LECTURE ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY IN ISRAEL: Changes, Inequality and the Quality of Life Calvin Goldscheider Ungerleider Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies & Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Brown University 5:30 PM Reception, 6 PM Lecture Warren Room, 295 Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley Please RSVP Here

Lecture: Levy-Uriel, Diversity in the Judiciary, the Legal Profession and Legal Education in Israel (SOAS, Dec 10, 2014)

SOAS Centre for Jewish Studies  

EVENING LECTURE PROGRAMME

Diversity in the Judiciary, the Legal Profession and Legal Education in Israel –

An Empirical Analysis

Yael Levy-Ariel, UCL

Wednesday 10 December 2014 – 5.30pm

B104, Brunei Gallery, SOAS

The interest in judicial diversity and its possible implications is not new. Scholarly and public debate emerged parallel to developments in the field of Judicial Studies. In Israel, claims about the judiciary not being diverse enough and failing to reflect the heterogeneity of Israeli society have been expressed frequently. However, there is little coherent and robust evidence to support (or contradict) these claims. The purpose of this research is to address the key issues arising in the context of judicial diversity in Israel: what is the current composition of the Israeli judiciary in terms of the background characteristics of judges? To what extent does the judiciary represent Israeli society? Do Israeli law students and members of the legal profession have the same demographic characteristics as the judges? And how do judges, lawyers and law students in Israel perceive judicial diversity?

This is an empirical socio-legal study, which seeks to map the current judiciary in Israel, and to analyse its composition and the possible factors influencing it. It focuses on the background characteristics of presiding judges, as well as the ‘pool’ from which the future judges of Israel are likely to be appointed (i.e. legal practitioners and law students in Israel). The lecture will present the three empirical designs that were used in order to analyse the Israeli case of diversity, including the most recent findings of large-scale survey questionnaires that some 3,000 Israeli lawyers and law students participated in recently.

All Welcome

 

This event is free and there is no need to book

 

 

Calendar of Events: SOAS Centre for Jewish Studies Evening Lectures Series, Term 1, 2014 (London)

SOAS Centre for Jewish Studies Evening Lectures Series, Term 1, 2014

Please find below the programme for the SOAS Centre for Jewish Studies Evening Lectures Series which will run on the following Wednesdays at 17:30-19:00, in the Brunei Gallery room B104 (unless otherwise stated): 
October 8 Dr. Hila Zaban (SOAS)

“Gentrification and High-Status Immigration in a Jerusalem Neighbourhood”
October 22 Leonie Fleischmann (City University London)

“Beyond Paralysis: The Transformation of Israeli Peace Activism”
November 12 Dr. Lior Libman (UCL)

“Utopia, Trauma, Icon: Representation of the Kibbutz in 1950s’ Israel”

 

November 20 

“Shadow of Baghdad”: Film Screening and Panel Discussion, will be held at KLT
November 26 Dr. Yonatan Sagiv (SOAS)

“The Gift of Debt: Agnon’s Economics of Money, God and the Real Other”

 

December 10 Yael Levy-Ariel (UCL)

“Judicial Diversity in Israel: An Empirical Analysis of Judges, Lawyers and Law Students”
Programme is attached also as pdf (click here).

Please see our website for further details about these and other events.

 

All are warmly welcomed and entrance is free of charge.

Cite: Charm, Newly Found Jews and the Politics of Recognition

Charm, Stuart Z. “Newly Found Jews and the Politics of Recognition.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80.2 (2012): 387-410.

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URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/oup/jaarel/2012/00000080/00000002/art00004

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Abstract

In the latter half of the twentieth century, tribal groups throughout Africa and Asia who regard themselves as Jews, such as the Abayudaya of South Africa and the Mizo of northern India and Burma, sought the recognition of their Jewishness by established Jewish communities in Israel and the United States. This process of recognition reflects different understandings of Jewish identity and different political agendas among the various Jewish groups who have become involved with advocacy for newly found Jews. For Israeli Jewish organizations, recognition is based on a more essentialist view of Jewishness and is oriented toward socializing newly found Jews toward Orthodox Judaism and preparation for immigration to Israel. Newer American Jewish organizations reflect greater denominational diversity and a more postmodern understanding of Jewishness as fluid and open-ended. They treat recognition as part of a commitment to Jewish diversity and multiculturalism, with less attention to traditional normative definitions of Jewish identity.