New Article: Manor-Binyamini, Mothers of Adolescent Children with Disabilities in the Druze Community in Israel

Manor-Binyamini, Iris. “Positive Aspects of Coping among Mothers of Adolescent Children with Developmental Disability in the Druze Community in Israel.” Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability (early view; online first).

ְְ 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/13668250.2015.1129665

 

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare perceptions of coping as experienced by 240 mothers of adolescents with and without developmental disability in the Druze community in Israel. Method: The mothers completed the Sociodemographic Questionnaire, Grandparents Functional Support Assessment, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales, and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Results: Both groups were found to be similar in their perception of family cohesion and emotional support. However, mothers of adolescents with a developmental disability reported higher rates of both adaptability to change and personal growth. Moreover, associations were found between family cohesion and adaptability to change and support, and between adaptability to change and social support and personal growth. Conclusion: Druze mothers of adolescents with developmental disability reveal important information regarding positive coping strategies.

 

 

 

Thesis: Olafsdottir, The Druze and the Zionists in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Olafsdottir, Gunnhildur Eva. The Druze and the Zionists in the Arab-Israeli Conflict: An Inter-Ethnic Alliance, BA Thesis. Haverford, Pa.: Haverford College, 2015.
 
URL: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/26366/
 
Abstract

The Druze community is an Arab minority with populations inhabiting Israel/Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. They are distinct from other Arabs in the region due to their religion and culture, yet in Israel/Palestine, they participate in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) alongside Israelis. In 1956 the Druze Conscription Agreement was passed into law requiring all non-religious Druze males to participate in the IDF. However, the Druze fought alongside the Zionists long before 1956, and even before the establishment of the Israeli State in 1948. The Druze have a unique history in the region unlike the histories of other Arabs and the Zionists, and this unique history is an element that has had a major influence on the relations with the Zionists and other Arabs. The Druze are the only Arab minority in Israel/Palestine that are required to participate in the IDF. What is puzzling about this fact is that at first glance the Druze have far more in common with other Arabs than they do with Zionists in terms of their shared Arabic language and Arab ethnic origins. The goal of this thesis is to understand why the Druze have a generally good relationship with the Zionists and a bad relationship with other Arabs. In addition, this thesis will focus on the puzzle of why this Arab minority participates in the IDF by analyzing the Druze-Zionist/Israeli alliance that emerged before 1948 and has continued through the present.

 

 

 

ToC: Israel Affairs 22.1 (2016)

Israel Affairs, Volume 22, Issue 1, January 2016 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online. This new issue contains the following articles: Articles Sixty-two years of national insurance in Israel Abraham Doron Pages: 1-19 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111632 Rethinking reverence for Stalinism in the kibbutz movement Reuven Shapira Pages: 20-44 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111640 Making war, thinking history: David Ben-Gurion, analogical reasoning and the Suez Crisis Ilai Z. Saltzman Pages: 45-68 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111638   Military power and foreign policy inaction: Israel, 1967‒1973 Moshe Gat Pages: 69-95 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111636 Arab army vs. a Jewish kibbutz: the battle for Mishmar Ha’emek, April 1948 Amiram Ezov Pages: 96-125 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111633 Lip-service to service: the Knesset debates over civic national service in Israel, 1977–2007 Etta Bick Pages: 126-149 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111630 State‒diaspora relations and bureaucratic politics: the Lavon and Pollard affairs Yitzhak Mualem Pages: 150-171 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111637 Developing Jaffa’s port, 1920‒1936 Tamir Goren Pages: 172-188 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111634 University, community, identity: Ben-Gurion University and the city of Beersheba – a political cultural analysis Yitzhak Dahan Pages: 189-210 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111631 The Palestinian/Arab Strategy to Take Over Campuses in the West – Preliminary Findings Ron Schleifer Pages: 211-235 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111639 Identity of immigrants – between majority perceptions and self-definition Sibylle Heilbrunn, Anastasia Gorodzeisky & Anya Glikman Pages: 236-247 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111635 Book Reviews Jabotinsky: a life David Rodman Pages: 248-249 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.112095 Ethos clash in Israeli society David Rodman Pages: 250-251 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120967 Nazis, Islamists and the making of the modern Middle East David Rodman Pages: 252-254 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120968 The new American Zionism David Rodman Pages: 255-257 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120969 Rise and decline of civilizations: lessons for the Jewish people David Rodman Pages: 258-259 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120970

New Article: Yitzhak-Sade et al, Ethnicity and Immunization Coverage among Schools in Israel

Yitshak-Sade, Maayan, Nadav Davidovitch, Lena Novack, and Itamar Grotto. “Ethnicity and Immunization Coverage among Schools in Israel.” Ethnicity & Health (early view; online first).

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13557858.2015.1068281

 

Abstract
Objective. Recent years have seen a global trend of declining immunization rates of recommended vaccines that is more pronounced among school-age children. Ethnic disparities in child immunization rates have been reported in several countries. We investigated an effect of ethnicity on the vaccination rates of immunizations routinely administered within schools in Israel. Design. Data were collected from the Ministry of Health database regarding immunization coverage for all registered Israeli schools (3736) in the years 2009–2011. Negative binomial regression was used to assess the association between school ethnicity and immunization coverage while controlling for school characteristics. Results. The lowest immunization coverage was found in Bedouin schools (median values of 75.1%, 81.5% and 0% for the first, second and eighth grades, respectively) in 2011. During this year, vaccination coverage in the first and second grades in Jewish schools was 1.51 and 1.35 times higher, respectively, compared to Bedouin schools. In the years 2009 and 2010, no significant increase in risk for lower vaccination rate was observed in Bedouin schools, and children in Arab and Druze schools were more likely to have been vaccinated. Conclusion. The lower vaccination refusal rate found in Bedouin schools supports the hypothesis that difficulties related to accessibility constitute the main problem rather than noncompliance with the recommended vaccination protocol for school-age children, featuring higher socio-economic status groups. Our study emphasizes the importance of identifying, beyond the national-level data, subpopulation groups at risk for non-vaccination. This knowledge is essential to administrative-level policy-makers for the allocation of resources and the planning of intervention programs.

 

 

New Article: Schmittdiel, Patient-Centered Health Care Systems to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Disparities

Schmittdiel, Julie A. “Creating Patient-Centered Health Care Systems to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Disparities.” Israeli Journal of Health Policy Research 42 (2015).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13584-015-0039-2

 

Abstract
Health care delivery systems that are designed to understand and meet patient preferences for care have the potential to improve health outcomes and reduce disparities. Studies that rigorously assess patient care preferences in minority and underserved populations, stakeholder engagement, and policies that promote a diverse health care workforce that can address patient preferences are important levers for improving care for vulnerable populations.

 

 

ToC: Journal of Israeli History 34.2 (2015)

Journal of Israeli History, 34.2 (2015)

No Trinity: The tripartite relations between Agudat Yisrael, the Mizrahi movement, and the Zionist Organization
Daniel Mahla
pages 117-140

Judaism and communism: Hanukkah, Passover, and the Jewish Communists in Mandate Palestine and Israel, 1919–1965
Amir Locker-Biletzki
pages 141-158

Olei Hagardom: Between official and popular memory
Amir Goldstein
pages 159-180

Practices of photography on kibbutz: The case of Eliezer Sklarz
Edna Barromi Perlman
pages 181-203

The Shishakli assault on the Syrian Druze and the Israeli response, January–February 1954
Randall S. Geller
pages 205-220

Book Reviews

Becoming Israeli: National Ideals and Everyday Life in the 1950s

Deborah Bernstein
pages 221-224

The “Magic Carpet” Exodus of Yemenite Jewry: An Israeli Formative Myth

Ari Ariel
pages 224-227

The Bride and the Dowry: Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinians in the Aftermath of the June 1967 War

Itamar Radai
pages 227-230

Editorial Board

Editorial Board

.

New Article: Feniger et al, Ethno-Religious Differences in Israeli Higher Education

Feniger, Yariv, Oded Mcdossi, and Hanna Ayalon. “Ethno-Religious Differences in Israeli Higher Education: Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions.” European Sociological Review 31.4 (2015): 383-96.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcu092

Abstract

The worldwide expansion and diversification of higher education systems has sparked growing interest in the stratification of students according to higher education institution and field of study. This article focuses on Israel, where higher education has experienced significant expansion and diversification during the past two decades. Using generalized ordered logistic regression models, the study analyses vertical and horizontal ethno-religious inequality. The findings indicate that Ashkenazim, the privileged Jewish group, remain the most advantaged regarding enrollment in higher education, but their advantage over other veteran Jewish groups is mainly owing to areas of specialization in high school and achievement on the tests that serve as admission criteria to the higher education institutions. Among the enrollees, controlling for high school history reveals that the disadvantaged Jewish groups, Mizrachim and new immigrants, have higher odds than Ashkenazim of enrolling in lucrative programmes. Muslim, Druze, and Christian Arabs are disadvantaged regarding both the vertical (access) and horizontal (fields of study) dimensions, regardless of high school history and previous achievements.

New Article: Amir, Israeli Druze Women’s Sex Preferences When Choosing Gynecologists

Amir, Hadar. “Israeli Druze Women’s Sex Preferences When Choosing Obstetricians and Gynecologists.” Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 4.13 (2015): 10 pp.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13584-015-0013-z

 

Abstract

Background

Consideration and better understanding of patients’ needs on the part of the healthcare system might help increase the number of people seeking necessary medical care. Many studies have been conducted on patients’ preferences in choosing their health care provider, but the majority of them were conducted in modern western societies, establishing a need to explore other populations. The present study was performed in the Israeli Druze community which is composed of a uniquely traditional and religious population.

We assessed the sex preference of Israeli Druze women regarding obstetricians/gynecologists, and identify other features that affect their choice.

Method

We conducted a cross-sectional study that included 196 Israeli Druze women who anonymously completed a 36-item questionnaire between January-July, 2011.

Results

Most (63.8%) of the responders preferred female obstetricians/gynecologists, while 74.5% had no sex preference for their family physicians. 68.6% of the religious women preferred female obstetricians/gynecologists as compared to 51.76% of those women who self-identified as secular. Most of the women (65%) preferred female obstetricians/gynecologists for intimate procedures, such as pelvic examination and pregnancy follow-up. The main reasons given were: feeling more comfortable with a female practitioner (69.7%), the belief that females are more gentle (56.6%), and being more embarrassed with male obstetricians/gynecologists (45.4%). Three factors were associated with the responders’ preferences for female obstetricians/gynecologists: their age and religious status, and the sex of their regular obstetricians/gynecologists. Women who preferred a female obstetrician/gynecologist assigned a lesser weight to the physician’s knowledge when choosing them. Older and religious women as well as those who attributed less weight to the physician’s professional knowledge were more likely to prefer a female obstetrician/gynecologist.

Conclusions

The majority of responders to our survey (Israeli Druze women), like those in other communities where religiousness and modesty are deeply rooted, prefer female obstetricians/gynecologists, with the overwhelming reasons given being feeling more comfortable and less embarrassed with females, and the notion that female obstetricians/gynecologists are more gentle during intimate procedures.

Keywords:

Druze; Religious; Obstetricians/gynecologists; Sex

New Article: Isleem, Arabic-Hebrew Codeswitching in Druze Online Communication

Isleem, Martin. “Arabic-Hebrew Codeswitching: The Case of the Druze Community in Israel.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics (early view; online first)

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12091

 

 

Abstract

The study is based on Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame model to examine codeswitching between Arabic and Hebrew, two languages that share significant morphological and syntactic structures. Particularly, this study investigates Druze online communication in the form of face-to-face and written talkbacks found on local websites in Israel. The findings show that Arabic sets the morphosyntactic frame of the mixed constituents, whereas Hebrew provides at least as many morphemes as does Arabic. Combined with the fact that both languages have similarities in their morphological and syntactic structures, this may indicate that Myers-Scotton’s model falls short in its sociolinguistic application to Arabic-Hebrew codeswitching. The sociolinguistic status of the second language, Hebrew, may be far greater than its syntactical status in the Druze sociolinguistic profile.

 

New Article: Isleem, Druze Linguistic Landscape in Israel

Isleem, Martin. “Druze Linguistic Landscape in Israel: Indexicality of New Ethnolinguistic Identity Boundaries.” International Journal of Multilingualism 12.1 (2015): 13-30.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2013.868467

 

Abstract

The Druze community in Israel is a distinct religious community currently undergoing important ethnolinguistic shifts. The government’s implementation of an official policy has led to the deconstruction and reshaping of the Druze political and national identity to one that differs substantially from that of the Palestinian minority in Israel. In this study, I argue that the visibility, vitality and appreciation of Hebrew in the Druze linguistic landscape are indicative of new ethnolinguistic boundaries of the Druze identity in Israel. The fact that the Druze in Israel are dispersed throughout the Galilee and Mount Carmel area and experience varying levels of language contact as well as divergent economic relations with their Palestinian–Israeli and Jewish–Israeli neighbours, suggests that one cannot expect uniformity in the Druze linguistic markets or the processes of social, cultural and linguistic identification. This study will show that Hebrew has become a dominant component of the linguistic repertoire and social identity of the Druze in the Mount Carmel area since it has become the first choice of communication as the linguistic landscape indicates.

Conference Program: 12th Int’l Conf on Jewish Names (BIU, March 18, 2015)

Bar-Ilan Univeristy
The Faculty of Jewish Studies
The Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Judaism
The Project for the Study of Jewish Names

The Twelfth International Conference on Jewish Names
Wednesday, March 18, 2015, Feldman Hall, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

The conference was organized in cooperation with the Dahan Center and aided by a grant from the office of the vice president for research, Bar-Ilan University.

 

Session F: 15:45-17:45: Names in Modern Hebrew Literature and Linguistics:
Chair: Prof. Aaron Demsky, Head of the Project for the Study of Jewish Names, Bar-Ilan University
Greetings: Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz, President, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Elie Assis, Dean, Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Yaron Harel, Head of the Department of Jewish History and the Dahan Center, Bar-Ilan University
Erez Biton, Poet, Bialik Prize Laureate for 2015: Names in My Literary Ouvrage (Heb)
Ofra Matzov-Cohen, Ariel University: Names and their Contribution to the Text: A Comparative Study of the Novel Ahavah Shel Saltanat (Saltanat’s Love) and the Biography Zion Ezri, Beoz Ubehahavat Zion (With Courage and the Love of Zion) (Heb)
Ziva Feldman, Ariel University: The Poetics of Hanoch Levin and the Names of the Characters in his Works (Heb)
Tsvi Sadan, Bar-Ilan University: Toward the Onomastic Lexicography of Modern Hebrew (Heb)

Session G: 18:00-19:30: Names in the Land and State of Israel:
Chair: Dr. Dotan Arad, Bar-Ilan University
Shlomit Landman, Achva Academic College: The Cultural Perspective of Given Names in Israel, Based on Qualitative Interviews with Parents (Heb)
Sapir Omer Osias, Bar-Ilan University: Hebraization of Names in the Yishuv Period from the Second Half of the 19th Century: Perception, Progression and Effects (Heb)
Matanya Weynberger, Ariel University: The Hebraization of Family Names: Knesset Discussions from the 1950s (Heb)
Adel Shakour, Al-Qasemi Academy: Giving Children Hebrew Names in Druze Society in Israel (Heb)
The organizing committee: A. Demsky, Y. Levin, B. Kotlerman, I. Breier, T. Sadan

The Public is Welcome!

New Article: Halabi, Invention of a Nation: The Druze in Israel

Halabi, Rabah. “Invention of a Nation: The Druze in Israel.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 49.3 (2014): 267-81.

 

URL: http://jas.sagepub.com/content/49/3/267

 

Abstract

Ethnic and national identities are shaped and evolve in the context of complex negotiations sustained among multiple players, each with its own and often contradicting interests. This study focuses on one unique cultural group, the Druze in Israel, and examines a multifaceted identity constructed as a direct result of policies and expectations of members and institutions of majority groups. My aim is to explore how this identity is defined within the complex intergroup context, the various components and their inter-relations (congruent or conflictual), and the way its boundaries are shaped through interaction with other identities in Israel. The analysis of the interviews conducted with 50 Druze university students in Israel yielded three major content categories: ‘Druze by blood;’ ‘Arab, but less so;’ and ‘Being Israeli.’ The Druze identity is constructed in primordialist terms, and a central role is assigned to the belief in reincarnation. The Arab identity is categorized primarily as a national one, and it is strongly affected by the negative attitude of Arabs toward the service of the Druze in the Israeli army. Three major aspects emerged in relation to the Israeli identity of the Druze: the fact of their being citizens of the State of Israel, the attitude of the state and of Jews toward them, and the army service. Our study portrays a highly complex and problematic constellation of group identities, shaped as a delicate adaptation to the unique position of a group subject to multiple political forces in the past and present.

New Article: Beeri and Saad, Minorities-within-Minorities in Israeli-Arab Mixed Municipalities

Beeri, Itai and Mansur Saad. “Political Participation Unconditioned by Inequality and Discrimination: The Case of Minorities-within-Minorities in Israeli-Arab Mixed Municipalities.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (online first).

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.2013.871490

 

Abstract

Against the backdrop of rising migration rates, the number of mixed communities in Western states has been growing. Such communities are populated not only by members of a national majority and national minority, but often, also by minorities-within-minorities. This study examines perceptions towards the equitableness of local policy, feelings of discrimination and participation in local politics among minorities and minorities-within-minorities in Israeli-Arab mixed municipalities comprised of Muslims, Christians or Druze, where most of the surrounding population is Jewish. The results confirm that among Israeli-Arabs in general, a perception of local policy as highly inequitable and a strong sense of local discrimination are both related to increased participation in local politics. However, among minorities-within-minorities this relationship did not obtain. Implications of the findings are developed and discussed in the context of local governance, communal abstention from local decision-making processes and the danger of illegitimate political behaviour.

New Article: Harris, Palestinian, Druze, and Jewish Women in Recent Israeli Cinema on the Conflict

Harris, Rachel S. “Parallel Lives: Palestinian, Druze, and Jewish Women in Recent Israeli Cinema on the Conflict: Free Zone, Syrian Bride, and Lemon Tree.” Shofar 32.1 (2013): 79-102.

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v032/32.1.harris.html

Abstract

Free Zone (Amos Gitai, 2005); The Lemon Tree (Eran Riklis, 2008) and Syrian Bride (Eran Riklis, 2004), explore the Arab-Israeli conflict through women’s experience of the political and military stalemate. In presenting Palestinian, Druze, and Israeli women, these filmmakers attempt to contrast and compare women’s shared encounters, including their experience of patriarchy. While the characters may come from diametrically opposed sides, their experiences as women occlude their political differences. In these films, women are foregrounded within the plot, and have agency over their actions if not their situations. Rejecting the masculine frame that has governed representations of the conflict, these filmmakers demonstrate a new kind of approach in Israeli film that considers feminist aesthetics in the construction of character and plot, as well as the treatment of women’s physicality, gaze, territoriality, and agency.