Policy Paper: Göbel, The Israeli Lobby for Research and Innovation in the European Union

Göbel, Benedict. “The Israeli Lobby for Research and Innovation in the European Union. An Example of Efficient Cooperation in the European Neighbourhood?” Bruges Political Research Papers 49/2015 (2016).

 

URL: https://www.coleurope.eu/system/files_force/research-paper/wp49_gobel.pdf (PDF)

 

Abstract
Israel figures among the world-leaders in R&D expenditure and has a high-performing scientific community. Since the 1990s it has been associated with the Scientific Policy of the European Union via the European Research Framework Programmes (FP). The cooperation between Israel and the EU in this domain has gradually increased and benefits the scientific communities on both sides. In 2014 the association of Israel to the latest and biggest European FP ever adopted (Horizon 2020) was renewed for the fourth time. Based on all the scientific evidence provided, the elaboration of a European Research Policy can be identified as a highly regulated domain, offering relevant ‘channels of influence’. These channels offer Israel the opportunity to act within the Research Policy system. Being a member of several formal EU bodies in charge of implementing EU Research Policy, Israel is able to introduce its positions effectively. This is accompanied by an outstanding level of activity by Israel in linking concrete EU Research Policy measures to the Israeli Scientific Community at the national level. To carry out this task, Israel relies on an effective organization, which remodels the provided EU structures: European ‘National Contact Points’ (NCPs) are concentrated within the ‘Europe Israel R&D Directorate’ (ISERD). ISERD connects efficiently all the relevant actors, forums and phases of EU-Israeli Research Policy. ISERD can be recognized as being at the heart of Israel’s research cooperation with the EU.

 

 

 

New Article: Jäppinen et al, Collaborativeness as the Core of Professional Learning Communities

Jäppinen, Aini-Kristiina, Martine Leclerc, and Dorit Tubin. “Collaborativeness as the Core of Professional Learning Communities beyond Culture and Context: Evidence from Canada, Finland, and Israel.” School Effectiveness and School Improvement (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2015.1067235

 

Abstract

Professional learning communities (PLC) have been widely accepted as effective with respect to good atmosphere, adequate leadership practices, and functional working practices. However, the outcomes for school improvement depend on case-specific issues. To identify less culturally and contextually bound issues in 3 PLC settings in Canada, Finland, and Israel, we examined our cases through the notion of “collaborativeness”. It refers to a systematic and shared process consisting of efforts, ideas, and activities that aim at achieving synergy. By combining the 3 data sets and applying a special model, we were able to distinguish, through qualitative content analysis, ingredients of collaborativeness beyond culture and context that we consider particularly essential. The crucial factor proved to be a dynamic relationship between mutual and deep learning, realized through 5 different ways. We further believe that our results could serve other organizations striving for school improvement in other kinds of cultural and contextual settings.

 

 

Editorial: Schwarz et al, The Scientific Bridge: Fifty Years of Germany–Israel Diplomatic Relations

Schwarz, Helmut, Itamar Willner, and Ilan Marek. “The Scientific Bridge: Fifty Years of Germany–Israel Diplomatic Relations.” Angewandte Chemie – International Edition (early view; online first).

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201506694

 

Excerpt
Indeed, the scientific and technological links between Germany and Israel have provided exciting opportunities for the benefit of the two countries well beyond the narrow confines of scientific activities. The continuation and expansion of these thriving relations demonstrate how science and culture can bridge and overcome bitter experience and memories. The relatively young history of German–Israeli diplomatic relationship serves as a good example on how “science acts as a diplomacy of trust”. Recently, we are witnessing efforts to boycott Israel, and particularly, its academic institutions. As such acts endanger academic freedom, free speech, and human rights, all of us should unite against the destruction of these basic values. Israel and Germany seek the future academic, cultural, and political cooperation with partners from all over the world. After all, it is cooperation that forms the first step towards building a joint future.

 

 

New Article: Klieger, Influence of International Surveys on the Israeli Science Curriculum

Klieger, Aviva. “Between Two Science Curricula: The Influence of International Surveys on the Israeli Science Curriculum.” Curriculum Journal 26.3 (2015): 404-24.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2015.1049632

 

Abstract

International surveys have served as agents of change for the introduction of reforms in curricula worldwide. The Israeli Ministry of Education set a goal of raising Israel’s ranking in international surveys so that Israel will be among the 10 leading countries in the Program for International Student Assessment and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The Ministry of Education therefore acted to reduce the gap between the intended and the attained science curriculum by intervening on two curricular levels: the intended and the implemented. Over the years, documents that contributed to the adoption of contents and skills from the international surveys were added to the science curriculum, until the publication of the new science curriculum. The intervention was successful and in TIMSS 2011, Israel ranked 13 out of the 42 participating countries. The present research examines the influence of international surveys on science education in Israel, over the course of time (1996–2011). Analysis of documents accompanying the curriculum shows a clear message that international surveys are standards that should be used for teaching, and every additional document closes the gap between the science curriculum and the international surveys.

 

ToC: Journal of Israeli History 33.1 (2014)

Articles

Towards a de-Occidentalist perspective on Israel: The case of the occupation

Johannes Becke
pages 1-23

DOI:10.1080/13531042.2014.886831
A Zionist torn between two worlds: Aharon Eisenberg’s correspondence after the Young Turk Revolution

Yuval Ben-Bassat
pages 25-39

DOI:10.1080/13531042.2014.886824
Oral testimonies, archival sources, and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War: A close look at the occupation of a Galilean village

Kobi Peled
pages 41-61

DOI:10.1080/13531042.2014.886833

Meir Har-Zion’s act of reprisal: Reality and memory

Efrat Seckbach
pages 63-84

DOI:10.1080/13531042.2014.886834
The failure to formulate a national science policy: Israel’s Scientific Council, 1948–1959

Ari Barell
pages 85-107

DOI:10.1080/13531042.2014.886835
Book Reviews

Place, Memory and Myth in Contemporary Israeli Cinema

Yaron Peleg
pages 109-111

DOI:10.1080/13531042.2014.886836

Zionist Arabesques: Modern Landscapes, Non-Modern Texts

Arieh Saposnik
pages 111-113

DOI:10.1080/13531042.2014.886845

 

Cite: Katz-Kimchi, Popular Science Programs on Israeli Television

Katz-Kimchi, Merav. “Screening Science, Producing the Nation: Popular Science Programs on Israeli Television (1968–88).” Media, Culture & Society 34.5 (2012): 519-536.

URL: http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/34/5/519.abstract

 

Abstract

From 1968 on, the state of Israel deployed television as a tool in the service of its ongoing project of reproducing the nation and as a propaganda tool that targeted the population of the newly occupied territories and the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. With the collaboration of the scientific elite, the televising of original popular science programs, aired on the sole government-controlled channel at prime time, contributed immensely to these projects. Through these programs, the state disseminated a specific image of the nation’s scientific prowess for popular consumption in the euphoric aftermath of the Six Day War. This article examines the first 20 years of the state’s projects, during which the grip of Zionist collectivism was still strong, the monopoly of the government-controlled channel was not yet challenged, and the programs enjoyed astonishingly high ratings. My examination focuses on the ideology and motivations of the producers; the ways in which the communication elite and the scientific elite, enjoying a position of hegemony, collaborated by disseminating the nation’s accomplishments in both the Arabic and Hebrew programs; and the actual content of the programs at large and specifically that of four episodes of Tazpit, the popular science program of the 1980s.

ToC: Israel Affairs 18,2 (2012)

Israel Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 2, 01 Apr 2012 is now available on Taylor & Francis Online. This new issue contains the following articles: Original Articles ‘Why are they shooting?’: Washington’s view of the onset of the War of Attrition Yehuda U. Blanga Pages: 155-176 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659074 Demography, social prosperity, and the future of sovereign Israel Uzi Rebhun & Gilad Malach Pages: 177-200 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659075 Israel’s foreign policy: military–economic aid and assisting Jewish communities in distress – can the two coexist? Yitzhak Mualem Pages: 201-218 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659076 Expectations for peace in Israel and the value of the Israeli shekel, 1999–2008 Andrew Schein Pages: 219-233 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659077 Conflict and strife on the way to Gethsemane Jonathan Ventura Pages: 234-249 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659078 Traditional healing, higher education, autonomy and hardship: coping paths of Palestinian women in Israel Ariela Popper-Giveon & Naomi Weiner-Levy Pages: 250-267 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659080 The influences of global news messages on national governability: an environmental case study David Mekelberg Pages: 268-285 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659081 The Office of the Chief Scientist and the financing of high tech research and development, 2000–2010 Erez Cohen, Joseph Gabbay & Daniel Schiffman Pages: 286-306 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659082 Book Reviews Book Reviews David Rodman Pages: 307-317 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.659083

Lecture: Golan, Zionism and Science

Taube Center for Jewish Studies

Stanford University

Tuesday, December 7th, 12:00 noon

Bldg. 360- Conference Room

Tal Golan

Professor of History

University of California, San Diego

Zionism and Science

              

Co-sponsored by the Department of History

The history of Israeli science and technology offers a unique case study of a young and small nation that has developed an unprecedented love affair with science and technology. Unlike other nineteenth-century ideologies, Zionism was never considered to be founded on science. Nevertheless, from the very start, the Zionist movement perceived science, pure and applied, as central to its program of creating a new Jewish society in the Land of Israel. Modern science was to provide twice for the Jews: a relief from their religion and the tools to recover their ancient land from its ruins.  Consequently, after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, science and technology quickly turned central to its ideology, politics, culture, economy, and security.

Reviews: Hashiloni-Dolev, A Life (Un)Worthy of Living

Yael Hashiloni-Dolev, A Life (Un)Worthy of Living: Reproductive Genetics in Israel and Germany. International Library of Ethics, Law and the New Medicine, 34. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer, 2007.

 

 

Reviews:

 

Daniel Sperling, “Review,” Shofar 28.2 (2010): 216-219.