New Article: Raz et al, Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorders Incidence by Sub-Populations in Israel

Raz, Raanan, Marc G. Weisskopf, Michael Davidovitch, Ofir Pinto, and Hagai Levine. “Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorders Incidence by Sub-Populations in Israel 1992–2009: A Total Population Study.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 45.4 (2015): 1062-1069.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2262-z

 

Abstract
We analyzed data from the Israeli National Insurance Institute (NII). Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) incidence was calculated for all children born in Israel 1992–2009, and by population groups. Overall, 9,109 ASD cases among 2,431,649 children were identified. ASD cumulative incidence by age 8 years increased 10-fold during 2000–2011, from 0.49 % to 0.49 %, while other child disabilities in NII increased only 1.65-fold. There was a consistent increase in ASD incidence with advancing birth cohorts born 1992–2004, stabilizing among those born 2005–2009. ASD rates among Israeli Arabs were substantially lower, and increased about 10 years later than the general population. The findings suggest a role for ASD awareness, accessing of the government benefit, or the way the concept of ASD is perceived.

 
 
 
 

New Article: Levin et al, Shared Decision Making in Israeli Social Services

Levin, Lia, Sharon Gewirtz, and Alan Cribb. “Shared Decision Making in Israeli Social Services: Social Workers’ Perspectives on Policy Making and Implementation.” British Journal of Social Work (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcw024

 

Abstract

Over the past decades, social policies in Israel have been characterised by a growing trend towards involving social service clients in decision-making processes. Drawing on interviews with seventy-seven social workers from various backgrounds employed in a range of organisations and positions, the current study sought to illuminate the contested nature of shared decision making (SDM), the practice and policy dilemmas it generates, and the readiness of the Israeli policy context to support its implementation. Findings from interviews are described as they relate to questions regarding participants’ definition of SDM, major dilemmas and challenges they identify in the process of using SDM, ways of coping with such issues and their perspectives on policies promoting SDM. Their discussion delineates some of the key lessons of the study, raises critical questions about potential contradictions between the call for SDM in social worker–client relationships and the ethos of policy maker–social worker relationships, and uses Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH) to ask, in light of participants’ accounts, how suitable the policy platform of Israeli social work is for supporting an effective and reflexive approach to SDM.

 

 

 

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: Isralowitz et al, Quality of Life among Former Soviet Union and Israeli Origin Methadone Users

Isralowitz, Richard, Alexander Reznik, and Itay Pruginin. “Quality of Life among Former Soviet Union and Israeli Origin Methadone Users.” Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse (early view; online first)
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15332640.2015.1046009
 
Abstract

A common treatment intervention for heroin addiction is methadone maintenance. In recent years a wider perspective has been adapted to understand and evaluate addiction through quality of life. This article examines quality of life conditions of 170 male former Soviet Union and Israeli origin drug users in methadone maintenance and provides an understanding of conditions linked to the World Health Organization Quality of Life project’s best available techniques reference document. Having a partner or spouse and less chronic illness are positive factors affecting quality of life regardless of country of origin. Israeli born drug users reported better quality of life based on their psychological health and environment domain responses; no difference was found for the physical health and social relationship domains of the Israeli and former Soviet Union origin males. Because heroin addiction is a chronic and relapsing illness, one of the goals of methadone maintenance is to address patients’ health status from a broad perspective. Based on clinical observations, the treatment of special populations may be enhanced if their particular needs are considered and met. Quality of life factors are relevant for assessing high risk groups, including those from different ethnic origins, in poor physical and psychological health, their treatment and personal adjustment, and their service personnel training needs.

 

 

Research Paper: Sayag and Zussman, Distribution of Rental Assistance Between Tenants and Landlords: The Case of Students in Central Jerusalem

Sayag, Doron, and Noam Zussman. “The Distribution of Rental Assistance Between Tenants and Landlords: The Case of Students in Central Jerusalem.” Discussion Paper No. 2015.1 (February 2015), Bank of Israel Research Department(41 pp).

 

URL: http://www.boi.org.il/he/Research/DocLib/dp201501e.pdf (PDF)

Abstract

Students living in rental apartments in central Jerusalem were provided grants in 2006–11, in order to encourage urban renewal. This led to a marked increase in the number of students in the area. This study examined the distribution of the benefit between the tenants and the landlords. It relied predominantly on rental advertisements as well as actual rents from 2000–2012, and on administrative data of the rent paid by grant recipients. The research method was based on hedonic estimations of the rent using a difference-in-differences method—the rent in the center of the city during the grants period compared with the periods before and after, vis-à-vis that difference in similar neighborhoods (including adjacent to the city center) during those periods. The research indicates—subject to the assumption that actual rents and prices quoted in rental notices moved together—that in the periods around the start of the grant program and around its cancellation, the share of the grants reaching the recipients’ landlords ranged from one-fifth to two-fifths. The grants led to an increase in rents in the center of the city for nonrecipients as well, so that the overall additional rent is equivalent to four-fifths of the grant amounts. These rates are within the broad range of findings worldwide.

 

 

ToC: Israel Economic Review 12.2 (2015)

Israel Economic Review 12.2 (2015):

Table of Contents

• Government Support for Young Families in Israel

Adi Brender and Michel Strawczynski

• The Origins of Income Inequality in Israel – Trends and Policy

Ofer Cornfeld and Oren Danieli

• Tax Cuts and Economic Activity: Israel in the 2000s

Zvi Hercowitz and Avihai Lifschitz

• The Response of the Weighted Average Time to Maturity of Government Bond Issues to Changes in the Financial/Economic Environment

Yehuda Porath

***

• Review of “Understanding Global Crises” by Assaf Razin

Francesco Bianchi

New Article: Borowski, Israel’s Long-Term Care Social Insurance Scheme

Borowski, Allan. “Israel’s Long-Term Care Social Insurance Scheme After a Quarter of a Century.” Journal of Aging and Social Policy 27.3 (2015): 195-214.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2015.1022101

 

Abstract

Long-term care social insurance schemes exist in a number of countries, while the introduction of such schemes enjoys some support in others. Israel’s long-term care social insurance scheme has been operating since 1988. This article examines the emergence, goals, design, and impacts of this scheme and draws out some of the lessons that can be learned from Israel’s quarter century experience of long-term care social insurance.

 

Symposium: Private Sphere as Public Policy in Israel (Berkeley, Feb 17, 2015)

THE PRIVATE SPHERE AS PUBLIC POLICY?:

A Symposium on Law and Society in Israel

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2015

RECEPTION: 2:30; SYMPOSIUM 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

GOLDBERG ROOM (297 BOALT HALL), BERKELEY LAW

INTRODUCTION

Jonathan Simon, Adrian A. Kragen Professor of Law; Director, CSLS

PRISON PRIVATIZATION

Hila Shamir, Associate Professor, Buchman Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University

JUDGING IN THE SHADOW OF THE LAW: PRIVATE FORUMS AND PRIVATIZED ADJUDICATION IN ISRAEL

Ori Aronson, Assistant Professor, Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law

‘I’VE GOT NO ONE TO LEAN ON’: THE NEGOTIATION OF NETWORK RELATIONS AMONG LOW-INCOME MOTHERS IN ISRAEL UNDER A NEOLIBERAL DISCOURSE

Shira Offer, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University

THE (LEGITIMACY) PRICE OF PRIVATIZED WELFARE

Avishai Benish, Assistant Professor, Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

RESPONDENT

Malcolm Feeley, Claire Sanders Clements Dean’s Professor of Law

 

 

Click here for a PDF of the flyer.

New Article: Szekely, Understanding Hamas’s Social Services as Political Advertising

Szekely, Ora. “Doing Well by Doing Good: Understanding Hamas’s Social Services as Political Advertising.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (online first; early view)

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1057610X.2014.995565

 

Abstract

Like many nonstate military actors, Hamas has long provided social services to its constituents, but the mechanism by which charity leads to increased public support is poorly understood. This article argues that providing charity benefits nonstate actors not because it isolates recipients or acts as a bribe but because it allows organizations like Hamas to overcome the legacies of their own military activities and extremist ideologies. Service provision allows them to demonstrate that they are not merely soldiers or ideologues, but capable bureaucrats and managers as well.

New Article: Hertzog, Minors’ Welfare and Bureaucratic Violence in Israel

Hertzog, Esther. “Minors’ Welfare and Bureaucratic Violence in Israel.” Anthropology of the Middle East 9.1 (2014): 42-58.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/berghahn/antmid/2014/00000009/00000001/art00004

 

Abstract

The article examines the welfare policy in Israel concerning ‘minors at risk’, mainly the cancellation of parents’ custody over their offspring and their placement in welfare institutions. I suggest that the ideological discourse plays a major role in this context and terms like ‘minor’s well-being’ are widely used for achieving public legitimacy of the social workers’ control of this field. Describing and analysing case studies which I attended and followed since the beginning of the 1990s reveal the consequences of taking away children from their families and placing them in state institutions. The analysis focuses on the organised bureaucratic violence towards children and their parents which accompanies the legally enforced procedures. It also discusses the forceful means used by the staff in the institutions towards the inmates, as part of maintaining order and discipline. I suggest that violent behaviour of officials and organisations which use the state’s organised power of coercion against minors and their parents is linked to personal, organisational and political motives.

New Article: Mizrahi et al, Alternative Politics and Attitudes toward the Welfare State

Mizrahi, Shlomo, Fany Yuval, and Nissim Cohen. “Alternative Politics and Attitudes toward the Welfare State: Theory and Empirical Findings from Israel.” Politics & Policy 42.6 (2014): 850-80.

 

URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12099/abstract

 

Abstract

This article introduces and explores two interesting phenomena: the phenomenon of alternative politics and attitudes toward the welfare state. The concept of alternative politics refers to a “do-it-yourself” approach where citizens on their own adopt extra-legal, and often illegal, strategies to improve the services provided by the government. Through a theoretical framework and empirical model, we explore the extent to which attitudes toward alternative politics strategies are influenced by sociodemographic variables and attitudes toward the welfare state. The study utilizes the distinction between normative perceptions (imputed preferences) and induced preferences. We show that short-term activities guided by the motivation of narrow self-interests do not necessarily reflect public attitudes or the values and norms that people hold vis-à-vis the public sphere. This finding may reflect the (mis)interpretation that politicians and decision makers make by concluding that short-term actions are indicative of long-term attitudes.

New Article: Regev-Messalem, Collective Struggle through Welfare Fraud in Israel

Regev-Messalem, Shiri. “Trapped in Resistance: Collective Struggle through Welfare Fraud in Israel.” Law & Society Review 48.4 (2014): 741-72.

 

URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lasr.12110/abstract

 

Abstract

This paper offers a qualitative empirical examination of the noncompliance of Israeli female welfare recipients with welfare laws and authorities. The paper demonstrates that their behavior, defined as “welfare fraud” by the law, is a limited form of collective resistance to the Israeli welfare state. Although the acts of welfare fraud that the women in my study engaged in entail a political claim against the state, the relationship between these acts and notions of collectivity is very constricted in form. The women’s collectivity is shown to be constrained by the welfare authorities’ invasive and pervasive investigation practices and methods. Due to fear of disclosure to the authorities, the women emerged as deliberately isolating themselves from their immediate environment and potential members of their like-situated collective. This weakens the connection between the women’s acts of resistance and their collectivity, and prevents their acts of resistance from driving social change, trapping them in their harsh conditions and existence.

 

ToC: Israel Studies Review 28,2 (2013)

Guest Editors’ Introduction: Rethinking the Family in Israel

pp. vii-xii(6)
Authors: Fogiel-Bijaoui, Sylvie; Rutlinger-Reiner, Reina

Articles: The Transformation of Intimacies

Religious Zionist Singles and Late-Modern Youth Culture

pp. 1-17(17)
Author: Engelberg, Ari

Israeli-Palestinian Women and Their Reasons for Divorce: A Comparative Perspective

pp. 18-40(23)
Author: Meler, Tal

Midlife Women in Second Partnerships Choosing Living Apart Together: An Israeli Case Study

pp. 41-60(20)
Author: Or, Ofra

Articles: Families in Transition

‘The Art of the Deal’: Preferences in Spouse Selection among Parents in a Hasidic Community

pp. 61-82(22)
Author: Block, Sima Zalcberg

Crises in Orthodox Israeli Family Life Onstage

pp. 83-101(19)
Author: Rutlinger-Reiner, Reina

Aging, Family, and Preferences for Care among Older Jews and Arabs

pp. 102-121(20)
Author: Halperin, Dafna

Articles: The Boundaries of Family Life

Hybridization and Purification: The Experiences of Mizrachi Middle-Class Adolescents in Israel

pp. 122-139(18)
Author: Selinger, Guy Abutbul

Conceiving Judaism: The Challenges of Same-Sex Parenthood

pp. 140-156(17)
Author: Lustenberger, Sibylle

Israeli ‘Mixed Families’ with Members of Ethiopian Origin: Encounters in the Public Space

pp. 157-173(17)
Author: Benezer, Gadi

“I Earn, Therefore I Exist”: Impoverished Bedouin Mothers Who Become Entrepreneurs

pp. 174-191(18)
Author: Alhuzail, Nuzha Allassad

Migrant Care Workers in Israel: Between Family, Market, and State

pp. 192-209(18)
Author: Shamir, Hila

Articles: Legal Discourse, Private Life

The Spousal Covenant (Brit Hazugiut), or the Covenant with the Status Quo

pp. 210-227(18)
Author: Fogiel-Bijaoui, Sylvie

Articles: Articles: Legal Discourse, Private Life

The Legitimacy of Single Mothers in Israel Examined through Five Circles of Discourse

pp. 228-246(19)
Author: Herbst, Anat

The Anomaly of Custody in Israeli Family Law

pp. 247-263(17)
Author: Mazeh, Yoav

The Child’s Worst Interests: Socio-legal Taboos on Same-Sex Parenting and Their Impact on Children’s Well-Being

pp. 264-281(18)
Author: Triger, Zvi

Children’s Rights in Israeli Case Law: A Spiral Progression

pp. 282-299(18)
Author: Morag, Tamar

Succession Law in Israel: Individualism and the Family

pp. 300-313(14)
Author: Kreiczer-Levy, Shelly

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

pp. 314-324(11)

Cite: Lavie, Writing against Identity Politics: An Essay on Gender, Race, and Bureaucratic Pain

Lavie, Smadar. “Writing against Identity Politics: An Essay on Gender, Race, and Bureaucratic Pain.” American Ethnologist 39.4 (2012): 779-803.

URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01395.x/abstract

Abstract

Equating bureaucratic entanglements with pain—or what, arguably, can be seen as torture—might seem strange. But for single Mizrahi welfare mothers in Israel, somatization of bureaucratic logic as physical pain precludes the agency of identity politics. This essay elaborates on Don Handelman’s scholarship on bureaucratic logic as divine cosmology and posits that Israel’s bureaucracy is based on a theological essence that amalgamates gender and race. The essay employs a world anthropologies’ theoretical toolkit to represent bureaucratic torture in multiple narrative modes, including anger, irony, and humor, as a counterexample to dominant U.S.–U.K. formulae for writing and theorizing culture.

Cite: Maron, Articulations of Citizenship under a Neoliberal State: The Israeli Workfare Programme

Maron, Asa. “Conflicting Articulations of Citizenship under a Neoliberal State Project: The Contested Implementation of the Israeli Workfare Programme.” Mediterranean Politics 17.3 (2012): 427-445.

–

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/med/2012/00000017/00000003/art00011

–

Abstract

This paper examines the Israeli workfare programme as a neoliberal state project and its contested implications for Israeli citizenship. Israeli workfare attempted to reconfigure the relations between state, market and beneficiaries of Income Support Allowance by redefining their duties of citizenship as independent, self-sufficient providers. Using private case managers and employment coaches, the state urged them to comply with the imperative of labour market participation as the principal duty of Israeli citizenship. This paper focuses on emerging street-level relations between privatized agents of reform, who enforced the new civic duty, and programme participants, who resisted this new imposed ‘social contract’, and insisted that the state maintain some social responsibility. By analysing these mundane negotiations regarding the duties of citizenship under a neoliberal state project, this paper suggests that entrenched legacies of citizenship may be utilized to resist the compulsion of market citizenship.

Lecture: Eckstein and Zeira on Israeli Economy

Dear Friends,

The Institute for Israel & Jewish Studies at Columbia University will be hosting “An Evening on the Israeli Economy” on Monday, September 26, at 8:00pm in 501 Schermerhorn Hall. The event will feature:

Zvi Eckstein

Former Deputy Governor, Bank of Israel 

Professor of Economics, Tel Aviv University and  IDC Herzelia

From the Financial Crisis to the Social Crisis

And

Joseph Zeira

Professor of Economics, Hebrew University in Jerusalem

The Israeli-Arab Conflict and the Israeli Economy

Find attached a flyer for your reference.

RSVPs are appreciated (knm2121c “at” ). Seating will be available on a first come, first serve basis.

 

*For more information about future events, please visit us at iijs.columbia.edu.

 

Best Regards,

The Institute for Israel & Jewish Studies

Columbia University

511 Fayerweather Hall

1180 Amsterdam Ave

New York, NY 10027

P 212-854-2581

F 212-854-2590

Cite: Weitz, Golda Meir, Israel’s Fourth Prime Minister

Weitz, Yechiam. "Golda Meir, Israel’s Fourth Prime Minister (1969-74)." Middle Eastern Studies 47,1 (2011): 43-61.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/mes/2011/00000047/00000001/art00003

 

Abstract

The article deals with Golda Meir, who was a prominent leader of Israel and the Prime Minister during the Yom Kippur War (1973). Its main points are: Her road towards the national leadership during the “Yishuv” period. Her political role under David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol as Minister of Labor (1949-1956) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1956-1966) Meir as political leader: the way she lead her party and how she was a symbol of the national agreement Meir as diplomatic leader: her attitude during the negotiation attempt with Egypt (The Secretary of the State’s Plan – 1970 ; Moshe Dayan’s intention to open the Suez Canal – 1971) Meir as social leader: the strengthening of the welfare – state Meir during the Yom Kippur War: The War as a result of her policy; Her leadership during the crisis.

Cite: Hasson, Tax Cuts in Israel

Hasson, Yael. "Who Stands to Lose from Tax Cuts in Israel?" Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 22.1 (2010): 157-167.

 

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/canadian_journal_of_women_and_the_law/summary/v022/22.1.hasson.html