New Article: Ida & Talit, Reforms in Public Bus Services in Israel

Ida, Yoram, and Gal Talit. “Reforms in Public Bus Services in Israel.” International Journal of Social Science Studies 3.6 (2015).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.11114/ijsss.v3i6.1071

 

Abstract

This research presents the main results of tendering bus services in Israel from 2000 to 2014. The article discusses the impact of different tender characteristics on reform results in general, and in Israel, in particular. The article also examines the reform’s impact on the quality of government regulation of public bus services. Since many countries are facing issues related to bus service regulation, the issues discussed in this article, combined with the Israeli experience in this field, are likely to be relevant to other countries in which similar reforms have been implemented.

 

 

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

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Reviews: Helman, Becoming Israeli

Helman, Anat. Becoming Israeli. National Ideals and Everyday Life in the 1950s, Schusterman Series in Israel Studies. Waltham, Mass.: Brandeis University Press, 2014.

Reviews

• Burghardt, Linda F.”Review.” Jewish Book Council, n.d.
• Bernstein, Deborah. “Review.” Journal of Israeli History (early view; online first).
• Hirsch, Dafna. “Review.” Israel Studies Review 30.2 (2015).

 

 

New Article: Guggenheim & Taubman-Ben-Ari, Ultraorthodox Young Drivers in Israel

Guggenheim, Noga, and Orit Taubman-Ben-Ari. “Ultraorthodox Young Drivers in Israel – Driving through Cultural Lenses.” Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour 33 (2015): 87-96.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2015.07.011

 

Abstract

Research has paid little attention to driving and road safety in the ultraorthodox communities in Israel, in which perceptions on such issues display unique cultural characteristics, and may have long-term effects on traffic safety. This study attempts to gain insight into the attitudes and behaviors of the ultraorthodox young men road users in Israel with regard to driving and road safety, using a qualitative research method based on 42 face-to-face in-depth interviews with men from different ultraorthodox circles in different stages of life. The analysis reveals that the stringent cultural norms strongly influence road behavior, far beyond what is known about young novice drivers and their peers in general. For example, owning a license by young, single ultraorthodox students is seen as an offense against the ultraorthodox establishment compared to driving without a license, which is considered a one-time lapse. The findings indicate that unique cultural phenomena such as concealing the process of licensing, unlicensed driving and road interactions create a dangerous effect extending beyond the ultraorthodox neighborhoods. They also imply that road safety can be interpreted differently in diverse cultures, a fact which should be considered while planning safety intervention strategies.

New Article: Guggenheim & Taubman–Ben-Ari, Women as Key to Enhancing Road Safety in Ultraorthodox Communities

Guggenheim, Noga and Orit Taubman – Ben-Ari. “Women as a Key to Enhancing Road Safety in Ultraorthodox Communities in Israel.” Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour 30 (2015): 22-29.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2015.02.004

 

Abstract

The ultraorthodox sector in Israel, while an integral part of society, has unique cultural characteristics along with limited media exposure. Both these features impact the perceptions of driving and road safety, as well as the ability to influence them. In view of the scarcity of research literature on these issues, the present study sought to gain further insight into the community in an attempt to find a creative way to leverage road safety among ultraorthodox road users in Israel.

Using the phenomenological qualitative method, 60 face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with women and men of different ages and backgrounds from the major ultraorthodox communities. Findings reveal that for the ultraorthodox, driving is a controversial subject that represents much more than its normative practical function in modern Western societies. It is subject to sociocultural restrictions that are reflected, inter alia, in limited public discourse on road safety. Moreover, the findings highlight the prominent educational role of women in this sector: they are exclusively responsible for raising young children, and are the sole educators of girls of all ages. In addition, as people tend to marry young, and men do not generally drive before marriage, women can influence the safety habits of their spouse as well as their children. The authors suggest building on this potential to increase awareness of road safety by empowering ultraorthodox women to serve as agents of social change in their family and community.

New Article: Magid et al, Increased Inequality in Mortality From Road Crashes Among Arabs and Jews in Israel

Magid, Avi, Shalhevet Leibovitch-Zur, and Orna Baron-Epel. “Increased Inequality in Mortality From Road Crashes Among Arabs and Jews in Israel.” Traffic Injury Prevention 16.1 (2015): 42-47.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15389588.2014.908289

 

Abstract

Objective: Previous studies in several countries have shown that the economically disadvantaged seem to have a greater risk of being involved in a car crash. The aim of the present study was to compare rates and trends in mortality and injury from road crashes by age among the Arab and Jewish populations in Israel.

Methods: Data on road crashes with casualties (2003–2011) from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics were analyzed. Age-adjusted road crash injury rates and mortality rates for 2003 to 2011 were calculated and time trends for each age group and population group are presented. Time trend significance was evaluated by linear regression models.

Results: Arabs in Israel are at increased risk of injury and mortality from road crashes compared to Jews. Road crash injury rates have significantly decreased in both populations over the last decade, although the rates have been persistently higher among Arabs. Road crash mortality rates have also decreased significantly in the Jewish population but not in the Arab population. This implies an increase in the disparity in mortality between Jews and Arabs. The most prominent differences in road crash injury and mortality rates between Arabs and Jews can be observed in young adults and young children.

Conclusions: The reduction in road crashes in the last decade is a positive achievement. However, the reductions are not equal among Arabs and Jews in Israel. Therefore, an increase in the disparities in mortality from road crashes is apparent. Public health efforts need to focus specifically on decreasing road crashes in the Arab community.

New Article: Bishara, Driving while Palestinian in Israel and the West Bank

Bishara, Amahl. “Driving while Palestinian in Israel and the West Bank: The Politics of Disorientation and the Routes of a Subaltern Knowledge.” American Ethnologist 42.1 (2015): 33-54.

 

URL: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/amet.12114/abstract

 

Abstract

Israel’s system of closure divides Palestinian citizens of Israel from Palestinians of the West Bank. For members of both categories, road journeys spur political analysis, explicitly stated or implicitly packed into jokes or offhand comments. If, in liberal traditions, political knowledge is idealized as disembodied, abstract, and dispassionate, Palestinian knowledge gained while driving is none of these things. Yet it can provide important insights into the operations of Israeli power less easily represented in more formal outlets. Because the road system is an everyday site at which its users come into contact with the work of the state, driving is an important practice through which to examine popular conceptions of politics. Still, these two communities of Palestinians face obstacles in communicating about shared understandings of space and politics. In examining everyday political knowledge of subaltern people, we must attend to varieties of subalterneity to examine how these differences can perpetuate marginalization.

New Book: Helman, Becoming Israeli: National Ideals and Everyday Life in the 1950s

Helman, Anat. Becoming Israeli. National Ideals and Everyday Life in the 1950s, Schusterman Series in Israel Studies. Waltham, Mass.: Brandeis University Press, 2014.

 

 

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introducing Israel in White
• The Language of the Melting Pot
• The Humorous Side of Rationing
• “A People in Uniform”
• Taking the Bus
• Going to the Movies
• The Communal Dining Hall
• Informality, Straightforwardness, and Rudeness
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

With a light touch and many wonderful illustrations, historian Anat Helman investigates “life on the ground” in Israel during the first years of statehood. She looks at how citizens–natives of the land, longtime immigrants, and newcomers–coped with the state’s efforts to turn an incredibly diverse group of people into a homogenous whole. She investigates the efforts to make Hebrew the lingua franca of Israel, the uses of humor, and the effects of a constant military presence, along with such familiar aspects of daily life as communal dining on the kibbutz, the nightmare of trying to board a bus, and moviegoing as a form of escapism. In the process Helman shows how ordinary people adapted to the standards and rules of the political and cultural elites and negotiated the chaos of early statehood.

 ANAT HELMAN is a senior lecturer in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her most recent book is A Coat of Many Colors: Dress Culture in the Young State of Israel.

 

 

 

 

New Article: Guggenheim and Taubman-Ben-Ari, Driving Attitudes and Road Experiences among Ultraorthodox Women in Israel

Guggenheim, Noga and Orit Taubman – Ben-Ari. “Women who DARE: Driving Attitudes and Road Experiences among Ultraorthodox Women in Israel.” Gender, Place & Culture 21.5 (2014): 533-49.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2013.802670

 

Abstract

This study seeks to gain insight into a unique group, ultraorthodox women in Israel, and their views and attitudes on driving and road experiences. Ultraorthodox women are generally contending with spatial and mobility restrictions due to stringent gendered spaces and social norms in their communities. Specifically in Israel, throughout the ultraorthodox sector, women are strictly forbidden to drive. In this research, we put the emphasis on driving dilemmas that have received marginal attention both socially and empirically. A qualitative method was used, based on face-to-face in-depth interviews, with women from three major ultraorthodox communities. The findings reveal that the driving ban for ultraorthodox women in Israel generates ambivalence and conflict, and exacts a heavy social price. Moreover, in line with approaches of feminist geography, it raises issues of gender relations and cultural implications, such as restricting the space and the mobility of women in order to keep them in a subordinate position. The results are discussed in terms of gender roles, cultural exclusion, and spatiality, on both the practical and emotional levels. The study opens a window to a unique sector of the Israeli population, revealing unique dilemmas with which ultraorthodox women grapple daily in their community.

Cite: Balázs, The Conflict of Conscience and Law in a Jewish State

Balázs, Gábor. “The Conflict of Conscience and Law in a Jewish State.” Shofar 31.2 (2013):118-136.

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URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v031/31.2.feldheim.html

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Abstract

Founded in 1998, the Mehadrin bus lines adhere to strict separation of men and women: women must board the bus at the back and sit only at the back, and men at the front. In addition, women must adhere to strict modesty rules in their attire, that is, for example, wear long skirts, no pants, and sleeves. The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) became involved after being approached by five women reporting physical or verbal abuse when not conforming to the segregation or modesty rules on the buses. The fear of those active in defense of the rights of women was that segregation will extend further into public spaces. Indeed, the issue of gender segregation became a major issue about preserving the presence of women in public spaces in Israel. On the other hand, the segregation issue raises the question of whether secular Israelis have the right to force Western standards on the ultra-Orthodox. This article examines the background, and the legal, religious, and political arguments raised in reconciling the rights of women and rights of religious observance yet supporting the Israeli nation’s goal of advancing democracy.

Cite: Feldheim, Women’s Rights and Religious Rights: The Issue of Bus Segregation

Feldheim, Miriam. “Balancing Women’s Rights and Religious Rights: The Issue of Bus Segregation.” Shofar 31.2 (2013): 73-94.

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URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v031/31.2.feldheim.html

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Abstract

Founded in 1998, the Mehadrin bus lines adhere to strict separation of men and women: women must board the bus at the back and sit only at the back, and men at the front. In addition, women must adhere to strict modesty rules in their attire, that is, for example, wear long skirts, no pants, and sleeves. The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) became involved after being approached by five women reporting physical or verbal abuse when not conforming to the segregation or modesty rules on the buses. The fear of those active in defense of the rights of women was that segregation will extend further into public spaces. Indeed, the issue of gender segregation became a major issue about preserving the presence of women in public spaces in Israel. On the other hand, the segregation issue raises the question of whether secular Israelis have the right to force Western standards on the ultra-Orthodox. This article examines the background, and the legal, religious, and political arguments raised in reconciling the rights of women and rights of religious observance yet supporting the Israeli nation’s goal of advancing democracy.