Dov Friedlander

Educational stratification among Arabs and Jews in Israel: Historical disadvantage, discrimination, and opportunity

Arabs in Israel are a heterogeneous but largely underprivileged minority with a history of disadvantage in several domains, including education and employment. In this paper, we document changes in their attainment of various educational levels across cohorts born from the mid-1920s to the 1970s. We make comparisons among different Arab religious groups, between men and women, and between Arabs and the majority Jewish populations in Israel. We find that over consecutive birth cohorts, substantial ethnic differences in educational attainment have narrowed at the lower levels of schooling, but have increased at higher levels. Moreover, the results indicate that the disadvantage of Muslim Arabs in terms of entry into and completion of high school can be accounted for only partially by differences in the social status of their parents and characteristics of their neighbourhoods. The findings suggest that long-term historical differences among groups and discriminatory practices towards Arabs are important factors in explanations of disparities in educational attainment.

The Modern Shift to Below-Replacement Fertility: Has Israel's Population Joined the Process?

Fertility has declined to below replacement levels in many of the modern industrialized countries during the last three decades. This decline has been explained by various modern socio-economic characteristics, such as the change in womens status, their increased participation in non-familial activities, modern consumption patterns, and increasing costs of raising ‘quality’ children. The Jewish population of Israel is a modern society with such characteristics. Yet, total fertility in Israel during the 1980s was at least one child higher than in most European countries. It is shown that social heterogeneity makes this an over-simplified comparison. Indeed, it is the high fertility of the orthodox population among the two major ethnic groups, combined with the decline towards below-replacement fertility of the non-orthodox, which produces the high mean fertility of the entire population. While during the 1950s and 1960s the major explanations of fertility variation were concerned with ethnicity and socio-...

Demographic Responses And Population Change

Most Western societies have gone through a process of population change during the past 100-150 years. One important aspect is the socalled demographic transition: the shift from high to low birth and death rates, and accelerated growth resulting from the lag between falling mortality and falling fertility, in national populations. Equally important has been the “rural-to-urban” transition, which involved the migration of millions of people from rural areas. It is hypothesized, following the suggestion of Davis (Theory of the Multi-Phasic Demographic Response), that the adjustment in reproductive behavior made by a community in response to a rising “strain,” such as that resulting from higher natural increase, is likely to differ depending upon the ease with which the community can relieve the strain through out migration. Relationships among such characteristics of modernization as intensity of industrialization, speed of urbanization, structural changes in the agricultural system, and declining fertility are implied. Case studies of England and Sweden lend support to the hypothesis: more rapid urban-industrial development, larger-scale movement from rural areas, and a delayed decline in the rural birth rate distinguish the English transition.

The Demographic Transition Then and Now: Processes, Perspectives, and Analyses

Fifty years have passed since the post–World War II development of demography as an academic field. During this time, one of the central focuses of research has been the study of demographic and fertility transitions. The authors reviewa selection of research developments and analytic issues that have appeared in the literature. After presenting, in roughly chronological order, the general development of this research work, they raise questions concerning theory and methodology. In doing so, they argue that some research directions have been overemphasized to the neglect of others.

The Transition from High to Low Marital Fertility: Cultural or Socioeconomic Determinants?

The authors test whether socioeconomic variables in England and Wales between 1850 and 1900 are significantly related to decline in fertility during a transitional period marked by no family planning at the onset. In contrast Carlsson study of Swedish fertility decline ascribes the decline to the diffusion approach from urban to rural and adjustment perspective which emphasizes societal setting and boundaries. Knodel and van de Walles macro analysis within the Princeton European Fertility Project (PEFP) presents the view that simultaneity occurs despite a variety of socioeconomic and demographic conditions. Lesthaeghe followed the innovative argument and reports that within the diffusion process cultural barriers put limitations on the extend of fertility. Conversely socioeconomic interpretations have been developed by Teitelbaum who also used the PEFP data and Friedlander in his analysis of 600 districts of England and Wales. Teitelbaum identifies the significance as socioeconomic with cultural variables having separate significant effects at later stages. Friedlanders somewhat different theory indicates that nuptiality marital fertility and migration are micro-interrelated and result from socioeconomic change. Crafts analysis of the 1911 fertility census in England and Wales reveals that spacing and stopping contributed to fertility decline instead of Knodel and van de Walles thesis of stopping being the only significant determinant. The authors analysis of 600 districts of England and Wales validates the adjustment hypothesis by showing that socioeconomic and demographic timing account for variation in timing of marital fertility (R2 = .50). In explaining the diffusion process again with R2 = .54 socioeconomic variables entirely account for the fertility change dependent variable with no effect from the cultural variable. This was substantiated in repeated trials at regional levels also testing the strength of the language variable. Further testing of the mode of transmission from urban to rural indicated the fertility change variable was not negatively related to the urban proximity variable including a separate regression for just London and environs. The Carlsson diffusion hypothesis is rejected. 24 repeated stepwise regressions were performed confirming the importance of the socioeconomic and demographic variables in explaning fertility decline with a minimum of 50% (range 70 - 90%) of the variation explained. Cultural and diffusion variables explain no more than 50% (range 5 - 25%). The largest beta coefficients for all equations with demographic and socioeconomic variables. The Lesthaeghe border hypothesis is also not substantiated. The Framework of Social Structure and Fertility is advanced as the significant analytical construct for understanding fertility decline. Notwithstanding the English experience other recent studies are reviewed which support the socioeconomic interpretation and suggestion is made to further research effort in this direction.

Hypnotic relaxation in the treatment of premature labor

&NA; Hypnotic relaxation was used as an adjunct to pharmacologic treatment with 39 women hospitalized for premature contractions in pregnancy. The control group received medication alone and consisted of 70 women. Treatment was started at the time of hospitalization and lasted for 3 hr on the average. Patients were also given cassettes with a hypnotic‐relaxation exercise for daily practice. The rate of pregnancy prolongation was significantly higher for the hypnotic‐relaxation than for the medication‐alone group. Infant weight also showed the advantage of the hypnotic‐relaxation treatment. Background variables of the two groups were compared and it was shown that they could not have explained the treatment effect obtained.

Modernization patterns and fertility change: the Arab populations of Israel and the Israel-administered territories.

Summary The relation between socio-economic development and fertility is analysed for the Arab populations of Israel and the territories administered by Israel (i.e. the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). Retrospective survey statistics are used to reconstruct the fertility patterns of currently married Arab women, along with a variety of census information. Fertility responses to socio-economic changes are traced out in detail for the period of the British Mandate, the first 20 years of statehood 1948–67, and the contemporary post-1967 period. The figures show that both Christian and Moslem Arab populations experienced similar high levels of fertility up to the late 1920s. Subsequently, there has been a negative relation between socio-economic development and fertility. In terms of levels of development and fertility decline the sub-populations are ranked in the following order: Israeli urban Christians; Israeli urban Moslems; Israeli rural Christians; Israeli rural Moslems; Moslems in the Administered Terri...

Mass immigration and population dynamics in israel

Israel, in her 25 years of existence, received an unprecedented volume of immigration, which was the major source of her high population growth. This immigration was heavily concentrated in the first five years, 1948–1952; mass immigration of 711,000 supplemented an initial population of 630,000. Subsequently, since 1952, a very peculiar age-sex structure has developed: namely, instead of a pyramid, a wide rectangle for the younger age groups “topped” with a narrow pyramid for the older age groups. The peculiar age-sex dynamics is analyzed in relation to the volume of immigration with its uneven time distribution, the age selectivity of migrants and fertility-mortality patterns of migrants. It is concluded that the uneven time distribution of immigration and the higher fertility of migrants are jointly responsible for the development of Israel’s peculiar age dynamics, and that the absence of either of these two factors alone would eliminate it. The peculiar dynamics has societal implications in the short and the long run, some of which are discussed.

The spread of urbanization in England and Wales, 1851-1951.

Abstract Each county in England and Wales has been classified as rural or urban for each of the decennial census years 1851-1951. One index has been used as the basis for these classifications, the percentage of adult males occupied in agriculture. Thus, for each census year a value, in term of this index, was fixed as the criterion to determine whether a county was rural or urban in that year. This criterion of classification varies, over time. This is to allow for the reduction in the percentage of adult males occupied in agriculture as a result of structural changes in the occupational distribution (associated with general modernization), rather than through a shift away from agriculture. The geographical patterns of urbanization in England and Wales during the period 1851-1951, and some associated social and economic changes, are discussed in the paper.

Pretransition marital fertility variation over time: was there deliberate control in England?

An important line of research concerning historical fertility patterns in currently developed countries of Europe has concluded that, prior to the fertility transition, marital fertility was essentially constant over time, and deliberate fertility control was virtually unknown. It has been argued that variations over time in overall fertility were largely the consequence of variations in nuptiality. Other researchers have challenged these views and present evidence for the existence of a significant minority of fertility controllers in pretransition populations. In this article, we find support for this second view and argue that (1) there was significant, non-random variation in marital fertility over time, prior to the transition; (2) in many cases, this variation in marital fertility was large relative to contemporaneous variations in nuptiality; and (3) in a substantial minority of the cases, the variation over time in pretransition marital fertility was so large that it is suggestive of deliberate fertility control. Thus, our findings question the view of fertility transition as an innovation in deliberate marital fertility control. While most of our evidence is based on data from England and Wales, we find corroboration of our key results in other European data.