Eliezer Ben-Rafael

SECULARIZATION AND THE DIMINISHING DECLINE OF RELIGION

framework for an analysis of the influences on the religiosity offour JewishIsraeli groups, two Middle Eastern (Moroccan and Iraqi) and two European (Polish and Rumanian). A process of secularization, as measured by intergenerational declines in the performance of the mitzvot (commandments), occurred in all four groups, but the intergenerational declines were greater in those groups whose older generation displayed high levels of religious observance. The relative importance of the independent variables influencing religiosity, such as fathers religiosity, socio-economic status, and number of years lived in Israel, depend on the level of observance of the group. These generalizations are modified by attention to differences in the religio-cultural traditions and social locations of Israelis from Middle Eastern and European origins.

Class consciousness in Israel

This study investigates dimensions of class consciousness (cognitive, affective, evaluative) in Israel and analyses their relationships to alternative and overlapping objectively conceived class classifications. Variance in a number of interrelated cognitive dimensions was found to be mainly associated with class classifications that focus on work-occupational situations, but none of the affective/evaluative dimensions were found to have a uniform relationship with any class classification. Israel is similar to many other industrial nations with respect to the pattern and strength of most class consciousness dimensions, but the political dimension is especially weak and this is related to the importance of the Labour political and union organizations in the control and regulation of the Israeli economy. Class Consciousness in Israel DISCUSSIONS ON CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS have rarely been part of the discourse on stratification and inequality in the sociology of Israel. Attention has focused on the &dquo;ethnic gap&dquo; between Ashkenazim, Jews of mainly European descent, and Mizrachim (‘ ‘Easterners&dquo;), Jews from Asia and Africa, and disputes among Israeli sociologists have revolved mainly around explanations of this gap (Smooha, 1978; Swirski, 1981; Smooha and Peres, 1981; Hartman and Ayalon, 1975). Marxist analyses have made references to class conflict within Israel, but this theme has been subordinated to, or conflated with, ethnic conflict and the division between Arabs and Jews. The relative absence of class consciousness, which is assumed rather than demonstrated, is explained by nationalism, the centrality of ethnicity, and the uniqueness of the Israeli form of capitalism in the form of cooperation between the private sector and the bureaucracy of the Labour sector (Machover & Orr, 1971; Zureik,

Transnational Diasporas: A New Era or a New Myth?

The numberless unprecedented situations attached today to the concept of transnational diaspora arise the debate of whether or not this phenomenon signals a new era. Our own contention is that it does represent a factor of new kinds of heterogenization of both the societal reality and of the diasporas themselves, as worldwide entities.

Jewish Identities in a Changing World

[In the context of their recent dispersion, Russian-speaking Jews have become the vast majority of Germany’s longstanding Jewry. An entity marked by permeable boundaries, they show commitment to world Jewry, including Israel, but feeble identification with their hosts. While Jewish singularity is understood here more as “belonging” than “believing”, Jewish education is viewed as a must., In the context of their recent dispersion, Russian-speaking Jews have become the vast majority of Germany’s longstanding Jewry. An entity marked by permeable boundaries, they show commitment to world Jewry, including Israel, but feeble identification with their hosts. While Jewish singularity is understood here more as “belonging” than “believing”, Jewish education is viewed as a must.]

Symbole d'identité ou capital symbolique : le parcours social du français en Israël

E. Ben-Rafael, R. Herzlich, M. Freund : Identitatssymbol oder symbolisches Kapital : die soziale Laufbahn der franzosischen Sprache in Israel. Ursprunglich bildete die franzosische Sprache in Israel sowohl ein Identitatszeichen fur eine untergeordnete kulturelle Bevolkerungsgruppe, als auch ein von beherrschenden Elementen angestrebtes symbolisches Kapital. Nachdem es sich lediglich um ein Wahlschulfach handelt, bringt die Untersuchung der Wahlfaktoren innerhalb einer Schulerauswahl einen beispielhaften « Wanderungs » vorgang der Sprachressourcen zutage. Dieser Vorgang, bei dem privilegierte Elemente die verschwindenden Ressourcen innerhalb der benachteiligten Gemeinschaften ubernehmen, findet motivierte Unterstiitzung innerhalb der Bevolkerungsteile, die sozial privilegiert und ethnisch benachteiligt sind.

48. Post-Zionism and Its Moral and Political Ramifications

This paper seeks to examine the meaning of post-Zionism and explore the foundation of a trend that became very prominent in the Israeli academic and political scene over the last two decades. This paper argues that post-Zionism is an incoherent intellectual orientation that challenges the moral and political foundations of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel, its Jewishness and its meaning for Jews and non-Jews in the surrounding environment. This reflection on the rise of the Zionist movement and its practices pose questions regarding the consistency between the moral and political discourse of the movement and its practices. These reflections were extended to include questions of legitimacy and security since post-Zionists, who provided very basic research in the fields of history, morality, sociology and politics, argue that warfare and force do not guarantee the security of Jews and cannot legitimize their rights. Thus their own criticism undermines mainstream Zionism that intermingles might and right. Self-reflection, it is argued, is a precondition for improving Jewish reality and closing the gap between the rights of Jews for security and self-determination and the universal ideals of equality and sovereignty. Therefore, post-Zionists do not stop at this instrumental utilitarian point but seek to establish a positive moral argument that does not sacrifice all that has been achieved so far, and calls for its transformation under certain circumstances in order to reconcile it with universal human values. This paper addresses the necessary discrepancies in post-Zionist and Zionist discourse by characterizing the former through an exploration of their greatest points of contention – their respective orientations toward time, space and morality. Zionist thought is inclusive of a number of dimensions – moral, ontological, epistemological, etc. Over time, it sought to justify itself in each of these domains largely through posturing that aligned with mainstream intellectual trends. This ongoing adaptation therefore resulted in highly sophisticated approaches to Jewish historiography and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which enabled itself to transcend empirical discussion and facilitate its physical and metaphysical expansion. The following analysis is also a modest attempt to reconcile post-Zionism’s various dimensions and interpretations by exploring its epistemological, ontological and normative foundations, while contrasting it with mainstream Zionism. The paper proceeds by laying out the dominant depictions of the post-Zionist trend in Isra-

26. The Schizophrenic Reality of Israeli Women: A Cinematic Perspective, 2014

This chapter offers a perspective on the status of Israeli women in 2014. Rather than present the standard review of women’s rights in the public and private spheres, the extent of their sexual victimization and their status in politics, the workplace and academia, the chapter explores Israeli women’s contemporary cinema and follows the themes and critiques raised by it. This way I introduce you, simultaneously, to Israeli women’s realities, as experienced and critically portrayed by Israeli women filmmakers, as well as to women’s cinema in contemporary (2014) Israel. Finally, I offer a theoretical feminist perspective on Israeli gender construction that may frame the movies’ portrayal and critique of Israeli women’s lives. “Women’s movies” were never a significant constituent of Israel’s movie industry; at least not until 2014. In the course of this year, audiences were introduced to six new Israeli feature movies written and/or directed by women, focusing on Israeli women’s lives and expressing powerful feminist critique:1 Six Acts,2 Zero Motivation, She Is Coming Home, That Lovely Girl, Self Made and Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem. Four of the six enjoyed very high public visibility as well as critical acclaim. Written in 2014, this chapter presents and discusses five of these movies,3 offering a conceptual framework that may illuminate and enhance their social critique.4 Any non-Israeli watching these six feminine-feminist movies would likely suppose that they reflect two distinct societies. One (depicted in That Lovely Girl, Six Acts, Zero Motivation, She Is Coming Home and Self Made) is a 21st-century liberal society, in which women enjoy formal equality and liberty and struggle with Israeli versions of gender predicaments typical of contemporary Western societies (sexual abuse; insidious employment discrimination, such as sophisticated glass ceiling;

Confronting Allosemitism in Europe

As with most European Jewries today, Belgian Jewry is attacked from many directions. How are these new hardships confronted? Research shows Belgian Jews as “like” many others but “a little more” and their plight highlights the question: is allosemitism surmountable?

Plurilingualism in Francophone Comics

While interest in comics has now become more prevalent in the academy, they are particularly appreciated in French-speaking locales, like France, Belgium or Quebec, where they are named bandes dessinees or BDs. Designated in these countries as the Ninth Art, the BD has a status far surpassing that of equivalent English-language comic strips (Forsdick 2005). In some cases, they are the object of theoretical discussions, such as when the stories of Becassine, the Breton female peasant working in the city, are deconstructed in the light of postcolonial approaches. BD urban landscapes are also often viewed as influenced by Le Corbusier’s architecture, while many forms of language can be understood as linguistic contributions dating from the student revolutions of the 1960s. References are discernible in BD to ongoing debates about feminism and other social issues. Drawing on psychoanalytic and Marxist interpretations, Ann Miller elaborates on different possible levels of BD reading (Miller 2007). Moreover, the importance of comics in present-day literature is reflected in national and international events such as the annual International Festival of Comics in Angouleme, first held in 1974.

Introduction: A Difficult Question

The communal idea is investigated theoretically and through contemporary experiences on the verge of the 21st century. This idea draws its vitality from potent civilizational codes, and while its realizations come up unavoidably to self-betrayal, its renewal from ashes is not less unavoidable.