Meir Yaish

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ASKED THE RESCUE OF JEWS IN NAZI EUROPE

A common phenomenon in social life is that some individuals help others and a few even risk their lives to benefit others, as in the case of those who helped Jews escape persecution in Nazi Europe. A few scholars single out motivations as the prime explanation of these rescue activities, yet concede that material opportunities, information, and other situational factors might have played a role. Their work, however, stops short of offering an account of the nature and importance of these factors. In this article, we focus on the importance of opportunities and situational factors, with specific reference to the rescue of Jews from persecution during World War II. Following a secondary analysis of data on those who did and did not rescue Jews during the Nazi occupation of Europe, we show that a direct request for help substantially increased the likelihood of being rescued. We also explore the other side of the situation, namely whom were the Jews likely to ask for help? Jews were likely to ask people they knew and people they trusted to act as mediators. Finally, we show that few of those who were asked to help did not help. This finding suggests the existence of a selection mechanism: rescuers signalled their disposition to help and were subsequently asked. We conclude that opportunities and situational factors are crucial in accounting for the observed acts of helping.

Norms and Rationality in Electoral Participation and in the Rescue of Jews in WWII: An Application of the Model of Frame Selection

The rescue of Jews in WWII and electoral participation both constitute prominent puzzles for rational choice theories of human behavior and have given rise to lengthy debates about norms and rationality. To explain both phenomena, we apply the Model of Frame Selection. This theory of action provides an integrated account of norms and rationality, where cost-benefit calculus is replaced by unconditional norm conformity if actors hold strongly activated normative convictions. In support of this hypothesis, our empirical analyses show that strong feelings of social responsibility led actors to disregard the risks of helping. Likewise, intense norms of civic duty can make electoral participation independent of the incentive to express political preferences and the expectation to influence the election outcome. At the same time, the real strength of calculated incentives is revealed by identifying the actors who indeed seem to engage in a reflecting—calculating mode of decision-making.

Class structure in a deeply divided society: class and ethnic inequality in Israel, 1974-1991.

Despite the fact that in many societies ethnicity plays an important role in stratification processes, a common view held by students of stratification argues that the role of ascriptive criteria in stratification processes is diminishing, and that the main axis of the modern stratification system is rooted in the division of labour in the marketplace. Despite this, most Israeli sociologists have taken the ethnic and national cleavages to be the main axes of stratification in Israel. This paper utilizes the 1974 and 1991 mobility surveys in Israel to examine changes over time in the association between ethnicity/nationality (i.e., Ashkenazi-Jews, Sephardi-Jews and Israeli-Arabs) and class position in the Israeli stratification structure. It also examines the extent to which inequality of opportunity within the Israeli class structure is affected by ethnicity/nationality. Here it is found that the ethnic/national cleavage in Israel appears to have played a less important role over time in the allocation of Israeli men to class positions. It is shown that class crystallization processes that result from the differentiation of employment contracts in the marketplace produce a relatively common level of inequality of opportunity in Israel, across sub-populations and over time. Any difference in the level of inequality of opportunity between the various sub-populations would appear to result, in part, from different historical process of, and government policy towards, the three sub-populations.

Occupational segregation and gender inequality in job quality: a multi-level approach

Gender differences in perceived quality of employment (achievement, content, job insecurity, time autonomy and physical and emotional conditions) are examined. The study asks whether women’s occupations provide better conditions in areas that facilitate their dual role in society, as a trade-off for low monetary rewards. Specifically, it examines the association of women’s concentration in broader occupational categories, embedded in particular national contexts, with gender differences in job quality. Utilizing the 2005 ISSP modules on work orientation shows that women lag behind men on most dimensions of job quality, countering the hypothesis that women’s occupations compensate for their low wages and limited opportunities for promotion by providing better employment conditions. However, as women’s relative share in occupations grows the gender gap narrows in most job quality dimensions. The implications of these results are discussed.

Gender Inequality in Job Authority A Cross‐National Comparison of 26 Countries

This article argues that cross‐national diversity in women’s concentration in the public sector explains a substantial part of the cross‐national variation in the gender gap in job authority. Using data on individuals in 26 countries represented in the 2005 International Social Survey Program module on Work Orientation (supplemented by societal‐level information), this study supports this argument. The authors find that in countries with high levels of women’s concentration in the public sector, the gender gap in job authority is wider than in countries with lower levels of public sector feminization. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of state interventions in gender inequalities.

Higher Education: is more better? Gender Differences in Labour Market Returns to Tertiary Education in Israel

Research on the transition from post-secondary education to the labour market refers mainly to differences between academic and vocational tracks in secondary education. In this paper we analyse Israeli data focusing on the transition from different levels of post secondary degrees and from various fields of study to the labour market. We examine three labour market outcomes: employment status, occupational prestige attainment, and job match. Data are drawn from a supplement to the 1983 Israeli Census, which includes a random sample of Israels tertiary education degree holders (vocational and academic). Our central finding is that men who work in female-dominated occupations get better returns than women, and women who work in male-dominated occupations get better returns than men. We discuss several explanations of this finding.

resolute heroes: the rescue of jews during the nazi occupation of europe

in 1927, at the age of eighteen, jean kowalyk moved to the ukrainian village of czortowiec, where she worked as a seamstress. when the germans invaded in 1941, they brought to the village forced laborers to build a work camp. jean “watched the cruelty [done to the workers] day after day […] when i saw people being molested, my religious heart whispered to me, ‘do not kill. love others as you love yourself’”. some time later, she heard a knock on her door. when she opened it, solomon berger, a jewish doctor the family knew, was “on his knees”, put his arms around her legs, and “begged for help”. jean let him in and hid him – along with several others – behind a false wall until the end of the war (1).

Social cleavages, electoral reform and party choice: Israel's 'natural' experiment

Abstract This paper examines party preferences in Israel from 1993 to 1999. This period provides a unique ‘natural’ experiment in that the middle was marked by a change from a single-ballot party list to a two-ballot system that included direct election of the Prime Minister. The paper has two goals: (1) to explore the patterns of social cleavage voting in Israel during this period; and (2) to determine whether the change in the electoral system in 1996 affected these patterns. Contrary to the findings of previous research — most of which used ad hoc measures of social class — our results indicate that party choice was significantly related to social class. Moreover, the effects of ethnicity, class and religiosity on party preferences were strong and fairly constant throughout the period, suggesting that the change in electoral system had little impact on the party/cleavage relationship.

Religious Heterogeneity and Cultural Diffusion: The Impact of Christian Neighbors on Muslim and Druze Women’s Participation in the Labor Force in Israel

This study exploits the unique demographic structure of the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel and their geographical immobility in order to help resolve the riddle why women in the Middle East and North Africa are less likely to participate in the labor force than women elsewhere in the world. We show that, controlling for economic variables, Muslim and Druze Arab women are more likely to enter the labor force if they live in a locality where Christian Arabs live as well. A possible explanation of this finding is the impact of social interaction among people who have different cultural schemas. Female labor force participation is rising throughout the Middle East, including among Arab-Palestinians in Israel, but the tempo of this transformation depends on various local variables, and in this article we identify one such factor, namely, the ethno-religious composition of a community.

Tracking and attainment in Israeli secondary education

The debate in Israel over the role of educational tracking and particularly technological/vocational education is related to socioeconomic and ethnic gaps as well as to educational and employment achievement. Despite the public discourse, discussions rely on research from the past that is not necessarily relevant to today’s system. This chapter intends to fill in some of those gaps and has as its base three empirical questions. (1) What are the factors that affect a pupil’s assignment to the various educational tracks in secondary school? (2) To what extent do pupils change educational tracks? (3) Does the educational track affect a pupil’s likelihood of finishing secondary school and qualifying for a bagrut (matriculation certificate)? The findings show that despite changes in technological/vocational education, socioeconomic factors still relate to tracking assignments, even when the effects of previous pupil achievement are controlled. Mobility between tracks is quite low and the educational track affects chances of completing secondary school and attaining bagrut qualification. Changes over time were also identified. First, bagrut qualification rates have increased substantially in all tracks. Second, the main transfers between tracks today are from technological to academic tracks, which are considered more prestigious. Third, while in the past most Arab Israeli secondary school pupils were in the academic track, today more than half of them are learning in the technological tracks – with many pupils in the engineering track where the bagrut qualification rates are the highest.  Carmel Blank, doctoral student, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University; Policy Fellow, Taub Center Education Policy Program. Prof. Yossi Shavit, Chair, Taub Center Education Policy Program; Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University. Prof. Meir Yaish, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa. 2 State of the Nation Report 2015