Rivka A. Eisikovits

Grandparenting across borders: American grandparents and their Israeli grandchildren in a transnational reality

Families are increasingly dispersed across national borders. Americans in Israel are one migrant group that represents the worldwide phenomenon of transnationalism. Grandparents separated geographically from their grandchildren develop new means of communication with them and new kinds of relationships. This study uses ethnographic interviews with the grandparents of transnational, American-Israeli children and youth to offer an in-depth examination of the experience of grandparenting across borders. We find that grandparenting children who are both geographically distant and raised in a foreign culture necessitates the development of new ways of maintaining relationships with grandchildren. This study considers the impact of transnational migration on the extended family, on those left behind, who struggle with redefining their roles as grandparents and with the sense of being deprived of the roles they had expected to play.

Educational success and long‐term adaptation of immigrant students in Israel

The paper examines patterns of longitudinal cultural adaptation demonstrated by a group of professionally successful immigrants who moved from Transylvania, Romania, to Israel. On a continuum of attitudes towards immigrants ranging from resistance to active solicitation as a function of underlying ideologies, Israels emphasis on nation‐building represents the positive pole. Its educational expression is a professed interest in immigrant children as the citizens of the future. Nevertheless, the data indicate that these immigrants, though not regarded as culturally remote from Israels Western‐oriented mainstream ethos, perceived initial educational encounters as oppressive, alienating, and antagonistic. They used these encounters as levers to achieve educational success. Several conditions for favorable cross‐cultural adaptation of populations on scholastic and social levels are identified.

The cultural scene of a juvenile treatment center for girls: Another look

This article applies the cultural metaphor to a juvenile treatment center for girls. Staff and residents are looked upon as interacting members within a cultural system with a language, values, and a social structure of its own. The possible gains from using an anthropological perspective in the context of staff development of child care professionals are discussed.

An Anthropological Action Model for Training Teachers to Work with Culturally Diverse Student Populations.

ABSTRACT This article presents an anthropological model for training educators to work with culturally diverse student populations. The program is described and compared with some of the other training models available. Its potential for cross‐cultural and cross‐training level applicability is explored.

Coronary Heart Disease among Circassians in Israel Is Not Associated with Mutations in Thrombophilia Genes

AbstractThe Muslim Circassian community in Israel represents a unique ethnic community that has never been genetically and medically studied. One hundred and fifty-three randomly selected individuals (91 men and 62 women, ages 35 and older), both healthy or with a history of cardiovascular disease (14 men and 7 women), were studied in a cross-sectional descriptive study for mutations in three genes known to be associated with hypercoagulation. Their medical records were reviewed for risk factors and history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and thromboembolic events. The mutation FV 1691G-> A in the gene for factor V (FV 1691G -> A), the mutation MTHFR 677C ->T in the gene 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, and the allele G20210A in the gene for prothrombin (PT 20210G -> A) were studied. The mutation FV 1691G -> A was observed in a heterozygous form in 1.3% of 153 studied individuals, while the PT 20210G -> A allele was identified in a heterozygous form in 6.5%. No individual was found homozygous for either of these two mutations. The MTHFR C677T mutation was present in 42.8% of the studied population in a heterozygous form and in 8.6% in a homozygous form. Serum homocysteine, folate, and B12 levels were studied among individuals heterozygous and homozygous for the MTHFR C677T mutation. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of all three mutations between individuals affected with CVD or other forms of thromboembolic disease and healthy individuals. This is the first report of a medical condition and its genetic background among Circassians. The high prevalence of CVD among Circassians was found to be etiologically unrelated to the three mutations studied in the genes for factor V, MTHFR, and prothrombin.

Adolescents, Parents, and Residential School in Intercultural Transition: One Story from Three Angles

The education of immigrant youth in residential settings provides an alternative framework that offers solutions for some of the urgent problems of families in cultural transition. This paper focuses on a previously neglected area of research, namely, the trilateral relations between immigrant parents, their adolescent offspring, and the professional staff of such residential institutions in the Israeli context. The study probes the mutual perceptions of shifting intra-family liaisons and the views of the educational staff regarding the perception of its role as a mediator between immigrant parents and their children.

Second generation identities: The case of transnational young females of Russian descent in Israel:

The present paper explores the transnational orientation of second-generation female immigrant teenagers of Russian descent in Israel and their position regarding these two cultures and the respective part they play in the participants’ identity negotiations. Comparisons are made with findings of two previous studies on gender-based adaptation styles of youth of similar origin, who arrived during mid-to-late adolescence. This is in order to investigate the impact of age at arrival on gendered features of identity construction. Comparative analyses are also performed, with pertinent findings, among additional second-generation transnationals, such as Vietnamese and Filipino in the United States. These serve as heuristics in an attempt to disclose common characteristics in second-generation identity construction processes among young female transnational migrants.

‘You Can't Exactly Act American Here In Israel!’: Identity Negotiations of Transnational North American–Israeli Children and Youth

An increasing number of migrant families around the world maintain strong, simultaneous connections in their country of residence and their country of origin. North Americans in Israel are one migrant group representing this worldwide phenomenon. This study employs child- and youth-oriented ethnographic research methods with children of North American–Israeli transnational families. We present a phenomenological look at their identity negotiations and transnational experiences which straddle the North American–Israeli divide. The article focuses on perceived social-behavioural codes in peer groups of the social environments to which these transnational children belong. We find that the manner in which the transnational children and youth develop and understand their sense of self varies by gender. Their experience of transnationalism leads to the formation of a compartmentalised identity and to the development of skills that prepare the children and youth for effective global participation.

Intercultural Learning among Russian Immigrant Recruits in the Israeli Army

In Israel, where over one million immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) arrived during the past decade, compulsory military service provides young immigrants with an opportunity for acculturation. These youth are regarded as a population at risk, as they both face the trials of adjustment to a newsociety and are in the midst of their identity formation, at decision-making crossroads regarding future life goals. The purpose of this phenomenological studywas to examine howa group of young immigrants from the FSU use their military conscription in the context of their acculturation, investigating its actual effect on their coping in the host society.

“Fostering Moratorium” in residential child and youth care education

This paper highlights the professional socialization process of child and youth care workers from a new point of view, namely, focusing on the existential needs of beginning practitioners for a period of moratorium. The data gathered during an ethnographic study of newly recruited group workers in Israeli residential institutions led the authors to the conceptualization of a new model, the “Fostering Moratorium.”