Logo
Forward to a friend Sign up for our
mailing list
www.vanleer.org.il
VLJI congratulates its researchers on recent honors:
Prof. S.N. Eisenstadt delivered the opening address at the annual Nexus Conference in the Netherlands on September 9, 2007. The transcript of Prof. Eisenstadt's lecture, "The Co unarm of Knowledge and Responsibility in Contemporary Education - Between Fundamentalism and Multifaceted Responsible Citizenship", is available here.


VLJI congratulates fellows recently awarded Ph.D. degrees:
On January 16, 2008, a reception was held at VLJI in honor of Dr. Shlomo Fischer, Dr. Tal Kohavi, Dr. Julia Lerner, Dr. Yehudah Mirsky and Dr. Raef Zreik following a symposium in which each of them delivered brief synopses of their dissertations.
  • Dr. Shlomo Fischer
  • Dr. Shlomo Fischer has been awarded his Ph.D. from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Sociology and Anthropology. His dissertation was entitled "Self-Expression and Democracy in Radical Religious Zionist Ideology". An abstract in English is available here.
  • Dr. Tal Kohavi
  • Dr. Tal Kohavi has been awarded her Ph.D. from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Her dissertation was entitled "Between Dance and Anthropology". An abstract in English is available here.
  • Dr. Julia Lerner
  • Dr. Julia Lerner has been awarded her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation was entitled "From 'Soul' to 'Identity': The constitution of the social sciences in post-Soviet Russia and the Sociologization of Russianness". An abstract in English is available here.
  • Dr. Rabbi Yehudah Mirsky
  • Dr. Rabbi Yehudah Mirsky has been awarded his Ph.D. from the Committee on the Study of Religion in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Harvard University. His dissertation was entitled "An Intellectual and Spiritual Biography of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhaq Ha-Cohen Kook from 1865 to 1904". An abstract in English is available here.
  • Dr. Raef Zreik
  • Dr. Raef Zreik has been awarded his Ph.D. from the School of Law at Harvard University. His dissertation was entitled "The Paradoxes of the Concept of Right" in which he engages in a detailed historical-conceptual exploration of the concept of "right" pivoting around the work of Kant and examines its relevance to legal theory. An abstract in English is available here.

Recent VLJI Publications
  • Perspectives on the Advancement of Arab Society in Israel, No. 1 / 2007
    Recommendations for the Improvement of the Arab Education System
    Editors: Khaled Abu-Asbah, Libat Avishai
    With the support of UJA-Federation of New York
    (English)
  • The Burden of Tolerance: Religious Traditions and the Challenge of Pluralism/ 2007
    Editors: Shlomo Fischer, Adam B. Seligman
    With the Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House
    (Hebrew)
  • Migrants and Workers: The Political Economy of Labor Migration in Israel/2008
    Adriana Kemp, Rebeca Raijman
    With the Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House
    (Hebrew)

Recently published papers in English by VLJI scholars
  • Prof. Hanna Herzog, "Trisection of forces: gender, religion and the state - the case of state-run religious schools in Israel" published in The British Journal of Sociology, Volume 57, Issue 2, 2006, pages 241- 262.
  • Prof. Yossi Yonah, "Political Liberalism and Religious Zionism" published in Culture and Religion, Volume 8, Issue 3, November 2007, pages 313-340.

Recent media coverage:
  • International Conference on Contemporary Reform Judaism:
    See Ynet article of December 22, 2007 by Neta Sela here.
  • "Neuland - New Land - 50 Years of the Van Leer Institute" written by Jorg Bremer appeared in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The English translation of this story is available here.




For further details on all programs and information in the newsletter, please visit our website at www.vanleer.org.il or contact Harriet Gimpel, Public Affairs at harrietg@vanleer.org.il

Balances between Policy and Practice

At the Third Annual Conference of the VLJI Economics & Society Program in December 2007, research presented primarily covered the period from 1980-2005. Peter H. Lindert, Professor of Economics, University of California, delivered the keynote address, "Welfare States, Markets and Efficiency: The Free Lunch Puzzle Continues". Approximately 200 guests attended the conference, among them leading public figures, scholars, and the general public interested in gaining a better understanding of general theory and the issues on the local economic agenda.


Mr. Yoram Ariav, Director General of the Ministry of Finance addresses the conference. Prof. Arie Arnon, Director of the VLJI Economics and Society Program chairs the session.
Notably, papers presented by VLJI researchers demonstrated that Ireland had the highest increase of worker productivity over the 25-year period for OECD countries. This was attributed to the balance between macro-economic policy, employee rights, collaborative agreements between business and government, economic reforms, increased foreign investments, investments in education and reforms in the public sector. A paper was also delivered on "Poverty, Education and Employment among the Bedouin Arabs: A Comparative View". VLJI economists called upon the government of Israel to increase allocations for education. Their research indicates this as a factor that would contribute to worker productivity.



Psychology on the Sofa of Sociology

The VLJI research group, Therapeutic Discourse, Inequality and National Boundaries, coordinated by social anthropologist Dr. Nissim Mizrachi held a conference in November 2007. Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, as well as psychiatrists, psychologists and practitioners from the frontline of policymakers in the therapeutic field, including the Chair of the National Psychiatrists Association, participated in the conference. A broad range of paradigmatic viewpoints on the methods of therapeutic discourse and how it is applied in Israel were evident in the encounter among them.



Haredim and Haredism in Israel - At a Crossroads?

This conference from November 12-13, 2007, chaired and organized by VLJI fellows Dr. Kimmy Caplan and Dr. Nurit Stadler represented another step in their effort to create multidisciplinary scholarly discourse on Israeli Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) society, especially among junior scholars and graduate students. The speakers addressed a vast range of issues related to the Haredim, their lifestyle and the implications for their interactions with Israeli society, taking political, economic, historical, psychological, and sociological perspectives into consideration.

For example, VLJI researcher, Dr. Guy Ben-Porat spoke about consumerism as a political strategy in Haredi society, while VLJI library fellow, Dr. Avi Kay addressed the subject of the occupational orientation and expectations of Israeli Haredim. Prof. Hanna Herzog of VLJI chaired a session on "Haredism, Ethnicity and the Socialization Process of Becoming Israeli" which included a presentation by two VLJI researchers, Mr. Chen Bram and Dr. Julia Lerner on the process of Russian-speaking Israelis adopting Haredi lifestyle.



Early Retirement - Market Implications and Personal Considerations Once Over 50: A Symposium on Health, Aging and Retirement in Israel


MK Yitzhak Herzog, Minister of Social Welfare, delivers opening remarks. Left: Prof. Arie Arnon, Director of VLJI Economics and Society Program. Right: Ms. Lea Achdut, senior VLJI research fellow.
This symposium at VLJI, co-hosted by the National Insurance Institute and The Hebrew University, on November 14, 2007, provided a platform for presenting initial data collected by researchers subsequent to Israel joining SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe), a multidisciplinary and cross-national database of micro data on health, socio-economic status and social and family networks of individuals aged 50 and over. Participants and guests were welcomed by Social Welfare Minister, Yitzhak Herzog, Dr. Yigal Ben Shalom, Director General of the National Insurance Institute and Prof. Gabriel Motzkin, Director of VLJI.

The keynote lecture, The Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe, was delivered by Prof. Axel Boersch-Supan of the University of Mannheim. In another presentation, Director of the Israel Gerontological Data Center, Prof. Howard Litwin (Hebrew University, School of Social Work) emphasized the unique nature of this survey: the first to compare data for 15 countries in the same time frame. Ms. Leah Achdut, senior VLJI research fellow noted that the study revealed the degree to which health factors effect the decision of people over 50 to retire. She further noted the importance of the project in evaluating far-reaching reforms which have been put into effect in recent years in the pension system in Israel and the evaluation of government policy on support systems for the working age population aimed to increase participation in the workforce even among older adults.



Not a Dialogue - A Research and Study Group: Russian-speaking and Palestinian Israelis Compare Notes

Among the new research and study groups at VLJI this year is a group examining the junction where Russian-speaking and Palestinian Israelis encounter one another as different faces of the "other" in Israeli society. Unlike a "dialogue group," the 15 Russian-speaking and Palestinian Israelis in this group - sociologists, anthropologists, historians, scholars of philosophy and researchers of folklore - convene for the purpose of study and research to enrich public understanding and institutional consideration of the two groups, introducing the perspectives of two different marginal points of view into the discourse on Israeli society.

Together, the two groups constitute approximately 40% of Israeli society. The formidable distance between them and their irrelevance to one another is a matter of appearances only, claim Dr. Julia Lerner and Ms. Vera Reider who established this group. Both groups define where they locate themselves in relation to the boundaries of Israeli society while relating to one another by genuine encounter (in cities like Lod, Carmiel and Nazareth) or symbolic encounter in arenas of discourse (in politics and the media). One purpose of their research is to study the roots of their mutual hostility and the forces of rejection and attraction between them, unmediated by the central hegemony.

Their research will comparatively address various general and particular related issues such as a range of nationalist expressions by Palestinians and Russian-speakers in Israel, their views of education and knowledge, their respective mutual stereotypes, encounters in the workplace, the higher education arena, programs for weak populations and intermarriage among them. Likewise, they will examine their respective relative location in relation to the Jewish-Israeli center of the society and how they conduct themselves within and in relation to the state, its institutions, demographic policies and the main ethos of Israeli society.



From Personal Loss to Identification with a Social Category - Widowhood in the Mediterranean Context

A conference on this subject was organized in December 2007 at VLJI by Prof. Hanna Herzog, Dr. Anat Lapidot-Firilla and was coordinated by Ms. Kinneret Lahad. The conference brought together experts from the fields of Law, Social Work, History, Sociology, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Literature and Public Policy. Conference papers sought to examine widowhood as a long-term psychological and social status and not merely a legal one as viewed by the states in the Mediterranean region and in various communities. In addition, the conference dealt with the ways in which widows learned to bargain with traditional gender roles and their enforcement agencies.

Papers on the history of widows in the Jewish biblical period and texts were followed by presentations on narratives of widowhood in the early period of Islam and in the South of Europe. Other papers dealt with the ways in which the attitudes toward widows were built and constructed in the modern state framework and how widows today find ways of support through the internet, with the case of IDF widows as an example.



Conference and workshop programs


Rabbi Eric Yoffe, President, World Union for Reform Judaism (New York) delivers closing remarks at the conference on Contemporary Reform Judaism. Next to him, Dr. Avinoam Rosenak, VLJI fellow and conference coordinator, and Rabbi Prof. Naftali Rothenberg, VLJI chair of Jewish Culture and Identity.
  • The program of the two-day international conference, "Contemporary Reform Judaism: Sociology, Education and Theology" held at VLJI in December 2007, appears on our website.
  • A VLJI workshop was conducted in New York in October 2007 in cooperation with the UJA Federation of New York on Jewish and Zionist Perspectives on the Arab Minority in Israel. A copy of the program is available here.
  • Getting Our Groove Back by Scott Shay of the Wall Street community and a prominent lay leader of the UJA Federation, addresses his concerns about the future of the Jewish community in the United States. A special workshop in January 2008 at VLJI with Israeli sociologists, demographers and other scholars, who met with Mr. Shay, discussed the issues raised in his book.