{"title":"The Decline of the Ideal of Humanistic Education: The Ethos of Excellence in Israeli Education in the 1950s and 1960s","authors":"Rona Manosavich-Barda","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a146","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a146","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses the changes that took place in the young State of Israel with regard to academic excellence in secondary education, changes that reflect the profound ideological and cultural developments in Jewish-Israeli society during that period. The question of what is desirable in secondary education was perceived by the government and education circles alike as key to the optimal training of the nation's future leadership and intelligentsia toward an exemplary Israeli society. The article points to the gradual transition in Israeli education from a long-established European approach to an American approach regarding the ideal of excellence in education. It analyzes this process as it comes to light in records of contemporary public debates over academic excellence vis-à-vis a variety of educational models for secondary schools.","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"81 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129362074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Atheistic Existentialism and Post-Rationalism in the Lives of Atheists Jews in Israel","authors":"Tammar Friedman, Shlomo Guzmen-Carmeli","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a150","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores spirituality and associated practices in the daily life of Jewish Atheists in Israel. While the atheist narrative excludes a belief in God, our findings show a bricolage of spiritual practices and strengthening strategies in times of crisis and loss of control. The article uses the ‘Lived Religion’ approach as a theoretical tool for exploration and focuses on everyday practices that facilitate a sociological examination of individual experience hitherto overlooked. Drawing from in-depth interviews and fieldwork conducted between 2019-2021, our article demonstrates a continuous internal discourse which emphasizes rationalism anchored in an atheistic perspective, and spiritual perceptions that resort to comforting practices influenced from a diversity of theological toolbox, such as luck management, specific prayers, perceptions of faith in a just-universe, and relating to Jewish sacred objects in their homes. Describing our interviewees' daily experiences takes their worldview into account but also seeks to illustrate their ‘lived atheism’ as a whole within which rationalism is combined with what we term ‘post-rationalism.’ Our findings add a dimension to the understanding of Israeli secular identities as bricolage, as well as the understanding of religious and spiritual symbolism in ostensibly distant fields.","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134235888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Menachem Begin, the 'Likud' and the Yom Kippur War: Opposition in War and the Sprouts of Peace","authors":"Amir Goldstein","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a141","url":null,"abstract":"This article seeks to outline, for the first time, the role of the Likud Party leadership, its shifting stance, and its response to the events that unfolded during and following the Yom-Kippur War. Headed by Menachem Begin, the party was established just prior to the Eighth Knesset elections and only a few weeks before the outbreak of the war. In such turbulent times, it became necessary for Begin and his leadership partners together with their representatives in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, to consolidate patterns of action based upon national and political considerations. During the first days of shock and containment battles, Begin and his partners enlisted a remarkably patriotic and statesmanship like support of governmental moves. However, in the course of the IDF’s recovery phase and its transition to the offensive, Likud leaders began to raise objections to the conduct of the war, and as negotiations to end the war were stepped up, open controversy developed between opposition leaders and cabinet members over terms for a ceasefire. With the end of the war and the resumption of the election campaign, heated arguments flared up among party members in consequence of their encounter with the longing for peace that swelled among large sectors of the Israeli public. The affair sheds light on the history of Right-Wing Zionism and the modus operandi of parliamentary opposition during a national security crisis. This article elucidates how a hawkish right-wing party was affected by the war in defining its positions and policies.","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128503135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"David Yellin: 'Ashkenazi' and Middle Eastern Jew","authors":"Tal Chenya","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a145","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes the dual identity of David Yellin as a member of the Ashkenazi community with a Middle Eastern Jewish identity (Benei Ha'aretz) exemplified through his educational and public activities from the late 19th century through the 1930s. The article begins by detailing the multiple sources that molded Yellin’s character, family life, education, social milieu, and Middle Eastern identity with its connections to the Arab population. This is followed by an exposition of Yellin's views and activity with respect to the key issues of his time. The educational policies and decisions he implemented are illustrative of Old Yishuv influences, mainly those of the Ashkenazi community. This is particularly noticeable in the controversies between the intelligentsia of Jaffa and Jerusalem at the close of the Ottoman era, while his views of relations between the New Yishuv and the Arabs clearly reflect Middle Eastern Jewish norms. As the article goes on to show, Yellin’s views on public policy were not necessarily an attempt at compromise but rather an authentic synthesis of early influences on his character, Ashkenazi and Middle Eastern.","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"202 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115731751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Histadrut, the Government, and the Arab Minority in Israel under the Military Administration","authors":"Oded Marck","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a143","url":null,"abstract":"Soon after the establishment of the State of Israel, the Histadrut became the primary, and in most cases the only institution of a non-military kind operating within the Palestinian population. During this period, Israel's industrial relations had clear corporatist features. Power relations in this model are based on the balance in which no side can force its will on any other and a dynamic of compromise that recognizes conflicting interests. Most of the research dealing with the relationship between the Palestinian population and the Histadrut during the first two decades of the State views the Histadrut as part of a monolithic Zionist establishment, acting in light of unified goals of oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population. In this research I propose a more nuanced and multi-faceted analysis of historical relations between the Histadrut and the Government in the establishment of policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians in Israel. The article maintains that these relations were shaped in accordance with the Israeli version of the corporatist model of industrial relations, which comprises both cooperation and conflict. While the goals of Jewish Histadrut officials working among the Palestinian population reinforced Zionist hegemony and the rule of the Mapai Party, in practice they were attentive to Palestinian voices and endeavored to meet their needs and to integrate them in the Histadrut.","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"12 11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128222098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rabbi Herzog, S. Y. Agnon, and the Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel","authors":"Yosef Ofer","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a149","url":null,"abstract":"The Prayer for the Peace of the State of Israel, recited in synagogues in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world, was formulated in 1948 by Chief Rabbis Isaac Herzog and Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel with the participation of the author S.Y. Agnon. For years there has been a debate about Agnon's role in creating the prayer, but only some of the documents related to this matter were available to the scholars. The article discusses a hitherto unexplored typewritten page claimed to be the draft Rabbi Herzog sent to S.Y. Agnon, as a proposal for the composition of the prayer. A comparison of this document with the prayer in Agnon's handwriting makes it possible to determine precisely where Agnon’s contribution lies. The position I express in the article disputes that of Joel Rappel in his book Between Prayer and Politics (Hebrew, 2018).","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132074425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Importation of the American Supermarket Model to Israel, 1957-1967","authors":"Hemi Sheinblat","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a144","url":null,"abstract":"This article traces the story of the importation of the American supermarket to Israel between the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The public debates over the adoption of this retail model went beyond economic and commercial aspects to include political, social, and class struggles among different groups in Israeli society, illustrative of their heterogeneous complexity at the time. The appearance of the supermarket in Israel was both symbolic and real. For many, it symbolized progress and modernization, values originating in ‘American Consumerism’ in the framework of the Cold War to demonstrate the advantages of the American way of life. The supermarket model was established through two main entities: initially by the foreign-owned private company Shufersal and through the Histadrut Corporation and its government-supported chain of food stores. The establishment of the supermarket marked a significant change in the Israeli retail food trade and consumption and management patterns. These included self-service, frozen food products, weekly specials, background music, consumer benefits, attractive packaging, advertising which offered a ‘shopping experience’ that was new to Israel at the time.","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122262755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Living Dead Becomes a Dead Alive: A Discussion in a Key Motif in Contemporary Israeli Culture and Literature","authors":"M. Harel","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a147","url":null,"abstract":"The dead-in-life figure, which is in a state of brain death with a still functioning heart and body is a common motif in contemporary Israeli culture and literature. The article examines this as a liminal literary, socio-politic motif, as well as a ‘symbolic trope’ that undermines the dichotomies of life and death, body and soul, and private and national existence. The article discusses six representations of the motif in Israeli literature in the 2000s and their political significance for Israeli culture. It also presents them as a grotesque incarnation of the Zionist \"new man\" motif. On the historiographical level, the article examines the dead-in-life motif in contrast to the living-dead symbol and to its variations in its presentation in Hebrew literature. This is followed by a discussion of the various stages in the formulation of the dead-in-life motif itself. First, as characters that contribute to the creation of alternate identities and narratives of otherness in Israeli society; then, through their affinity to the possibility of a mostly feminine anti-war protest; and finally, in two later works, through characters who opt for a vegetative life state, which may undermine the critical aspect of the motif.","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"66 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114481054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Menachem Begin in the Years 1942-1944: Between Political Zionism and Military Zionism","authors":"Amir Peleg-Uziyahu","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a142","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers Menachem Begin and the influence of the Holocaust on his decisions and changing political-ideological approach between 1942 to 1944. A growing awareness of the dimensions of the Holocaust led Begin to abandon previous beliefs based on the political teachings of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. A new sense of urgency emerges in Begin's writings of the period with the realization that the political struggle against British rule could not be put off until the end of the war and that political action was urgently required. With the end of World War II and his dramatic ideological shift, Begin made several statements dissociating himself from Jabotinsky's ideology and positioned him as the leader of a new ideological stream of Zionism.","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115814395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Writing a Home, Reading a Town: Three Novels about Bat Yam","authors":"Daphna Levine","doi":"10.51854/bguy-38a148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.51854/bguy-38a148","url":null,"abstract":"According to French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, spaces of stability in human experience are those from the childhood home, where memory and the unconscious reside. However, what if these spaces are remembered from the childhood home of second-generation immigrants in an overcrowded and stigmatized Jewish-Israeli town? Does home under such circumstances function as a space of stability? And what of the town that surrounds the home, is that a stable space or one that destabilizes? This article examines the relationship between domestic and urban spaces in three Israeli novels written over the past decade featuring protagonists who grew up during the 1970s in Bat Yam, an immigrant town. The descriptions of home take us from the spaces of the characters’ childhood, created by people who have been torn away from their native land, to their present homes in a city which is about to undergo a massive urban renewal project. Using Gabriel Zoran’s three-dimensional model, the article examines urban re-construction and considers whether the three novels favor demolition and renewal over urban preservation. The analysis of spatial representation here facilitates an understanding of how the urban environment is imagined and the interrelationship between urban and literary studies.","PeriodicalId":354583,"journal":{"name":"IYUNIM Multidisciplinary Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society","volume":"130 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130316155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}