Aspects of organizational culture and gender have been considerably researched in the last two decades, but the divide pointed out by Kanter between research and theory of the domain of work and of the domain of family remains robust. This study, set at the interface between family and work, seeks to expand our knowledge in this field by examining the effect of certain characteristics in the organizational culture of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — as a work organization and a social institution — on the gender division of roles in the families of both men and women serving in the IDF. The study’s main conclusion relates to the strength of the military’s organizational culture in its gender blindness and its demands on the individual and family. The findings show that despite certain gender differences in the military’s assumptions and expectations of the males’ and females’ families, in both cases the heavy demand on the individual and family constructs family and husband-wife arrangements that differ from the accepted norm in Israeli families having similar characteristics.
In an age of global television which transcends national borders and offers a plethora of international experiences and identities, this study examines the extent to which television in Israel still offers a common forum, and how much its integrative function has been replaced by a reality of separatist and individualistic television viewing. Findings of a 2005 survey describe how cultural identities of ethnic groups are expressed in their television viewing patterns, and more specifically, their news viewing. Several levels of viewing were analyzed (channels watched, favorite programs and characters) according to an Israeli/foreign dichotomy and by a coding scheme of viewing experiences. Beyond demographics and language, cultural affiliations proved to be an important predictor of television preferences. Local Israeli channels still attract much of the viewing yet their role is not equal across groups: for immigrants from the former Soviet Union foreign channels are an important part of their viewing, and the local Russian-language channel serves to strengthen their Israeli identity (e.g., by following local current events). In contrast, in the absence of an Israeli Arabic-language channel, Palestinian Israelis depend more heavily on Arab channels. Important differences were found in news-viewing patterns.
An Actualization of a Symbolic Conflict: The Arena of Secular “Batei Midrash”
Talia Sagiv and Edna Lomsky-Feder
On the basis of in-depth interviews with participants at a secular beit-midrash (pl. batei-midrash) (study house) we argue that contrary to their declared purpose — to fortify failing intra-Jewish solidarity — the Jewish studies held in these institutions acquire the significance of a symbolic struggle by secular hegemony to restore its dominance. Secular batei-midrash students redefine the meaning of the texts at hand, presenting them as a part of their cultural capital, aiming at the preservation of their relative advantage over other competing groups. Through the study they produce a new secular subject — ”a studying secular,“ while simultaneously confirming the traditional dichotomous distinction between religious and secular. In this manner the students update their cultural capital even as they safeguard their identity as secular, modern and enlightened (as they see it), and also reassert the supremacy of these values in Israeli society.
Belonging and Deportation: African Churches in Tel Aviv
Practices of belonging to place are examined through the story of the African labor migrant community in Tel Aviv-Jaffa during the 1990s and early 2000s. The focus is on the churches established by the migrants: their symbolic and physical locations in the city, and their role in their members' migration narratives. Migrants' practices of belonging to place were most significantly articulated within the church space. These practices, in the context of police raids and deportations, produced belongings which were explicitly temporary, and loaded with feelings of rejection and otherness. Nevertheless, these belongings are expressed in their stories as powerful attachments, as they were experienced through many different, and often contradictory, aspects of each migrant's identity.
Blood Huts (Margam Gogjo) among Women Immigrants from Ethiopia: Gender, Religious and Ethnic Protest
Rachel Sharaby and Inbal Ester Cicurel
This analysis of the gendered, religious and ethnic protest of women who emigrated from Ethiopia to Israel focuses on the present existence and use of ”blood huts“ (Margam Gojo) by women of the kessoch (traditional spiritual leader) families. Every Jewish community in Ethiopia had a separate hut, called Margam Gojo, (blood huts), where ”impure“ women (Nida) retreated during their menstruation and after giving birth. Their seclusion was followed by ritualistic purification after which the women were allowed to return home. During the retreat other women took care of a secluded woman’s family and home, and brought her food. Immigration to Israel and the accompanying social changes have made it difficult for women to adhere to this religious custom, still more for the wives of the kessoch who were, socially and personally, expected to observe them. The first case of distress arose at the new immigrants’ absorption center, which did not have a suitable site. The problem was aggravated when the immigrants moved to private housing, in neighborhoods with a heterogenic population and lack of family and communal support. Three cases of Margam Gojo built in Israel by kessochs and their wives are traced, to learn whether these women use the Margam willingly or under coercion by their husbands, and the social expectations placed upon them. Do these women ascribe ethnic or religious meaning to the Margam? We argue that the women use the Margam to preserve a cultural identity and express resistance to the dominant absorbing culture. The different practices of this tradition in Ethiopia and in Israel imply a syncretic combination of Jewish-Ethiopian traditions and the social reality of Israel. This combination may help explain the new gendered Jewish-Israeli-Ethiopian identity of these immigrant women.
Comments and Thoughts
Book Reviews:
Preface | Tamar Barkay and Amit Kaplan, Book Review Editors
On: Democratic Culture, Volume 10: Gender and Society in Israel \ Yedidia Z. Stern, Tova Cohen, Avi Sagi (eds.)
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On: Women in Israeli Academy: Images, Numbers, Discrimination \ Nina Toren
On: Organizations, Gender, and the Culture of Palestinian Activism in Haifa, Israel \ Elizabeth Faier
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On: Israeli Backpackers: From Tourism to Rite of Passage \ Chaim Noy and Erik Cohen (eds.)
On: Art in Zion - The Genesis of Modern National Art in Jewish Palestine \ Dalia Manor