Mothering, education and culture: Russian, Palestinian and Jewish middle‐class mothers in Israeli Society By DeborahGoldenLaurenErdreichSvetaRobermanLondon: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. ISBN 978‐1‐137‐53630‐3, 225 pp., £89.99 (hb)

Critiquing Israeli Society Through Mirroring in Asaf Hanuka’s “The Realist”

Contemporary Review of the Middle East ◽

10.1177/2347798920901871 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 165-180

Author(s):

Matt Reingold

Keyword(s):

Middle Class ◽

Israeli Society ◽

Foreign Workers ◽

Societal Change ◽

Comic Strips ◽

Political Commentary ◽

Jewish Immigrants

Seven of Israeli cartoonist Asaf Hanuka’s comic strips from his weekly series The Realist make use montage-like elements by juxtaposing distorted mirror images of scenes. While published over the course of Hanuka’s almost 10-year run and addressing radically different topics, the structure and nature of the seven strips is remarkably similar. Each includes the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas to offer a commentary on a different aspect of the Israeli society. These topics include the historical mistreatment of Jewish immigrants to the country, the country’s policies toward foreign workers, and the economic challenges faced by the middle-class Israelis. While Hanuka’s technique provides an opportunity for considering different attitudes toward the topic, these strips consistently take a stance that places blame on Israelis themselves for either their attitudes or their electoral decisions. The comics serve, therefore, as political commentary which through the juxtaposition of images, encourages societal change.

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Book Reviews

Israeli Studies Review ◽

10.3167/isr.2020.350108 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 109-126

Author(s):

Wang Zhen ◽

Alfred Tovias ◽

Peter Bergamin ◽

Menachem Klein ◽

Tally Kritzman-Amir ◽

...

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Middle Class ◽

Israeli Society ◽

Washington Dc ◽

Indiana University ◽

Cambridge University ◽

Georgetown University

Aron Shai, China and Israel: Chinese, Jews; Beijing, Jerusalem (1890–2018) (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2019), 270 pp. Hardback, $90.00. Paperback, $29.95.Raffaella A. Del Sarto, Israel under Siege: The Politics of Insecurity and the Rise of the Israeli Neo-Revisionist Right (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2017), 298 pp. Paperback, $26.94.Dan Tamir, Hebrew Fascism in Palestine, 1922–1942 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 210 pp. Hardback, $99.99.Alan Dowty, Arabs and Jews in Ottoman Palestine: Two Worlds Collide (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019), 312 pp. Hardback, $65.00.Guy Ben-Porat and Fany Yuval, Policing Citizens: Minority Policy in Israel (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 250 pp. Hardback, $89.99.Deborah Golden, Lauren Erdreich, and Sveta Roberman, Mothering, Education and Culture: Russian, Palestinian and Jewish Middle-Class Mothers in Israeli Society (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 225 pp. Hardback, $114.25.

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Military Conflict and Neo-Liberalization in Israel (2001–2006): A Neo-Gramscian Approach

Political Studies ◽

10.1177/0032321717722356 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 66 (2) ◽

pp. 503-520 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Amit Avigur-Eshel ◽

Dani Filc

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Middle Class ◽

Social Groups ◽

Early Years ◽

First Century ◽

Israeli Society ◽

Military Conflict ◽

Second Intifada ◽

Political Alignment ◽

Analytical Frameworks

Existing analytical frameworks for the study of Israel’s political sociology and political economy tend to view the Israeli society as polarized into a neo-liberal secular and peace-seeking elite and religious ethno-republican social groups. The turn to ethno-republicanism following the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000, and two neo-liberal economic programs in 2002 and 2003, exposed the limitations of those approaches. We suggest that a Neo-Gramscian approach provides a better theoretical framework for the analysis of the early years of the twenty-first century. We argue that during the years 2001–2006 a hegemonic project was constituted which succeeded in combining neo-liberal and ethno-republican elements. This project was based on a relatively stable socio-political alignment of social groups, primarily drawn from the Jewish middle class. In order to establish our argument, we characterize the project and analyze the position of the main social groups in Israeli society relative to it.

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Scaffolding spatial literacy: Palestinian-Israeli mothers teach their children to read social relations in Israeli society/spaces

Cultural Geographies ◽

10.1177/1474474020944173 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 147447402094417

Author(s):

Lauren Erdreich ◽

Deborah Golden

Keyword(s):

Middle Class ◽

Learning Environment ◽

University Students ◽

Social Relations ◽

Israeli Society ◽

Ethnographic Research ◽

Literacy Studies ◽

Spatial Literacy ◽

Parent Child Interactions ◽

Scaffolding Strategies

This article looks at how Palestinian-Israeli middle-class mothers, who enjoy the advantages of the middle class yet belong to a geographically and socially marginalized minority, educate their children in and about socio-spatial reality. The study brings the field of geographies of parenting into dialogue with relevant insights from literacy studies. Building on the concept of spatial literacy developed through previous ethnographic research with Palestinian-Israeli women university-students, we analyze recent interviews on mothering and education carried out with the same population more than a decade later. Borrowing Vygotsky’s concept of scaffolding, findings reveal three major ‘scaffolding strategies’ used by the women to teach their children to read social relations in Israeli society: shaping the learning environment, directing spatial proficiency and supporting spatial proficiency. Throughout, we juxtapose the women’s elaboration of spatial literacy as students and of scaffolding strategies as mothers. The study contributes to geographies of parenting by elucidating how parent-child interactions may serve as a context for learning about space and social relations.

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