Editors’ Note

We are honored to introduce our inaugural issue as editors of the Israel Studies Review. For just over a decade, the journal was in the most competent hands of Yoram Peri and Paul Scham and their team at the University of Maryland. Under their leadership, the journal changed its name, transitioned to three issues per year, and enhanced its status as a leading scholarly journal in the area of Israel Studies, providing a scholarly platform to a diverse array of perspectives from multiple disciplines. Yoram and Paul themselves built on the foundations laid by Ilan Peleg, who transformed the journal from a newsletter to a full-fledged, peer-reviewed academic periodical. We are fully cognizant of the very big shoes we have to fill!

The Third Angle in Israel Studies

Relying on theoretical foundations and conceptualizations in the literature on government–Third Sector relations, this article examines the motives and outcomes that impacted the relations between voluntary non-governmental entities and government organs after the State of Israel was established. Using the typology primarily of Jennifer Coston, in addition to those of Dennis Young and Adil Nagam, the article concentrates on three case studies reflecting those relations: disabled veterans and demobilized soldiers, immigrant associations, and the Israel Education Fund. All three cases show that additional actors lay claim to matters undisputedly under the state’s responsibility. The relationships between these parties, we maintain, provide another angle to an understanding of mamlakhtiyut, the Israeli version of republicanism.

Editors' Note

In the spring of 2011, the two of us took over the editorship of the newly renamed, and somewhat reshaped, official journal of the Association for Israel Studies. The former Israel Studies Forum thus became Israel Studies Review. The current issue is the last that we will be editing, after 25 issues comprising over 200 articles written by almost as many different authors, some of whom were chosen by more than a dozen guest editors who produced our special issues. About two hundred colleagues wrote book reviews and review essays, and many more have served as peer reviewers of articles submitted to us for publication.

The Pedagogy of Song

Drawing upon the author’s “Settlement in Israeli History” course, this essay argues that song can play a valuable and pedagogically economical role in Israel Studies and general humanities teaching, in both conveying meaning and initiating students in the art of close textual analysis. In particular, it showcases how the Israeli classics “Anu banu artzah” (We have come to the land), “The Ballad of Yoel Moshe Salomon,” and “Shir ha-‘emek” (Song of the Valley) can be deployed to stimulate vibrant and critical class discussions. In doing so, it also offers detailed readings of these songs and their place in Israeli culture.

Introduction

When the existence of a European Association of Israel Studies (EAIS) was first publicized a decade ago, many believed that it was merely a front for advocacy and that the discipline was an invented one. The last ten years have borne testimony instead to a profound intellectual endeavor that indicates Israel Studies is an area worthy of academic research. Hundreds of academics from all over Europe—and beyond—now participate in dynamic discourse on a regular basis. Moreover, there has been tremendous support from Israeli academics. Indeed, there is an interesting overlap between Israel Studies in Europe and European Studies in Israel.

Innovation in Israel

The past decade has witnessed a growing number of theoretical and empirical studies analyzing the components of innovation; the ways in which it filters into political, social, and cultural systems; how it accelerates; what drives its existence; and its advantages and disadvantages (Seeck and Diehl 2017). This special issue, a joint initiative of the Israel Political Science Association (ISPSA) and Israel Studies Review, seeks to examine innovation in the Israeli political and societal sphere. Rooted in different disciplines, the articles are diverse yet connected to the political world, offering a distinctive preliminary mosaic that highlights the theme of innovation in Israel as it unfolds between politics, society, and culture.

Thinking Comparatively about Israel

Students enrolled in Israel Studies courses often come to class with either firm opinions or little knowledge about the country (sometimes both). One way to address this while training students in the particular disciplines in which they are interested is by emphasizing the use of disciplinary concepts and tools to study Israel in a comparative framework, specifically, by pointing out the similarities and differences between Israel and other states. An effective epistemological approach to this end is the use of discussion questions to structure class conversations. This article demonstrates the usefulness of such an approach by looking at three main concepts in Political Science—the state, democracy, and liberal democracy.