This article describes results from interviews with Jewish teenagers about the tension between adherence to tradition and commitment to egalitarianism in relation to issues like women in the rabbinate, women wearing ritual garments like "kipot" and "talitot", and gender separation at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. For many…

The current study presents the prevalence of students' reports of perpetration of violence toward peers and teachers among 16,604 7th- through 11th-grade Jewish and Arab students in Israel and examines the individual and school contextual factors that explain students' violence. The study explores how students' reports of violence are influenced…

New experiences, challenges, and opportunities inherent in biographical transitions are expected to foster the psychosocial development of individuals. Our study investigated, first, developmental gains in children's language competence, social support seeking, and self control following the transitions to kindergarten and school; second, whether…

This essay is based on the author's book, "The Palestine Mandate and the Creation of Israel." As the sixtieth anniversary of Israel's independence in May 2008 approaches, that country remains a focal point of world attention. Israel's origins do much to explain why the Arab-Israeli conflict has been so hard to resolve, but also provide a…

Lactose intolerance is a condition suffered by an estimated 50 million Americans. Certain ethnic and racial populations are more widely affected than others. As many as 75 percent of all African-American, Jewish, Native American, and Mexican-American adults, and 90 percent of Asian-American adults are lactose intolerant. Some populations in Africa…

This article will examine educational ideals by exploring the relation between the individual, the collective, and humanity in Kaplan's Jewish and educational philosophy. Generally the goals of individualism, nationalism, and universalism are seen as mutually exclusive. By contrast, Kaplan argues for the symbiotic relationship between…

Barry Holtz' (2003) presentation of a map of orientations for the teaching of Bible provides a certain kind of focus for research, enabling us to ask deeper and richer question about those orientations. This article investigates the teaching of one teacher, in two different settings--more specifically, how that teacher introduces Bible in those…

This paper explores the social and cultural dimensions of individual multilingualism by focusing on a semi-autobiographical essay written in 1917 by an author who is usually read as a monolingual German writer but who was, in fact, multilingual and multicultural: Franz Kafka. The story is about an ape who, in order to survive his capture by the…

Following Bennett Solomon's suggestion of the "integrating individual"--one who possesses the skill and interest to incorporate new knowledge into a larger and unified life-picture--this article explores how recognizing the coupling of the affective and cognitive can influence Jewish education. Emotions help construct our daily perceptions and our…

In this article, the author shares insights from three decades of teaching graduate students preparing to be Jewish educators or rabbis. In particular, she discusses the inspirations for her work, which has been grounded in the study of Jewish texts and a belief in the importance of vision and optimism.

Samuel Huntington is famous for having used the phrase "clash of civilizations." Many other observers of the geopolitical scene have suggested that the reality is more like a clash "within civilizations," and that the response to this should lie in discovering the resources within each cultural tradition that could inform a…

The current study examines group differences in (1) levels of worry about terror and (2) trait anxiety among a sample of high-school and university students, where groups are defined by cultural affiliation, religious commitment, place of residence, gender and age. The revealed group differences in levels of worry about terror point to the ability…

Objective: This study investigates the relationship between exposure to armed conflict and terror events, and an array of mental and behavioral outcomes within a large cross-cultural scientifically representative sample of 24,935 Palestinian (7,430 West Bank and 7,217 Gaza) and Israeli (5,255 Jewish and 6,033 Arab) 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old school…

My study concerns the teacher knowledge of "mehankhim," teachers in Israeli high schools entrusted to promote students' moral, civic, and social growth. It examines two "mehankhim" from a secular Israeli high school who participated in a long-term professional development program in secular Jewish education, centered by…

Children in countries involved in violent national conflicts experience difficult and, at times, extreme events such as spending long hours in shelters, witnessing terror attacks, or having a family member absent or injured while participating in battle. This study explores the moderating effect of resilience factors, self-esteem, and…