Israel’s Diverse Society: Ethnicity, Gender, and Religion - ABO500864

• Title: Israel’s Diverse Society: Ethnicity, Gender and Religion
• Guaranteed by: Department of Czech and Comparative Literature (21-UCLK)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2022
• Semester: winter
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:0/2, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: distance
• Teaching methods: distance
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: PhDr. Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Ph.D.
• Class: A – Mezioborová nabídka VP: Filosofie, náboženství; A – Mezioborová nabídka VP: Sociální vědy

Annotation

Last update: PhDr. Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Ph.D. (14.10.2021)

The course introduces participants to the essential topics addressed by Israel studies today, primarily related to
the society, culture, gender, ethnicity, and religion of the modern State of Israel. Particular emphasis is placed on
the controversies surrounding the integration of minorities and minority rights regarding the country’s legislation.
The course will also look at Jewish society’s current divisions along ethnic lines and their implications on socio-
cultural processes. Attention is further paid to the interaction between Israel and the diaspora, including disputes
over halakhic practices. The course concludes with a discussion of possible future developments while
considering social and demographic data and the turbulent situation in the Middle East.
The course is accompanied by a screening of commented excerpts of contemporary Israeli cinematography.

Lecturer: PhDr.et Mgr. Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Ph.D.
Venue: ONLINE
Zoom Meeting
https://cuni-cz.zoom.us/j/93859775510?pwd=ampTZXpjSlRXVXY4eEwySzdnNXh0dz09
Meeting ID: 938 5977 5510
Passcode: 824479
Language of instruction: English
Weekly on Thursdays at 10:50 - 12:25
Contact: Centre for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature
Faculty of Arts, Charles University
E-mail: [e-mail] [e-mail]

The course is provided by the Centre for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles
University

Literature

Last update: Mgr. Ivan Kafka (30.08.2021)

Required Readings:

Ben-Rafael, Eliezer - Schoeps, Julius H. - Sternberg, Yitzhak - Glöckner, Olaf (eds.). Handbook of Israel: Major Debates. De Gruyter, 2016. (SELECTED CHAPTERS)
Goldscheider, Calvin. Israeli Society in the Twenty-First Century: Immigration, Inequality, and Religious Conflict. The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies, Brandeis University Press, 2015.

Reading List:

Averbukh, Lidia. “Israel on the Road to the Orient?: The Cultural and Political Rise of the Mizrahim”. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. German Institute for International and Security Affairs, SWP Comments 9. April 2017.

Bar-On, Dan. The Others Within Us: Constructing Jewish-Israeli Identity. Cambridge: CUP, 2008.

Belt, D. „Zapomenutí věřící: Arabští křesťané“. [Forgotten Believers: Arab Christians] National Geographic. 8 (2009), no. 6, 34-53.

Ben-David, B. “State of the Nation Report: Society, Economy and Policy 2014”, Herbert M. Singer Annual Report Series. Jerusalem: Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, 2014.

Benbassa, Esther. “Otherness, Openness and Rejection in Jewish Context”. Journal of the Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (JISMOR) 5. February 2010.

DellaPergola, Sergio. “Population Trends and Options in Israel and in the Diaspora.” The Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), 2011.

DellaPergola, Sergio. “World Jewish Population, 2018.” The American Jewish Year Book. Eds. Arnold Dashefsky and Ira M. Sheskin. Dordrecht: Springer, 2018. 361-452.

Dowty, Alan (ed.). Critical Issues in Israeli Society. Series on Jewish and Israeli Studies. London: Praeger Publishers, 2004.

Fischer, Shlomo. “Two Patterns of Modernization: An Analysis of the Ethnic Issue in Israel”. Israel Studies Review 31. January 2016. 66-85.

Gitelman, Zvi (ed.). Religion or Ethnicity?: Jewish Identities in Evolution. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2009.

Halperin-Kaddari, Ruth. Women in Israel: A State of Their Own. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Halperin-Kaddari, Ruth and Yadgar, Yaacov. Religion, Politics and Gender Equality among Jews in Israel. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, 2010.

Herzog, Hanna. “Women in Israeli Society.” In Rebhun, U. - Waxman, Ch. I.( eds.). Jews in Israel: Contemporary Social and Cultural Patterns. (195-220) Hanover -London: Brandeis University Press, 2004.

Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS), Statistical Abstract. Jerusalem: Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 2017.

Khazzoom, Loolwa. The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage. New York: Seal Press, 2003.

Lewin-Epstein, Noah and Cohen, Yinon. “Ethnic origin and identity in the Jewish population of Israel”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2018.

“A Portrait of Jewish Americans.” Pew Research Center Washington, D.C. October 1 2013.

Rosner, Shmuel Rosner and Ruskay, John. “70 Years of Israel-Diaspora Relations: The Next Generation”. Eds. Barry Geltman and Rami Tal. The Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), 2018.

Scham, Paul. - Pogrund, Benjamin. - Ghanem, As´ad. Shared Narratives - A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue. Israel Studies 18 (2013), no. 2, Indiana University Press.

Stern, Yedidia, Z. “Israeli law and Jewish law in Israel: A zero sum game?” In Batnitzky, L., & Dagan, H (Eds.). Institutionalizing rights and religion: competing supremacies (pp. 57-73). Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Zoufalá, Marcela. Judaismus a ženy v Izraeli. [Judaism and women in Israel]. Praha: Karolinum University Press, 2012, in Czech.

Zoufalá, Marcela. “Judaism and Divorce Practices in the Modern State of Israel”. In Culturologia, 1(2), 2012, in English.

Zoufalá, Marcela. “The Ordination of Women as Rabbis - Prospects of Female Believers in the State of Israel”. In Studia Ethnologica Pragensia, 2/2013, pp. 59-73, in Czech.

Zoufalá, Marcela. “Israel Studies - A New Academic Discipline Seeking its Identity”, in Zoufalá, Marcela - Sládek, Pavel - Zdichynec, Jan /eds./: Židovská studia ve 21. století [Jewish Studies in the 21st Century], Historie - Otázky - Problémy 2013/1 - FA CU, Praha 2013, pp. 19-25, in Czech.

Zoufalá, Marcela Menachem. “Ethno-religious Othering as a reason behind the Central European Jewish distancing from Israel”, in: Haim Fireberg, Olaf Glöckner, Marcela Menachem Zoufalá /eds./: Being Jewish in 21st Century Central Europe. Series: Europäisch-jüdische Studien, De Gruyter, 2020, in English.

Zoufalá, Marcela Menachem. “Mizrahim or Arab-Jews: An Impact of Discriminated Groups on (re)Forming of Israeli Society”, in: P. R. Kumaraswamy /ed./: International Palgrave Handbook on Israel, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021 (Forthcoming).