The Israel press council: Review and suggestions for improvement

The aim of this essay is to review the work of the Israel Press Council. The essay considers the history of the Press Council, analysing the way it has developed, its work, and how it reached its current status. It is argued that the existing situation is far from satisfactory, and that the media should advance more elaborate mechanisms of self-control, empowering the Press Council with greater authority and equipping it with substantive ability to sanction. R. Cohen-Almagor, D. Phil. (Oxon., 1991); Senior Lecturer, Department of Communication, University of Haifa; Member, Israel Press Council (1997– ); Visiting Professor and the Fulbright-Yitzhak Rabin scholar for this year, UCLA School of Law (1999–2000); author of The Boundaries of Liberty and Tolerance (University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 1994), Speech, Media and Ethics (Macmillan, London, 2000) and editor of Basic Issues in Israeli Democracy (Sifriat Poalim, Tel Aviv, Hebrew, 1999), Liberal Democracy and the Limits of Tolerance: Essays in Honor and Memory of Yitzhak Rabin (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 2000), Challenges to Democracy: Essays in Honour and Memory of Isaiah Berlin (Ashgate, London, 2000), and Medical Ethics at the Dawn of the 21st Century (New York Academy of Sciences, New York, 2000). Dr. Cohen-Almagor is now completing a book on The Right to Die in Dignity: An Argument in Ethics, Medicine, and Law.     

Restorative Utopias: The Settlers and the Bible

The attitude to the Bible is a seismograph for scrutinizing the attitude of Zionism, in general, and that of the settlers, in particular, to their ideological and political worldview. To where in the Bible are the settlers returning? To the Land of Canaan, to the land of the Patriarchs, or perhaps to the Kingdom of David? And what is the meaning of this return? It is not only the land that is basic to this question, but the relationship of the Land of Israel to the people of Israel. In this article, we will mainly address the radical theological facets of the settler movement, not the proponents of Greater Israel. Our article will focus on the replication of settler theology from the first stage of Gush Emunim (The Bloc of the Faithful) and the act of settlement, which in the opinion of the settlers is in accord with the continuation and completion of the Zionist project, to a more metaphysical phase, in which the centrality of the act of settlement gives way to Hassidic or kabbalistic thinking. The models which we present make possible a fresh look at the utopian thinking and radical theology that are nourished by the settler movement and reflect a new, non-homogeneous stage.     

ORAL COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION: A SUMMARY OF RECENT THEORY AND RESEARCH

Editors Note: With this issue we inaugurate a new section of HCR devoted to summaries of research and theory in specialised areas within the field of human communication. Papers in this section will he designed to bring research and theory in a given area together so that both specialists and nonspecialists can determine the “state of the art” in that area up to the time the paper is published. Scholars who wish to prepare papers for this section are requested to contact the editor and make their interests known. Generally, papers for this section will be commissioned. However, unsolicited papers will be given full consideration.     

Announcement

We are pleased to announce that effective this issue, Teresa Ostler, a member of our Consulting Editor Board, will begin serving as an associate editor of The Journal of Genetic Psychology. She will replace Janina Jolley in this position. We wish to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Jolley, our good friend and colleague, for her many contributions to the success of the journal.     

The matryoshka: The three-generation soviet family in Israel

Among the 200,000 immigrants who entered Israel in 1990 were a considerable number of families headed by single mothers. Their most prominent feature was the fact that a three-generation system—a single Soviet mother, her own mother, and a single child—formed the family unit. Rooted in changes occurring in the Soviet family life cycle over the past 70 years, this configuration is uniquely self-contained. This article is an early inquiry into a new family structure that will become part of the social fabric of the multi-ethnic society in Israel. The challenge will be to help in the absorption process by recognizing, encouraging, and facilitating the strengths this type of family brings with it and to plan support networks to substitute for those left behind.A previous version of this article was presented at the Third World Family Therapy Congress, June 2–6, 1991, Jyvaskyla, Finland.     

A Journey between Identities: A Story of Education Students’ Journey to Ethiopia

The qualitative case study presented in this article describes and analyzes the experiences of Israeli education students, who joined a delegation to Ethiopia last year. This journey opened the doors of Ethiopia to the Ethiopian community’s younger generation, most of whom were born in Israel, and to the non-Ethiopian Israelis. During the journey, the participants coped with many challenges and a variety of experiences. They returned home having broken the stereotypes regarding the perception of Ethiopian Jewry, as well as racism, pluralism and relations between the majority and minority groups in Israel. In addition, the Ethiopian participants returned with the renewed identity and the new discourse that had been formed within the group as equal members of Israeli society.     

Psychiatry and religion: consensus reached!

ABSTRACT

In December 2015 the Executive Committee of the World Psychiatric Association accepted a position statement on spirituality and religion in psychiatry. In this contribution the author will (briefly) sketch the background of the development of this position statement, and the criteria it needs to fulfil. The aim of the final result will be explained, and some desiderata with regard to its future will be expressed. The full text of the Position Statement as it has been published in World Psychiatry (February 2016) is added as appendix (permission granted by the editor).     

Editorial: Journal of Comparative Psychology

Both continuity and change typically mark the changing of editors at a long-established journal with extended editorial terms. Change is inherent in any dynamic field and is independent of editorship, but editors have an influence that should be wielded in a fair, responsible, judicious, and scientifically rigorous manner, while inevitably reflecting their own perspectives and values. The Journal of Comparative Psychology will continue to publish exciting, fascinating, assessable, controversial, and well-written reports on research, be the topic traditional, interdisciplinary, applied, or one breaking risky new ground. Editorial standards must be high, but appropriate for various subfields, and as editor the author will try to make those judgments carefully. The author would also like to see more submissions of brief reports describing exciting developments as well as submissions on significant theoretical, conceptual, and methodological issues during his tenure as editor.     

Long-Term successful Marriages in Israel

Long-Term Marriages (LTM) in Israel is part of a larger on-going international research. Our study focuses on two related questions: Are all long term marriages successful and satisfying? Similar studies have been undertaken in the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Chile. This paper focuses on the Israeli results with a few cross-cultural comparisons. Israel adds several unique features to the research: the people to whom LTM applies have emigrated to Israel from 112 different countries, with different cultures and nationalities; how Holocaust survivors are distributed in comparison to the rest of the population; Israel has the lowest divorce rate in the west; family life being a highly valued norm among Jewish people, it will be interesting to determine what keeps couples together and whether the motives and ingredients for satisfying marriages are similar or different from other countries.     

Charles “Erik” Eriksen (1923-2018)

A towering figure in experimental psychology, Charles W. Eriksen, passed away in February this year. “Erik” made extensive original and lasting contributions to both research methods and theories in several areas of psychology, especially involving visual information processing. His research exhibited consistent concerns with experimental methods for distinguishing among alternative explanations and distinguishing perception from behavior. Erik pioneered many research methods now in common use—including converging operations, visual search, rapid serial presentations, the stop-signal paradigm, temporal integration in form perception, spatial cues for guiding selective attention, and the flankers task. He also introduced and tested many theories of selective attention. Erik was the founding editor of Perception & Psychophysics, and served for 23 years as its principal editor. An impressive and unforgettable person, Erik was a compelling personification of “the greatest generation.”     

Impact of Excessive Journal Self-Citations: A Case Study on the Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica Journal

There is an increasing trend towards assessing the scientific performance of researchers and institutions of higher learning in the form of journal publications and the associated citations. Currently, the journal impact factor (JIF) value is the most widely used measure for any academic contents. However, there are growing concerns for the unethical practices adopted by journal editors to manipulate the JIF computations. Recently, a Swiss journal, Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica which has a JIF value of 0.655 in the year 2006 registers a remarkable JIF increment (of 119%) to 1.439 in the year 2007. It is believed that the journal can achieve such a prominent JIF improvement by publishing a single editorial article that self-cited 66 of its own articles published either in the year 2005 or 2006. The journal has been revoked of any JIF value in the following year of 2008. Thus, it is interesting to review the possible alternative bibliographical trend for the journal should the self-cite event has been avoided, the circumstances leading to the decision by the editor to publish such an article and the possible ethical implications or lessons that can be derived from this incident.     

Surrogate Motherhood Revisited: Maternal Identity from a Jewish Perspective

A new bill regulating ovum donation in Israel is set to pass its second and third readings in the Israel Parliament in the upcoming months. The new law will expand the number of locally donated ova available, as previously Israeli women were prohibited from donating eggs unless they were undergoing fertility treatment. Parallel to this legislative initiative, there has been a change in rabbinical thinking over who is considered the mother in a case of surrogacy. Previously, the consensus has been that the birth mother is to be considered the mother, but over the last few years there has been a change in thinking and the genetic mother is now considered the mother. The purpose of this paper is to present the ethical and legal issues from a Jewish perspective in determining maternal identity. The dilemma also demonstrates some of the difficulties in applying Talmudic law to modern problems and the various methodologies used to overcome these issues.     

Genetic Counseling Services and Training of Genetic Counselors in Israel: An Overview

Genetic counseling services have existed in Israel since 1964 and are available in almost all the major hospitals. Given the socialized healthcare system and small country size, genetic services are generally accessible and often free. The existence of founder mutations in various communities in Israel makes genetic testing easier to perform. Yet, the ethnic, cultural and religious diversity of the population has major implications on the design of the screening programs and the use of genetic services. The Israeli Association of Genetic Counselors (IAGC) was established in 2008 and had existed informally since 1989. There are two Master level genetic counseling training programs (6 students/class, 2 year program): Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School (established in 1997) and the Technion (established in 2009). Genetic counselors’ clinical training is largely observational and 2 years of supervised counseling sessions post degree are required for board exam eligibility. Genetic counselors are licensed and lead counseling sessions individually, but currently must work under medical geneticist supervision. This is the first article to summarize the history and training of Master level genetic counselors in Israel. Genetic services, coverage and regulations are also described.     

THE FINAL CHAPTER IN THE STRUGGLE FOR CULTURAL AUTONOMY

This article describes the efforts made by Yiddishist intellectuals to rehabilitate Yiddish culture after the Second World War and turn it into an organising element of the ethnic identity of diaspora Jewry—especially in America. The article investigates the efforts to establish a world organisation for Yiddish culture and make Yiddish the lingua franca of diaspora Jewry. In addition, it traces the renewed discussion in Yiddish journals in America, especially Di tsukunft, on the status of Yiddish worldwide as the language of the Jewish people, focusing on the rising status of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel as a central component of this discussion. The emphasis here will be on the importance that this debate attributed to the status of Yiddish in Israel.     

To the Apple of God's Eye: Christian Zionist Travel to Israel

This article examines a case of travel to Israel which might further complicate the already blurry line between tourism and pilgrimage: evangelical, Christian Zionist visits to Israel. The Israeli Ministry of Tourism estimates that evangelical Christians account for one third of American visitors to Israel. My research investigates how Christian Zionist travel to Israel is both ‘touristic’ and ‘pilgrimage-like’ and how this case can serve to question some thinking about pilgrimage. Finally, I offer yet another definition of what constitutes pilgrimage, which avoids at least some of the particular hazards. A primary goal of the research is to provide more empirical data and deeper analysis for our understanding of Christian Zionist travel to Israel and thus to contribute additional nuance to discussions of pilgrimage and tourism more generally.     

A Teacher’s Life: An Interview with Raymond B. Williams

Raymond B. Williams, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Wabash College, founding Director of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, long–time member of the Executive Board of the American Academy of Religion, and founding editor of the journal Teaching Theology and Religion, has moved on to what will no doubt be a very active retirement. An interview with Williams was conducted by Malcolm Warford to be published in a venue unknown to the subject, thus enabling Warford to capture the spontaneous, unguarded vocational narrative of this private, humble scholar–teacher. After Warford transcribed and edited the interview, Lucinda Huffaker, co–editor of Teaching Theology and Religion, inserted commentary to set out themes and emphases on teaching and learning (desig. – LAH). As an autobiography, the article is both a window and a mirror – revealing both the formative influences in one professor’s life and providing readers with an opportunity for reflective comparison with their own vocational paths and identities.