Hasidism in Tsarist Russia: Historical and Social Aspects

It is difficult to ascribe to Hasidism sets of distinctive regional characteristics, because Hasidism transcended both communal and national boundaries. Aware of this problem, the authors of this article seek to characterize Hasidism in Russia, while eschewing the essentialist assumption that Hasidism in Russia had a Russian character. The article describes Hasidism in Tsarist Russia from several perspectives. From an internal Jewish perspective, it discusses features of dynasties of hasidic leaders and the courts they lived in. This is followed by a discussion of relations between hasidic centers (the courts) and hasidic peripheries (the local communities). Relations between Hasidism and the Russian administration are also analyzed, as are the various ways in which hasidim in Russia adapted to the challenges of modernity, while hasidic leaders in Galicia and Hungary were usually more hostile towards modernization. Finally, the article describes the consequences of the upheavals of the First World War, Bolshevik Revolution, and the Civil Wars that followed. During these dramatic events and in their aftermath, the majority of the hasidic leaders in Russia moved to other places in Europe, America, and Palestine, and only some of them remained under the Soviet regime.     

Treatment seeking for posttraumatic stress in Israel Defense Forces veterans deployed in the Second Lebanon War (2006) and “Operation Cast Lead” in the Gaza Strip (2009): a comparative study

Background and objectives: The goal of the study was to determine the long-term prevalence of combat-related treatment seeking and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Israel’s veterans deployed to the Second Lebanon War (2006) and “Operation Cast Lead” in the Gaza Strip (2009).

Methods: The prevalence of treatment seeking and DSM-IV-TR diagnoses among Israel Defense Force (IDF) veterans was assessed using seven and five year’s surveillance and records. The whereabouts and combat exposure of veterans during the war was determined based on the IDF’s Operations Directorate records.

Results: Overall prevalence of treatment seeking was 1.32% and 0.38% in the Second Lebanon War and “Operation Cast Lead”, respectively. The prevalence of treatment-seeking veterans from the Second Lebanon War and in “Operation Cast Lead” was significantly higher in soldiers deployed to high combat-exposure zones (2.19% and 3.1%, respectively), relative to low combat-exposure zones (0.24% and 0.06%, respectively), and relative to soldiers deployed elsewhere (0.26% and 0.02%, respectively). PTSD prevalence was similar among treatment-seeking veterans deployed in high combat-exposure zones in both combats.

Conclusions: There is a gap of anywhere between 3% and 11% between treatment seeking by IDF veterans following war deployment and the actual prevalence of PTSD in this soldier population.     

The effect of set on encoding and rehearsal processes in memory

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of manipulating S’s preparation for what he will see on a given trial on his ability to mentally keep track of the number of occurrences of each of several different stimuli in a sequence. It was found that, when the same stimuli were used from trial to trial, performance was significantly better than when different stimuli were used. Foreknowledge of the specific stimuli to be used on a given trial did little to improve performance per se, but it did reduce labeling errors. The results were discussed in terms of the “spatial window” model of keeping-track performance.     

Some methodological considerations in thermal biofeedback training

This article attempts to provide guidelines for acceptable practice in thermal biofeedback training. Criteria are set forth in three major areas: the nature of the interaction between the experimenter/therapist and subject/patient, training procedures, and the physical characteristics of the temperature sensing and feedback system.     

Ethical Issues in Tissue Banking for Research: A Brief Review of Existing Organizational Policies

Based on a general review of international, representative tissue banking policies that were described in the medical, ethics, and legal literature, this paper reviews the range of standards, both conceptually and in existing regulations, relevant to four main factors:(1) commercialization, (2) confidentiality, (3) informed consent, and (4) quality of research. These four factors were selected as reflective of some of the major ethical considerations that arise in the conduct of tissue banking research. The authors emphasize that any policy or ethical guidelines designed to regulate tissue bank research should address all four factors. Whenever this sort of research is conducted between several institutions or several countries, the paper suggests that the relevant entities work collaboratively to harmonize their standards.     

The effects of social anxiety and depression on the evaluation of facial crowds

Facial crowds of emotion connoting approval or criticism are linked to the fears of socially anxious individuals. We examined evaluation ratings and decision latencies of mixed facial displays by individuals with generalized social phobia (GSPs, n = 18), individuals with comorbid depression and GSP (COMs, n = 18), and normal controls (CONs, n = 18). First, we postulated that GSPs will assign more negative ratings to predominantly disapproving audiences as compared to CONs, and that GSPs will be faster in their evaluation of these audiences (negative bias hypothesis). Second, we expected depression, but not social anxiety, to be associated with diminished positive evaluation of audiences containing predominantly happy expressions and with a slower processing of such positive cues (the impaired positivity hypothesis). Results supported the negative bias hypothesis, and provided partial support for the impaired positivity hypothesis. The importance of examining the processing of complex non-verbal cues in social anxiety and in depression is discussed.