Nationalism and Immigration

Can states' immigration policies favor groups with whom they are culturally and historically tied? I shall answer this question here positively, but in a qualified manner. My arguments in support of this answer will be of distributive justice, presupposing a globalist rather than a localist approach to justice. They will be based on a version of liberal nationalism according to which individuals can have fundamental interests in their national culture, interests which are rooted in freedom, identity, and especially in ensuring the meaningfulness of their endeavor. The prevalent means for protecting these interests is the right to national self-determination. Many believe that this right should be conceived of as a right to a state. I shall show that this conception of self-determination implies purely nationalist immigration policies. I shall present reasons for rejecting such policies, reasons which together with other reasons form a strong case against the statist interpretation of the right to self-determination. They form a strong case in favor of understanding self-determination as a bundle of privileges to which nations are entitled within the states dominating their homelands. Some of these privileges have to do with immigration policies. I shall argue for three principles which should regulate these immigration privileges and discuss the relation between them and Israel's Law of Return.     

Stress-corrosion cracking in YBa2Cu3O7−x ceramic superconductor

Abstract

Thin-foil transmission electron microscopy specimens of orthorhombic YBa²Cu³O^7?x subjected to residual elastic strains have shown slow crack growth in an atmosphere with low moisture content. Microcracks, initiated by amorphization at the strained edges, propagate alternately along (110) twin boundaries and (001) stacking faults, where strain energy is accumulated locally. The formation of carbon-rich amorphous layers along the strained lattice planes, followed by residual stress-assisted crack propagation, resembles stress-corrosion cracking in this ceramic superconductor.     

Memory functioning as related to developmental changes in bases of organization

Two series of object drawings classifiable according to either color or conceptual category were used: one to assess dimensional salience and the other to assess free recall, clustering, and cued recall. Parallel shifts in dimensional salience and the dominance of these dimensions as organizing principles in memory were investigated in nursery school and second- and fifth-grade children. Nursery school children manifested color salience, whereas the two older groups manifested conceptual salience. Above chance clustering according to the salient dimension in each age group and some increase in the size of organization units as a function of age were found. Within age groups, neither amount nor dimension or clustering were related to amount of recall. In each group, more words were accessed by salient than by nonsalient cues. Effectiveness of nonsalient cues depended on the order of presentation for young children, whereas for older chilren they were ineffective regardless of order. Implications of these findings for encoding and retrieval processes in children were discussed.     

Evolving Concepts of Evolution: The Case of Shame and Guilt

Evolutionary biologists often refer to a distinction between ultimate and proximate explanation. On the one hand, such a distinction points to important issues for social psychologists, especially in terms of what it means to say that people experience emotions such as guilt and shame. On the other hand, the value of the ultimate/proximate distinction depends on how it is understood because its application can be problematic. We illustrate the use and possible misuse of the distinction in terms of its application to the differentiation of the self‐conscious emotions guilt and shame.     

On the Spot Ethical Decision-Making in CBRN (Chemical,Biological, Radiological or Nuclear Event) Response

First responders to chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) events face decisions having significant human consequences. Some operational decisions are supported by standard operating procedures, yet these may not suffice for ethical decisions. Responders will be forced to weigh their options, factoring-in contextual peculiarities; they will require guidance on how they can approach novel (indeed unique) ethical problems: they need strategies for “on the spot” ethical decision making. The primary aim of this paper is to examine how first responders should approach on the spot ethical decision-making amid the stress and uncertainty of a CBRN event. Drawing on the long-term professional CBRN experience of one of the authors, this paper sets out a series of practical ethical dilemmas potentially arising in the context of a large-scale chemical incident. We propose a broadly consequentialist approach to on the spot ethical decision-making, but one which incorporates ethical values and rights as “side-constraints”.     

Contact theory in the workplace: The case of Jewish–Arab contact in Israel

Contact theory is a fundamental theory in social psychology, suggesting that contact between antagonistic groups can reduce prejudice and stereotypes. The current study applies former studies in evaluating a specific case of the connection between contact and attitudes toward minorities in work contexts. A survey was conducted using 873 Israeli Jews in order to assess their attitudes toward the Arab population in Israel and Arabs' work characteristics. The results indicated that the connection between intergroup contact and attitudes is complex. On the one hand, workplace contact between Israeli Jews and Arabs was significantly correlated with the willingness to meet Arabs in and outside the workplace and to perceive Arabs in a less threatening way. However, contact during work was not significantly correlated with the participants' general attitude toward the Arab population. In addition, contact during work was not found to be significantly correlated with the participants' perceptions about Arabs' personality traits or work characteristics. The results of this study also suggest that attitudes toward Arabs' work characteristics have a strong connection to other dimensions of attitudes toward Arabs, even more than the impact of contact during work.     

Spirituality, depression, and loneliness among Jewish seniors residing in New York City

This article reports the results of research that examined a randomized group of 118 Jewish seniors who were clients of one of three Jewish social service agencies in New York City. They were interviewed by four Clinical Pastoral Education residents at the Jewish Institute for Pastoral Care. During the interview, participants were asked to respond to the questions contained in the Brief Depression Scale, Version 3 of the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and the Index of Core Spiritual Experience--INSPIRIT. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the depression and loneliness scores, r(116) = .56, p < .001. Spirituality was not correlated with either of these scales. Both depression and loneliness were significantly higher among women, among people who had physical impairments and those who had been victims of Nazi persecution. Depression and loneliness were inversely related to participants' ability to venture out of their house and to their relationship with their families. Having a sense of meaning or purpose in life was also inversely related to depression and loneliness. Spirituality tended to be higher among women, those participants, with more years of religious education, and those with physical impairments, but only the gender effect was statistically significant.     

HALAKHIC CHANGE VS. DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE

Many Orthodox Jews, especially the Ultra-Orthodox or “Haredim,” insist that both the Written and Oral Torah as we know them were given at Sinai and that any mention of halakhic development is heresy. This article seeks to highlight change in American Orthodox Judaism from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. The first part deals with cultural change. A series of changes in the halakhah-related sphere that are deemed to be religiously acceptable in the halakhah-observant community are then presented. The issue of the influence of values on the halakhic decision-making process is briefly discussed, after which a number of possibilities—sociological and demographic—are raised as explanations of the basis for the then-Chief Rabbi Brodie's veto of the appointment of Rabbi Louis Jacobs as Principal of Jews’ College and his subsequent refusal to reappoint Jacobs as Minister of London's New West End Synagogue.     

Stress conditioning in mice: alterations in immunity and tumor growth

The neuroendocrine and autonomic nervous systems are known regulators of brain-immune interaction. However, the functional significance of this interaction under stress is not fully understood. We investigated the effect of a stress paradigm by applying electric foot shock followed by three reminders, on behavior, immune parameters, and lymphoma tumor growth. Male C3H mice were divided into two groups: Group 1-exposed to electric foot shock followed by three reminders, and Group 2-untreated (controls). Sets of mice underwent the elevated plus maze, staircase, and hot plate tests. After foot shock, natural killer (NK) cell activity, and lymphocyte proliferation were measured. In addition, sets of mice were either vaccinated twice with B-cell lymphoma 38C-13 immunoglobulin for determination of anti-idiotype (Id) antibodies in sera, or inoculated with tumor cells and monitored for tumor development and survival time. Mice exposed to electric foot shock followed by the three reminders had higher NK cell activity, levels of anti-Id antibodies, and a higher proliferation rate of splenocytes in response to mitogens, than the control mice. The exposed mice also showed attenuated tumor growth. Thus, the stress paradigm inhibited tumor development and lead to some immune changes that were not accompanied by behavioral changes.