Jews in Belorussia's judicial system, 1944–1953

The relationship and cultural transfer between Jews and Belorussians are still rather unexplored topics. This article aims at analysing a historical process neglected by the historians of both the Jewish people and the Soviet Union: the “Belorussianisation” of the Jewish people in the interwar period. It proposes to scrutinise the impact of the nationalities policy on the crystallisation of a Belorussian‐Jewish identity. On the one hand, it is obvious that Belorussian leading political figures, influenced by Jewish intellectuals, proved to be very favourable to the development of the Jewish culture and to a Jewish‐Belorussian rapprochement. On the other hand, this study suggests that the achievements of the Soviet nationalities policy with regard to the “Belorussianisation” of Jews were ambiguous. In the three fields studied – education, scholarship and art – the results appeared to be mitigated and paradoxical. The “indigenisation” policy led to a separation of the Jewish and Belorussian educational system but stimulated the flourishing of a joined Belorussian‐Jewish scholarship. In contrast, the most profound and fruitful encounter between the Jewish and Belorussian cultures occurred in a domain, the visual arts, where the Belorussian government did not set a clear policy of rapprochement.     

Reportage: Romania and its Jewish museums

After the proclamation of the People's Republic of Romania, at the end of 1947, until 1988, about 300,000 Jews have left Romania. Currently, in Romania, the Jewish population is around 12,000–15,000, generally aging. Despite the general interest of the Romanian society in Judaism and the Jewish communities, as the article highlights, there are only about half a dozen Jewish museums, most of them being rather unknown and modest community exhibitions, dusty and decrepit. The article focuses on these particular museums and their collections, but trying to point out the resources and real potential of the Jewish heritage in Romania, envisaging that it is high time to experience new Jewish museums.     

ENGAGING THE NON-ATTENDING SPOUSE IN MARITAL THERAPY THROUGH THE USE OF THERAPIST-INITIATED WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

There is currently rather widespread acceptance among clinicians that conjoint marital therapy is the preferred format for treating marital difficulties. However, more often than not, it seems that the marital referral or inquiry for therapy stems from the efforts of one spouse, with the other spouse remaining uninvolved or resistant. Consequently, engaging the non-attending spouse in therapy is an important issue for professionals working with married couples.     

The paradox of child poverty in israel

Data on the levels of child poverty in Israel indicate that it has remained consistently high and indeed is higher than that in most welfare states. This finding is paradoxical given the fact that, since its establishment fifty years ago, Israel has emphasized its commitment to the well-being of its children and to their welfare. Indeed, this approach has been reflected in a wide variety of social programmes aimed at bettering the living standards of children and of families with children. The reasons for the failure of the Israeli welfare state to deal more effectively with child poverty and deprivation over the last two decades can be linked to economic developments, such as high unemployment and inflation levels and wide wage disparities, to demographic trends such as the concentration of large, single income families among the Arab and orthodox Jewish sectors, and to policies that have encouraged privatization and have discriminated against Arab children. Social workers can play a major role in dealing with these developments by seeking more universal and equitable social policies for children in Israel.     

Battling Against Interfaith Relations in Israel: Religion,Therapy, and Social Services

One of the less studied aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is its demography. On the Jewish side, active steps are taken by the state to encourage Jewish immigration and Jewish births and discourage Jewish assimilation. As part of these efforts, the “problematic relationships” between Arab men and Jewish women from low socioeconomic background have become a high agenda item in public discussions in Israel during the last decade. I will examine here how the diagnostic category “girls at risk” and a therapeutic intervention employed by social services dealing with these couples helps maintaining the delicate balance between Jewish and democratic values. I will analyze these practices as a solution to a structural problem of the Jewish enclave in Israel. Video Abstract     

Experiences of the Orthodox Community Among Orthodox Jewish Gay Men

Sense of community includes elements such as sense of belonging, mutual interdependence, trust, shared goals and values, and shared history. It is associated with benefits for both the members and the community and is believed to be stronger in religious minority groups. This qualitative study describes the experiences of the Jewish Orthodox community among Orthodox Jewish gay men. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 men about their experiences of being gay in their Orthodox communities. A content analysis revealed four themes: community as a home, community as a comprehensive provider, community as a strict behavior regulator, and community as punitive toward gay men. Findings suggest that Orthodox Jewish gay men have mixed feelings about their community; being satisfied with a community that provides for all their needs, but also living in constant fear of the negative consequences they and their families may endure if their homosexuality will be revealed. Recommendations for social work practice are provided.     

Jewish acculturation in late nineteenth-century Russia: the case of Yonah Berkhin

Young Jewish students in the Pale of Settlement have not received comprehensive scholarly attention, despite their impact on Jewish politics and the public sphere in the late nineteenth century. Typically, representations of Jewish pupils and students are limited to the study of small and non-representative radical groups. This paper fills this gap through a contextualized examination of the practices and meanings of acculturation among educated Jewish youth. It focuses on a previously unknown diary by Yonah Berkhin, a Jewish teenager who strove to obtain a secondary education between 1879 and 1882. The discussion of this document adds a critical contextual perspective to the existing scholarship on acculturation among Jewish learning youth in late nineteenth-century Russia. I suggest that acculturation was a complex, multidirectional process. I show how, rather than merely creating alienation from Jewish society – which is often described as a “departure” leading either to a complete assimilation or to “repentance” and “return” – acculturation created new as well as modified existing modes of attachment to Jewish society.     

Significant harm: making professional judgements

Judging whether a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm has become a critical task for professionals working with children and their families in England and Wales. Yet little guidance is available about what the phrase means in its entirety and how it should be applied in practice. This study set out to examine how the phrase was used in practice by a selected sample of experienced health and social work staff. The evidence collected suggests flaws in the general approach adopted by professionals to identification and assessment in child protection cases. The data indicate a heavy concentration of attention on the weaknesses of families being assessed rather than their strengths and on parents rather than children. Problems are identified in responding effectively to long-term, chronic abuse such as emotional abuse and neglect. The study recommends changes in practice based on these findings which have been implemented by a wide range of practice agencies within the study area. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making a Mormon?: Peacemaking in U.S. Press Coverage of the Mormon Baptism for the Dead

In the Mormon doctrine of posthumous baptism, people can be invited into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) community through baptism even after their death. When it was reported that the LDS had baptized Jewish Holocaust victims, this caused an uproar in the American Jewish community. The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Victims deemed the Mormon practice disrespectful and inappropriate. This study analyzes the news coverage of the negotiations between the group and the Mormon church. While such negotiations would typically be ripe for conflict-privileging coverage, news coverage of these negotiations actually emphasized peacemaking. Using the lens of narrative theory, this study found that, in reporting on negotiations between American Jews and Mormons, the press attempted to mend relations rather than emphasize conflict.     

Jewish Family and Children's Services: a pioneering human service organization (1850-2008)

Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties is a pioneering nonprofit human service organization that has delivered services for 157 years. Over the course of its history, the organization has transformed itself from an all-volunteer agency delivering aid to immigrant families during the Gold Rush era to a $30 million nonprofit human service organization offering a full-range of services to adults, children, and families. The history of Jewish Family and Children's Services sheds light on the importance of strong leadership, strategic planning, external relationships, and strong donor support.     

Education,wage work,and marriage: Perspectives of Egyptian working women

We explore young working women's perceptions of marriage and work in contemporary Egypt, when an increase in age at marriage was evident from national survey data. Both working conditions and employment opportunities declined significantly for young women even as their educational attainment increased and marriage was delayed. In‐depth interviews were conducted over a 2‐year period between 1998 and 2000 with 27 young women between the ages of 15 and 29 who were from relatively poor families and working in a range of salaried jobs in three locations. The qualitative data indicate that young women have high expectations in terms of marital living standards. They seek to achieve this in part by saving intensively before marriage when they work, and otherwise by ensuring substantial monetary support from their families. We conclude that rising material aspirations and family nucleation rather than change in female labor force participation drive marriage change in contemporary Egypt. The driving force behind this conclusion is that there is a reinforcement of the traditional values associated with the institution of marriage rather than its erosion.     

Global walls and global movement: new destinations in Jewish migration, 1918–1939

Research often argues or implies that the First World War suddenly discontinued the age of Jewish mass migration and led to increased sedentarism. Indeed, the former main destinations like the USA drastically cut down on the arrival of East European Jews. This did not, however, result in the end of Jewish mass migration. This article will demonstrate that it rather led to manifold attempts to circumvent the newly introduced and increasingly exclusive measures, to a rising complexity of transnational movement patterns, and finally to the emergence of new destinations and Jewish communities all over the globe. This movement, however, was overshadowed and impacted by the almost global rise of xenophobia and fascism. Based on local histories, statistical and legal sources, as well as reports and communications by delegates of Jewish relief organizations, this article presents a social history of the intersection between global Jewish migration and politically motivated migration management. It leaves behind the focus on “departure” and “arrival” in Jewish migration history and elaborates on the relevance and dynamics of transmigration, the dominance of migrant networks and the complex relationship between national policies and migrants' agency.     

Shadows and Stories: Lessons from the Wayang Kulit for Therapy with an Anglo-Indonesian Family*

Therapy with families from ethnic and cultural backgrounds different from the therapist's own represents a particular challenge. How can the therapist be sufficiently mindful of ethnocultural factors and harness these to promote change, while at the same time avoiding the traps of stereotyping and labelling families? In this paper I hope to demonstrate, in addition to the worth of the case study approach, that information about cultural differences can be employed in a creative way by using it metaphorically rather than literally. A cultural artefact, the wayang kulit, the shadow theatre of Indonesia, is introduced as a metaphor for the process of therapy itself with a very stuck Anglo-Indonesian family.     

Stages of Change Theory in Family Therapy for Sibling Sexual Assault

Family therapy understands the benefits of therapeutically supported dialogue amongst family members when there are challenging themes and topics that need to be discussed. This paper is an attempt to explore ways that family therapists can work with family members who are thrust into therapy rather than ‘voluntarily’ signing up for it. It applies ideas from the drug and alcohol field such as Stages of Change theory and Motivational Interviewing. The paper explores how these ideas and approaches might help family therapists to formulate a concept of resistance and to make helpful dialogue more likely. They are applied to families experiencing sibling sexual assault, where they become involved with a legal response that necessitates a therapeutic intervention.     

WHERE ARE ALL THE FAMILY THERAPISTS? ABUSE AND VIOLENCE WITHIN FAMILIES AND FAMILY THERAPY'S RESPONSE

This paper draws on a wide range of research from different fields to document the epidemic proportions of physical violence and sexual abuse in North American families. It delineates the gender dimensions of this problem, with men being the predominant perpetrators of sexual abuse of both boys and girls, and the major physical abusers in couple relationships. Family therapy's lack of response to the problem, and its conceptual inadequacies in doing so, are challenged. A feminist perspective for thinking about abuse is presented and guidelines for working with it are suggested. A course on treating violence and abuse in families is recommended as a required part of family therapy training.     

Reportage: Small exhibits,major steps: four post-Soviet Jewish museums

The small-scale Jewish museums in Chi?in?u (Moldova), Odessa (Ukraine), Lviv (Ukraine), and Minsk (Belarus) narrate the history of once flourishing Jewish communities, and document their disappearance. Their permanent collections, which consist of the private belongings that emigrating Jewish families gave them in the early 1990s, are the basis for their exhibitions. These museums opened in the early 2000s under the auspices of local Jewish cultural and charitable organizations. They are not state museums and lack a solid financial foundation and stable professional curatorial team. Much depends on the personal vision of their directors. Despite both limited exhibition space and locations not frequented by tourists, these museums are important agents of memory and identity for local Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, as well as for international visitors.     

'Idealists Headed to Israel, Pragmatics Chose Europe': Identity Dilemmas and Social Incorporation among Former Soviet Jews who Migrated to Germany

Since German reunification in 1989, about 185,000 former Soviet Jews have been granted refugee status in Germany. Drawing on my observations and in-depth interviews with recent immigrants in five German cities, this qualitative study explores the identity dilemmas faced by Russian Jews who moved to the lands of the historic nemesis loaded with the memories of the Holocaust. The findings suggest that for most informants migrating to Germany (rather than Israel or North America) was a pragmatic decision based on the anticipated benefits from the German welfare system, security and comfort of living in Europe. All but a few informants were secular and had limited interest in the Jewish life, keeping in touch with the Jewish communities only inasmuch as it proved useful for their resettlement. Most middle-aged informants were traumatised by their occupational downgrading and/or chronic unemployment, but many also believed that the welfare aid they receive from the German state is morally justified as a continuing retribution for the wartime crimes. Older immigrants did not even try to narrow a cultural gap with German society, kept to their co-ethnic social circle, and were permanently intimidated by the shadow of anti-Semitism. Conversely, many younger informants opined that past grievances were no longer relevant, tried to adopt some cultural features of the mainstream, and saw themselves as citizens of unified Europe, rather than Germany as such.     

‘Idealists Headed to Israel,Pragmatics Chose Europe’: Identity Dilemmas and Social Incorporation among Former Soviet Jews who Migrated to Germany

Since German reunification in 1989, about 185,000 former Soviet Jews have been granted refugee status in Germany. Drawing on my observations and in-depth interviews with recent immigrants in five German cities, this qualitative study explores the identity dilemmas faced by Russian Jews who moved to the lands of the historic nemesis loaded with the memories of the Holocaust. The findings suggest that for most informants migrating to Germany (rather than Israel or North America) was a pragmatic decision based on the anticipated benefits from the German welfare system, security and comfort of living in Europe. All but a few informants were secular and had limited interest in the Jewish life, keeping in touch with the Jewish communities only inasmuch as it proved useful for their resettlement. Most middle-aged informants were traumatised by their occupational downgrading and/or chronic unemployment, but many also believed that the welfare aid they receive from the German state is morally justified as a continuing retribution for the wartime crimes. Older immigrants did not even try to narrow a cultural gap with German society, kept to their co-ethnic social circle, and were permanently intimidated by the shadow of anti-Semitism. Conversely, many younger informants opined that past grievances were no longer relevant, tried to adopt some cultural features of the mainstream, and saw themselves as citizens of unified Europe, rather than Germany as such.     

A population policy for Israel?

This article focusing on the question of a population policy for Israel evolved out of the invitation of "The Jewish Journal of Sociology" to review "The Population of Israel" by Dov Friedlander and Calvin Goldscheider. The book which deals mainly with population policies analyzes only 2 aspects of policies: those concerned with immigration and with natality. With respect to the immigration policies, it seems to this author that some of the main conclusions are at variance with the results of the detailed analysis, as will be shown. Regarding natality policies, Friedlander and Goldscheider present a systematic demonstration of their thesis that pronatal policies proposed in Israel in 1966 were futile. Patient checking of their data, however, reveals weaknesses and internal contradictions which invalidate their main thesis. Additionally, their neglect of other aspects of population policies is regrettable. In this discussion focus is mainly on the problems of natality policies, since these are believed to be of particular importance for the future of the Jewish people. In Israel considerable investment has been made by the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government for the encouragement and absorption of immigrants. There has been only a small expenditure for the immediate implementation of pronatal policies. Diverting funds from the latter to add to the resources of the former is an unrealistic proposition. The policy of ecncouraging immigration has been and continues to be a basic tenet of Israel and of the Zionist movement. It will most likely be pruned in the future with a large measure of national consensus. Recent detailed projections of the world's Jewish populations show that if current demographic trends are maintained, a steep numerical decline and a further rapid aging of the Diaspora population can be expected. If present levels of fertility of Jews in Israel are maintained in the future, their natural increase may in a rather considerable measure compensate for demographic losses of the Diaspora. Fertility decline in Israel may result in a steep decrease of the world's Jewish population. This possibility cannot be ruled out. Israeli Jews are still rather familistic, and their tendency to marry is still strong. Their fertility is higher than in the Diaspora and in the majority of developed countries. There have been some indications in the past few years, however, that these trends are weakening. If the future survival of the Jewish people and the strengthening of the State of Israel are viewed as desirable goals, then policies must be carefully designed to ensure that the Jewish population of Israel may reach a size and a structure which would help to realize these objectives. Such policies must be directed at supporting the institution of marriage and the stability of the family and at promoting fertility and responsible parenthood. There must be a continuing evaluation of existing immigration policies.