Forgiveness in Late Life

This study expands the understanding of forgiveness among a sample of older adults in Israel by exploring the contributory roles of meaning in life; stressful life events; and socio economic variables such as gender, age, and religiosity as well as time and agent of hurt. A convenience sample of 225 older adults in Israel responded to the Enright Forgiveness Inventory and the Reker Meaning in Life Scale. An additional questionnaire contained demographic and other background information, including a list of traumatic life events. The results of our study support our assumption that meaning in life correlates with forgiveness on all its dimensions. Furthermore, women tend to forgive more than men, and there is a tendency to forgive family members more readily than nonfamily members, and people who are still alive, as opposed to those who have passed away.     

Southward migration season: new Arab teachers from north move to southern Israel1

This study addresses intercultural differences among novice teachers (K-12) who graduated Arab academic teachers’ colleges and lived in northern and central Israel before moving south to teach in Israel’s Bedouin diaspora. The source material consists of stories they entered in a contest, describing the personal and professional aspects of their experiences. These stories are assumed to represent a type of information that reflects human awareness, highlighting the professional elements concerning all new teachers. Content analysis revealed the principal theme of the stories, namely the three stages of coping with the move from north to south: seeking and finding a job; starting work as a teacher and encountering the realities of a different place; and retrospection at the end of the first year. These three stages are assessed in the encounter with disparity over time from: a personal perspective – leaving one’s home and family, encounter with a different landscape and culture, isolation and feelings of both satisfaction and frustration on returning home; and a professional perspective – encounter with the educational environment and cultural-professional disparities. Assessment of the processes involved in teachers’ southward migration may facilitate teacher intake in the educational system.     

Changing mortality patterns that led life expectancy in Japan to surpass Sweden’s: 1972–1982

Between 1972 and 1982, Japan caught up to and then surpassed Sweden as the country with the longest life expectancy. The contributions of different causes of death and age groups to life expectancy changes in males during this time period are examined in detail for these two countries. Even though cerebrovascular disease mortality rates remained lower in Sweden over the entire interval, the rapid gain made by Japan relative to Sweden for this cause of death was a prime factor in Japan's ending the period with a higher life expectancy. Important contributions to life expectancy improvement in Japan came from declining mortality rates in those aged 55 and older.     

Contribution of Health,Coparenting, and Maturity of Defense Mechanisms to the Quality of Life of Divorcing and Divorced Parents: A Longitudinal Study

This longitudinal study, carried out among 78 divorcing and divorced parents in Israel, examined changes in their coparenting over a 2-year period and the contribution of their coparenting behaviors and defense mechanisms, at three time points, to their quality of life at Time 3. Data were collected between 2007 and 2009. At Time 1 couples appeared in the family court, and Times 2 and 3 were 1 and 2 years later, respectively. The main findings show that (1) both parents' participation and consideration decreased over time, (2) both tension/hostility with the spouse and low level of mature defense mechanisms eroded the participants' quality of life, (3) the ability of tension/hostility to undermine the participants' quality of life exceeded the ability of mature defense mechanisms to improve it, (4) the negative impact of the participants' coparenting relationship and immature defense mechanisms in the first year endured to the third year, and (5) being free of health problems contributed significantly to the participants' quality of life. The limitations, contributions, and practical implications of the study are noted.     

Ethnic Generations: Evolving Ethnic Perceptions among Dominant Groups

This study suggests that generational affiliation is significant in explaining distinctive ethnic perceptions among dominant groups. In Israel, the Ashkenazim, Jews of European descent, constitute the political, social, and economic elite. In‐depth interviews with two generations of Ashkenazim showed similarities in ethnic perceptions, but also revealed important differences among the two generations. For the older group, Ashkenaziness is both an ethnicity‐free norm of Israeliness and a product of European culture performed by both the marking and unmarking of cultural boundaries. The younger group, on the other hand, self‐identifies as Ashkenazi, but interprets Ashkenaziness as a thin ethnicity and primarily a position of social power. This evolution in ethnic perceptions is explained by the historical specific interface of three factors: dominant discursive orders of the era, state institutions and policies, and the encounter with the “other.”     

NEGOTIATING NATIONAL BOUNDARIES: PALESTINIAN AND JEWISH WOMEN’S STUDIES STUDENTS IN ISRAEL

This article examines the intersection of gender and national identity in an Israeli university, focusing on the Women's Studies classroom. Taking into consideration the overshadowing effect of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, we wondered how exposure to Women's Studies’ egalitarian ethos and studying in a mixed Palestinian–Jewish classroom affects the feminist solidarity and national identity of young women students. In-depth interviews with eleven Palestinian and twelve Jewish Women's Studies’ graduates indicate that solidarity between women of the two groups is built around women's issues, such as equal employment opportunities and reforms in the educational system. Considering the solidarity built around women's, as opposed to feminist, issues, it seems that national differences override the potential for a feminist solidarity.     

Help-seeking among Muslim Arab Divorcees in Israel

The study investigated the help-seeking of Muslim Arab divorceesliving in Israel. Analysis of responses to Veroff et al.’sPatterns of Helpseeking Scale shows low rates of help-seekingby divorcees of both genders, yet higher rates among the femalethan among the male divorcees. They also show that the propensityto seek help increased with the experience of more stressfulevents around the divorce. The help-seeking patterns of themen and women were found to be quite similar. Both were moreinclined to seek emotional help and advice than instrumentalhelp. Both were more likely to seek help from informal thanformal sources. Both were more likely to seek help from theirfamily of origin than from any other source. Relatively fewdivorcees of either gender sought help from either their extendedfamily or from community or religious figures. The few who soughtformal help were more likely to turn to social workers thanpsychologists. These findings point to the continuing centralityof the family in the support system of Muslim Arabs in Israel,to the decline in the relevance of the community and religiousfigures who were once an integral part of the Arab support network,and to the fact that professional help has not yet filled inthe gaps left in the traditional support system.     

Feminism and Military Gender Practices: Israeli Women Soldiers in "Masculine" Roles

Women's military service is the focus of an ongoing controversy because of its implications for the gendered nature of citizenship. While liberal feminists endorse equal service as a venue for equal citizenship, radical feminists see women's service as a rei•cation of martial citizenship and cooperation with a hierarchical and sexist institution. These debates, however, tend to ignore the perspective of the women soldiers themselves.
This paper seeks to add to the contemporary debate on women's military service the subjective dimension of gender and national identities of women soldiers serving in "masculine" roles. I use a theory of identity practices in order to analyze the interaction between state institutions and identity construction. Based on in-depth interviews, I argue that Israeli women soldiers in "masculine" roles shape their gender identities according to the hegemonic masculinity of the combat soldier through three interrelated practices: (1) mimicry of combat soldiers' bodily and discursive practices; (2) distancing from "traditional femininity"; and (3) trivialization of sexual harassment.
These practices signify both resistance and compliance with the military dichotomized gender order. While these transgender performances subvert the hegemonic norms of masculinity and femininity, they also collaborate with the military androcentric norms. Thus, although these women soldiers individually transgress gender boundaries, they internalize the military's masculine ideology and values and learn to identify with the patriarchal order of the army and the state. This accounts for a pattern of "limited inclusion" that reaf•rms their marginalization, thus prohibiting them from developing a collective consciousness that would challenge the gendered structure of citizenship.     

The Effect of Depressive Symptoms on the Association between Functional Status and Social Participation

The aim of the current study was to examine the interactive effects of depressive symptoms and lower extremity functioning on social participation for a group of moderately to severely disabled older women. The study used a cross-sectional community based sample, enrolled in the Women’s Health and Aging Study I, randomly selected from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services enrollment files for women living in the Baltimore, Maryland area. The participants were women aged 65 or older who completed the in-person interview (n = 999). After adjusting for demographics and risk factors, each unit increase in the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) score was associated with a 0.31 point increase in satisfaction with social participation for the non-depressed group, and 2.04 points for the depressed group. Depressive symptoms and lower extremity functioning interact to affect satisfaction with social participation. Among women with high depressive symptoms the gradient of association with social participation increased sharply with better lower extremity function compared with non-depressed women, where the gradient of association was moderate. The findings suggest the potential value of programs that focus on improving lower extremity function among older high risk groups.