Jerusalem's Population, 1995–2020: Demography, Multiculturalism and Urban Policies

This paper reports on a new projection of Jerusalem's population to the year 2020. Cultural, social and demographic trends within the city were analysed for eight main subpopulations featuring different ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic characteristics. Separate assumptions on mortality, fertility, and geographical mobility were developed and projected based on 1995 estimates of size and age-sex composition for each subpopulation. The selected results presented here focus on the balance of the Jewish versus the Arab and other population, and within the Jewish population, of the more religiously observant subpopulation versus the rest. The findings shed light on the critical importance of the mutual relationship between demography and socio-political developments. Implications of expected demographic trends for urban planning in a multicultural context are discussed within a broader evaluation of local and national policy options.     

Geopolitics and religion – a mutual and conflictual relationship. Spatial regulation of creed in the Baltic Sea Region

The geopolitical history of religion in the Baltic Sea area shows a development from the time of the Lutheran Reformation of a mosaic of states with very different jurisdictions of creed, from the tolerance under local containment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the strict Evangelical mono-religion of the Scandinavian countries. With seventeenth-century mercantilism, groups of skilled people of ‘foreign’ religion were invited to newly founded towns and ironworks in order to promote the economy. In the eighteenth-century enlightened absolute monarchs, defying both church and bourgeoisie, allowed groups of Catholics and Jews to Scandinavia under spatial restrictions on settlement. In Russia non-Russians of different religions were tolerated, while dissidents to the Orthodox Church were deported to peripheral places. With the Prussian territorial expansion in Germany, more groups were included into citizenship, including Jews. The last states to include groups of ‘foreign’ creed were the early nineteenth century semi-independent states of Norway and Finland.     

THE AMBIGUITIES OF EXTERNAL MINORITY PROTECTION

This article focuses on the special and prominent place that the “Jewish question” occupied in the general discussion about Russian modernisation in the pre‐1914 period, both in American society and in the arena of US–Russian relations. It analyses the role that anti‐Jewish violence in Russia had in effecting a dramatic shift in the way Americans viewed the Russian Empire, which was being depicted by the American Jews and the leaders of the crusade for a “Free Russia” as a barbarous oppressor of political dissent and a savage persecutor of religious, national, and ethnic minorities. American society’s reaction to anti‐Jewish violence in the Russian Empire at the turn of the twentieth century helped, on the one hand, to shape the idea of the American belief that the United States bore special responsibility for carrying out reforms in Russia, and, on the other hand, to place relations between the two countries within such binary oppositions as “light and darkness,” “civilization and barbarity,” “modernity and medievalism,” “democracy and authoritarianism,” “freedom and slavery,” “the West and the Orient.” The article uses a broad range of verbal and graphic sources from the American press and new sources from archival collections. These sources help to illustrate one of the author’s principal tenets which holds that the United States’ view of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire was a result of the Americans’ projection of their own vision of the nature of the US foreign policy. In their official and public discourses, Americans considered Russia’s foreign policy an extension of Russia’s political regime. This study examines US foreign policy as a vital sphere in which national identity is redefined and reaffirmed and gives an opportunity to draw attention to the cultural and ideological dimensions of Russian–American relations, to understand the origins of dualistic American myths about Russia that have proven so enduring, and to demonstrate how a demonised Russia serves to revitalise American nationalism and how the Russian “Other” was used, in part, to construct the American “Self.”     

Thanks to the Germans! Jewish cultural autonomy in interwar Estonia

The article explores the context of the Estonian law on cultural autonomy from February 1925. It argues that the Jewish minority was an unintended beneficiary of the concession granted by the Estonian government to the Baltic Germans whose land ownership had been previously revoked. Unlike the ethnic Germans, who considered cultural autonomy a tactical retreat, the Jews took full advantage of the opportunity to strengthen communal bonds. Cultural autonomy was upheld throughout the 1930s mainly due to the strenuous desire of the authoritarian regime that ceased power in Estonia in 1934 to avoid a conflict with Nazi Germany. As for the Jews, the lack of irredentist tendencies ensured that they could preserve their status.     

Peering into the Abyss: Andreev’s Rejoinder to Tolstoi’s Kreutzer Sonata

This essay argues that Leonid Andreev’s (1871–1919) short story “The Abyss” (Bezdna) is an important and often misunderstood response to Lev Tolstoi’s (1828–1910) novella Kreutzer Sonata (Kreitserova Sonata), representing a fundamental shift in the way that pessimistic philosophy and degeneration theory would be incorporated into the cultural, intellectual and literary discourse of the Russian fin de siècle. For Andreev, intellectual currents were suggesting that civilized society was under attack by forces beyond its control. Tolstoi, however, asserted that celibacy and mortification of the flesh could conquer humanity’s primitive urges. In response, Andreev animated popular theories on sexual degeneracy to reject moral restraint as an option against sexual aggression. This rejoinder is significant for many reasons, not the least of which as an important intellectual segue between Tolstoi and subsequent decadent literary discourse on sexuality. After all, morality was no longer solely resident within religious thought in fin de siècle Russia, especially in light of mounting evidence that moral insanity was the result of hereditary taints and biological regression. Consequently, “The Abyss” should be reinterpreted as an important intellectual bridge between what would be deemed high- and lowbrow literature on human sexuality at the turn of the century.     

Mate Selection and Marriage Decision in Bicultural Society: Modern Orthodox Society in Israel

This article addresses courtship and mate selection patterns of young adults who belong to two parallel cultures: traditional and modern. In-depth interviews with 36 Modern-Orthodox Jewish men and women during their first year of marriage reveal unique considerations for mate selection and the dynamic flow between cultural systems. The findings show that dating is marriage-oriented but within a modern context. Although the study participants used modern tools and concepts, the marriage decision itself was bound to strict social norms and traditional expectations. The decision was based largely on rational reasoning, whereas love and personal needs were rarely discussed. The findings highlight the challenges faced by couples with bicultural identity in their transition to matrimony and can support professionals in addressing these conflicts.     

Personal,Inherited, Collective: Communicating and Layering Memories of Forced Polish Migration

This article concentrates on the specific wartime experiences of Polish émigrés in Britain who were deported from eastern Poland to Siberia in 1940 by Soviet forces. However, rather than considering these experiences in themselves, the focus is on the communication, layering and sharing of these wartime histories. The essay examines how the extraordinary events of war are conveyed in an interview setting; how the Polish émigrés have lived with these memories in their daily lives; the extent to which the children of these migrants have inherited the memories of their parents; and whether there is a wider collective consciousness underpinning the memory of the Siberian deportation.     

From Enlightened Self‐interest to Welfare Coalitions: Overcoming Identity‐based Tensions in the Israeli Welfare State

A common argument in the social policy literature is that ethnic and identity‐based heterogeneity undermines the welfare state. In part, this happens because of difficulties in the generation of broad social solidarity in diverse societies: solidarity which is allegedly necessary for sustaining public support for the welfare state. This study explores this argument's logic in the context of welfare state politics in Israel. Israel would appear to be a near‐perfect example of how heterogeneity strains social solidarity and, in turn, undermines the welfare state. Quite differently from most studies, however, this work's emphasis is not on public attitudes or voting, but on the political interaction between economically disadvantaged identity‐based minorities – specifically Arabs on the one hand and religious Jews on the other – in the welfare field. It is argued that shared interests enable extensive co‐operation among political elites in the welfare field despite religiously‐ and nationally‐based antagonism.     

My life as a statistician * **

This article was written for a keynote speech to present a few highlights of my life as a statistician. It has seven sections beginning with an introduction in Section 17 some prospects of biostatistics in Section 2, and a tribute to J. Neyman in Section 3. In Section 4 is a sample of my work including motivation for my studies on the life table and competing risks, contributions and comments in survival analyses, a solution for Kolmogorov differential equations, and an explicit formula for the n-step transition probability in discrete time Markov chains.     

明清之际耶稣会士对开封犹太人古教古经的追寻

1605年,开封犹太人艾田前往北京拜会利玛窦,利玛窦随后派遣使者到开封实地调查.之后至开封进行考察的耶稣会士还有艾儒略和龙华民,他们坚信能够归化开封犹太人.真正实施归化开封犹太人夙愿的人,是后来首位来豫开教的意大利教士毕方济;延续其事业的人,主要是葡萄牙教士费乐德、奥地利教士恩理格;真正完成对犹太人古教古经系统考察、撰写出最有价值著述的人,是清初葡萄牙教士骆保禄、法国教士孟正气和宋君荣.明清之际,耶稣会士关于中国开封犹太人古教古经的追寻,是为其在华传教活动寻找提高权威性的重要依据.可以说,耶稣会士早期在河南的地方性传教活动,是与寻找开封的犹太历史追忆相呼应的.