The essays in this volume are a contribution to this process of reappraisal, focusing specifically on the phenomena of scepticism and millenarianism, especially ...

Music can reduce stress and anxiety, enhance positive mood, and facilitate social bonding. However, little is known about the role of music and related personal or cultural variables in maintaining wellbeing during times of stress and social isolation as imposed by the COVID-19 crisis. In an online questionnaire, administered in 11 countries, participants rated the relevance of wellbeing goals during the pandemic, and the effectiveness of different activities in obtaining these goals. Music was found to be the most effective activity (...) for three out of five wellbeing goals: enjoyment, venting negative emotions, and self-connection. For diversion, music was equally good as entertainment, while it was second best to create a sense of togetherness, after socialization. This result was evident across different countries and gender, with minor effects of age on specific goals, and a clear effect of the importance of music in people's lives. Cultural effects were generally small and surfaced mainly in the use of music to obtain a sense of togetherness. Interestingly, culture moderated the use of negatively valenced and nostalgic music for those higher in distress. (shrink)

Israel Scheffler has only recently written directly and about religion and education in religion, although these are matters in which he has a strong personal interest. Scheffler's views on these issues are outlined and critically appraised, with some reference to the views of R.S. Peters on similar questions. It is suggested that one of the major difficulties which arise in relation to Schelffer's position concern its account of the balance between ‘acceptance’ and ‘critical search for clarity’ needed on the (...) part of students in their engagement with Jewish ritual. This difficulty brings into focus a numer of central questions which arise concerning the reinterpretive account of Jewish tradition which Scheffler offers. (shrink)

ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Elimelekh mi-Lizensḳ -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Mosheh Leyb mi-Sasov -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Menaḥem mi-Ḳasov -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Yitsḥaḳ Ayziḳ mi-Ḳalov -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Uri mi-Sṭrelisḳ -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Naftali Tsevi me-Ropshits -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Asher me-Ropshits -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Tsevi Elimelekh mi-Dinov -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Ḥ. Halbershṭam mi-Tsanz -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Avraham mi-Sṭreṭin.

ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Mosheh mi-Drogiṭshin -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Avraham me-Ulinov -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Shelomoh Leyb mi-Lenṭshna -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Meʼir mi-Primishla -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Avraham mi-Miḳalyov -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Daṿid mi-Zovliṭov -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Shmelḳe mi-Sasov -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Yeshaʻy. Shor -- ha-R. ha-ḳ. R. Yeḥiʼel Mikhal.

This article probes the politics of the migrant caregiver/citizen-employer relationship in Palestine/israel as it unfolds within the Jewish-Israeli home. Based on interviews with migrants from the Philippines, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka and their Jewish-Israeli employers, I examine how Israel’s ethno-racially hierarchical citizenship regime and the transnational gendering and racialisation of carework manifest in this relationship. I begin by situating migrant women working as caregivers within the legal and political context of Palestine/israel, delineating how gendered constructions of (...) the Jewish-Israeli woman uphold the borders of the nation and paint non-Jewish migrant women as reproductively threatening. I then analyse two common tropes among citizen-employers in describing migrant caregivers. The first, what I term the ‘kinship trope’, characterizes them as ‘one of the family’, obscuring the ethno-racial basis of the state. I show how this trope contrasts sharply with Zionist settler colonial rhetoric portraying Jewish-Israelis as ‘one big family’. The second trope represents migrant women as individual agents of economic development and Israel as a market-driven, neoliberal society that is equally a state for all its citizens. By depicting Israel as a ‘modern’, ‘progressive’ state that is an exemplar of gender equality, this trope again masks the ethno-racial basis of citizenship, as well as gender disparities. Finally, I argue for a feminist approach to migrant carework that accounts for the ways neoliberal labour formations are mediated by gendered racisms specific to a particular state’s racial nation-building project. (shrink)

[1] Pinḳas ha-ḳabalot -- [2] Talmidaṿ (2 v.) -- [3] ʻInyene Elul ṿe-Yamim Noraʼim -- [4] ʻInyene Ḥanukah u-Furim.