In this course we examine Israeli society and culture through a focus on women, their status and their roles within the private and public spheres. Using a variety of texts and media we will investigate the social influences on the conception and construction of gender, from the egalitarianism of the early settlers to the militarism of the contemporary nation-state. All texts are available in English.
Requirements :
Class participation and ten weekly (one page, well written) thought
papers [20%], two 3-5 page papers due 9/28 & 11/21 [20% each], and
final [40%].
Students who have signed up for this course as JNE 350 Israeli Culture
and Society are required to write a 12-15 page research paper &
class presentation on an approved topic. Proposals (topic, preliminary
outline and bibliography) are due by 10/5. Final papers are due by 11/30.
JNE 350 requirements: class participation and thought papers [20%];
research paper and presentation [40%]; and final [40%].
All assignments must be completed in order to receive credit for the course. Readings are to be completed before the class for which they are assigned. Papers are due on time.
Please review the Statement of Student Academic Integrity. If you have
any questions please feel free to ask me or at the Writing Center. Do not
leave yourself open to charges of plagiarism. For more information see
http://restech.wustl.edu/writingcenter/writingcenter.htm
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/writing/plagsep.html
Students seeking accommodation for disabilities or special conditions should contact the DRC at the beginning of the year. http://restech.wustl.edu/~drc/index.html
Texts
Books are available for purchase from the campus bookstore, your on-line
company of choice, and at the reserve desk in Olin library.
Deborah Bernstein, Pioneers and Homemakers. Albany, NY: SUNY, 1992.
Also available as an e-book from netlibrary: http://www.netlibrary.com/summary.asp?ID=7317.
(Please note restrictions.)
Susan Sered, What Makes Women Sick: Maternity, Modesty and Militarism
in Israeli Society. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2000.
Barbara Swirski and Marilyn Safir, Calling the Equality Bluff: Women
in Israel. New York: Teachers College Press, 1993.
Articles on reserve.
Occasional pieces on the internet.
Optional texts are listed below.
Link to photography exhibit: "Women in Israel" http://www.newyork.israel.org/consulate/press/exhib/co.women.htm
Schedule
WEEK 1 INTRODUCTION
August 31 Sue Fishkoff, "The Status of Women in Israel: Myth vs. Reality,"
http://www.naamat.org/magazine/myth.html
See also http://www.adva.org/women2000.html
WEEK 2 LEGAL STATUS
Sep 5 Lesley Hazleton, "Three Myths," Israeli Women. New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1977; pp.15-37.
Sep 7 Frances Raday, “The Concept of Gender Equality in a Jewish State,”
Swirski and Safir, pp.18-28.
Frances Raday, “Women, Work and the Law,” Swirski and Safir, pp.178-86
WEEK 3 - HALUTZOT (PIONEERS)
Sep 12 Dafna Izraeli, "The women workers' movement: first wave feminism
in pre-state Israel" in Bernstein, pp.183-210.
http://www.netlibrary.com/summary.asp?ID=7317
optional:
Sylvie Fogiel-Bijaoui, "On the Way to Equality?: The struggle for women's
suffrage in the Jewish Yishuv, 1917-1926," Bernstein, pp.261-282
http://www.netlibrary.com/summary.asp?ID=7317
Sep 14 Margarit Shilo, "The women's farm at Kinneret, 1911- 1917: A
Solution to the Problem of the Working Woman in the Second Aliyah," Bernstein,
pp.119-144.
http://www.netlibrary.com/summary.asp?ID=7317
Deborah Bernstein and Musia Lipman, "Fragments of life: From the Diaries
of Two Young Women," Bernstein, pp.145-164.
http://www.netlibrary.com/summary.asp?ID=7317
optional: Ran Aaronsohn, "Through the eyes of a settler's wife: letter
from the Moshava," Bernstein, pp.29-48.
http://www.netlibrary.com/summary.asp?ID=7317
WEEK 4 KIBBUTZ
Sep 19 Sylvie Fogiel-Bijaoui, "From revolution to motherhood: the case
of women in the kibbutz, 1910-1948," Bernstein, pp.211-234.
http://www.netlibrary.com/summary.asp?ID=7317
Personal Dimension, “Motherhood: An Early Kibbutz Experience," in Swirski
and Safir, pp.268-269.
Optional: Rae Lesser- Blumberg, "Kibbutz Women: From the fields of
revolution to the laundries of discontent," Women in the World, Lynne B.
Iglitzin and Ruth Ross, eds. Santa Barbara, CA: Clio Books, 1976, pp.319-334.
Sep 21 Marilyn Safir, "Was the kibbutz an experiment in Social and Sexual
Equality?" Swirski and Safir, 251-260.
Palgi, "Motherhood in the Kibbutz" Swirski and Safir pp. 261-167.
WEEK 5
Sep 26
Ilsa Schuster & Janette Hartz-Karp, "Kinder. Kueche, Kibbutz,”
Anthropological Quarterly. Vol.59 No.4 (October 1986), pp.191-204.
Shepher and Tiger, "Female Hierarchies in a Kibbutz Community," Female
Hierarchies. Edited by Lionel Tiger and Heather T. Fowler. Chicago: Beresford
Book Service, 1978, pp.225-246.
Sep 28 "Full Circle" FIRST PAPER DUE (WS 201) 9/28
Optional: Batya Gur, Murder on A Kibbutz. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.
WEEK 6 FAMILY
Oct 3
Marilyn Safir, "Religion, Tradition and Public Policy Give Family First
Priority," Swirski and Safir, pp.57-65.
Oct 5
Sered, Chapter 1 “Collective Representations of Motherhood,” pp.22-40.
RESEARCH PAPER PROPOSAL DUE (JNE 350) 10/5
WEEK 7
Oct 10
Sered Chapter 2 “The Reproductive Body,” pp.41-67.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0833/9152_353/53936303/p1/article.jhtml
October 12
Neri Livneh, "Female & Single in Israel," The Jewish Spectator
(Spring 1985), pp.29-34.
Spike Pittsberg, "Israel," Feminist Review (Spring 1990), pp.14-18.
Jo Oppenheimer, “The Pressure to Be Heterosexual,” Swirski and Safir,
108-114.
WEEK 8 MILITARY
October 17
Nina Yuval-Davis, "Front and Rear: The Sexual Division of Labor in
the Israeli Army," Feminist Studies Vol. 11 No. (Fall 1985), 649-675.
Ron Kampeas, "Guns, Grease and Dust Resistant Make-up," Jerusalem Post
(International Edition) October 19, 1991.
Bloom, "Women in the Defense Force," Swirski and Safir, pp.128-138.
October 19 “To Be a Woman Soldier”
WEEK 9
October 24
Regine Waintrater,"Living in a State of Siege," Swirski and Safir,
pp.117-123
October 26
Sered chapter 3 “The Militarized Body,” pp.68-103.
WEEK 10 RELIGION
October 31
S&S, "Living in a Jewish State: National, Ethnic and Religious
Implications," Swirski and Safir, pp.7-17.
http://www.newyork.israel.org/consulate/press/exhib/co.women.htm
November 2
Sered, chapter 4 “The Ritualized Body,” pp.104-121.
Rosalie Yarmus Lurie, "Getting Married in Israel," The Jewish Spectator,
Fall 1982, pp.57-60.
http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/world/022598/world9_5685_noframes.html
Optional: Tamar El-Or, Educated and Ignorant. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994.
WEEK 11 POLITICS
November 7
Judith Buber Agassi, "How Much Political Power Do Women Israeli Have?"
Swirski and Safir, 203-212.
See also: http://www.adva.org/womrep-e.html
November 9
Marcia Freedman, “Breaking New Ground in the Knesset,” Swirski and
Safir, pp.238-247.
http://www.jewishsf.com/bk961004/iwomen.htm
Optional –
Marcia Freedman. Exile in the Promised Land. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand
Books, 1990.
Golda Meir. My Life. New York, Putnam, 1975.
Yael Yishai. Between the Flag and the Banner: Women in Israeli Politics.
Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1997.
WEEK 12 ACTIVISM
November 14 Feminism in Israel -
November 16
Reena Bernards, "The New Power of Palestinian Women," Lilith (22),
pp.21-23.
Nurith Gillath, "Women Against War: `Parents Against Silence’," Swirski
and Safir, 142-146.
Nabila Espanioly, “Palestinian Women in Israel Respond to the Intifada,”
Swirski and Safir, 147-151.
Naomi Chazan, “Israeli Women and Peace Activism,” Swirski and Safir,
152-161
http://www.ariga.com/humanrights/mdw.htm
WEEK 13 YOUNG WOMEN
November 21 "Jenny and Jenny"
Shoshana BenTzvi-Mayer, “Teaching Girls to Be Women in Israeli Jewish
Schools,” Swirski and Safir, 75-81.
SECOND PAPER DUE (WS 201) 11/21
WEEK 14 SELF/REPRESENTATION
Nov 28 Sered, Chapter 5: The Scrutinized Body,” pp.122-154.
Nov 30 Women in the arts.
RESEARCH PAPER DUE (JNE 350) 11/30
http://www.ibm.net.il/~oded/candy/
WEEK 15
Dec 5 Presentations
Dec 7 Presentations
WEEK 16 CONCLUSION
FINAL December 19, 3:30-5:30 (as per course listings)