"Infiltrators" or refugees? An analysis of Israel's policy towards African asylum seekers

This article adopts a genealogical approach in examining Israeli immigration policy by focusing on the situation confronting African asylum seekers who have been forced back into Egypt, detained and deported but who have not had their asylum claims properly assessed. Based on immigration policies formulated at the time of Israeli independence, whose principle objective was to secure a Jewish majority state, we argue that Israel’s treatment of African asylum seekers as ‘infiltrators’/economic migrants stems from an insistence on maintaining immigration as a sovereign issue formally isolated from other policy domains. Such an approach is not only in violation of Israel’s commitment to the Refugee Convention, it directly contributes to policies which are ineffective and unduly harsh

Giving Voices to the Voiceless: Language Barriers & Health Access Issues of Black Immigrants of African Descent

Takes an initial step toward identifying language and cultural issues that impede access to health care among immigrants of African descent in California

An Ethiopian-Headed Serpent in theCantigas de Santa María: Sin, Sex, and Color in Late Medieval Castile

An unconventional portrayal of the serpent of the Temptation in the Florence codex of the Cantigas de Santa María (Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze, MS B.R. 20) manifests significant developments in the visual and epistemic norms of late medieval Castile. The satanic serpent’s black face and stereotyped African features link to cultural traditions well beyond Iberia, most notably the topos of the “Ethiopian,” which blended the actual and fantastical in deeply symbolic ways. Most crucial to the reading of the motif in the cantiga were the Ethiopian’s long-standing associations with sin and diabolism, rooted in early monastic Christianity but preserved in later medieval monastic and romance literature as well as in visual images found in Iberian contexts. Yet the otherwise conventional femininity of the serpent’s head must have connected still more specifically to medieval stereotypes of black women as hypersexual, distasteful, and dangerous. Iberian awareness of these stereotypes, attested by the caricatured black women of medieval Castilian exempla, poetry, and historical texts, surely facilitated recognition of the complementary binaries central to this cantiga, in that Satan’s blackness and sensuality invert Eve’s whiteness and erstwhile purity, foreshadowing her capitulation to the darkness of sin and sex as an antitype of the faultless Virgin. The innovative image thus reveals both its artist’s sensitivity to broad European cultural trends and the resonance of skin color in a region where both color and race would soon become inescapably concrete concerns

Menorah Review (No. 35, Fall, 1995)

Jewish Path, Buddhist Path: Do They Meet? -- Sparks of Light -- Jewish-Americans and American Sports: Memory, Identity and Assimilation -- How to Develop the Moral Personality -- Political and the Nationalist Judaism -- Litigation -- Book Briefing

Operation Solomon: The Daring Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews (Review)

This is a book review of Stephen Spector\u27s book, Operation Solomon: The Daring Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews. (2005). New York: Oxford University Press

Ethnic and Minority Groups in Israel: Challenges for Social Work Theory, Value and Practice

Israel is a Western, democratic, pluralistic enclave in the Middle East. Multiple ethnic groups, mass immigration, religious diversity, and the current ethnic dilemmas experienced there provide ample opportunity for study. The social work role in addressing the ethnic and cultural challenges in Israel is discussed without minimizing or reducing the complexity of the issues. A closer examination of social work as a vehicle for ethnic sensitivity and understanding of ethnic diversity is required. Knowing how to work with diverse populations and ethnic conflict is imperative in Israel and elsewhere

Is there “Black Panther” Movement in Israel? Protests of Ethiopian Jews - Sources of Conflict and Policy Implications

The migration of various ethnic groups creates a challenge for policymakers in general and civil society in particular. The concerns, as well as maintaining the status quo, could present obstacles in creating a homogenous and equitable civil society. As an immigrant-absorbing state, Israel is challenged both socially and economically in these realms. The Melting Pot concept was one of Israel's founding blocks since the 1950's fail. Has it failed? Is there truth to the protesters' allegations of institutionalized racism? In light of the demonstrations and accusations of racism in Israeli society, what changes should be set in motion

Israel: A Diaspora of Memories

International audienc