“Jewish” politics or the politics of “Jews”?: On Israeli nation-statehood

This essay seeks to explicate a tension that lies at the very root of our discourse on Israel as a Jewish state. I argue that the academic and political fields tend to confuse and conflate two different, often contradictory understandings or constructions of the very meaning of Jewish politics. Schematically labelling these as Jewish politics versus the politics of Jews (and derived from these, the outlook of Israel as a “Jewish state” versus the notion of it being solely a “state of Jews”), I argue that the conflicting political and ideological constructions are nourished by different readings of Jewish identity and authenticity, which were first developed in Europe by leading (self-identified secular) Zionist ideologues, and later shaped mainstream readings of Israeli politics. The essay outlines the basic contours of this conceptual distinction, traces its roots in Zionist ideology (as developed in Eastern and Central Europe), and concludes with a consideration of the playing out of the tension at hand in contemporary Israeli politics

On the implications of desexualizing vaccines against sexually transmitted diseases: Health policy challenges in a multicultural society

Two vaccines against sexually transmitted infections are included in many national vaccination programs: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) vaccine and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine. The trajectories of the implementation of these two programs were marked by differences in the way the sexual context of risk was communicated to the public. These trajectories fluctuated between full accounts of the sexual nature of the infection and attempts to desexualize the vaccines. Vaccine desexualization can be achieved by withholding information of sexual context, blurring information, and distancing the age of vaccination from the age of sexual debut. Desexualization may be advantageous in promoting public health and personal health of people who believe that HPV vaccination leads to increased promiscuity, people who believe that protection against STD is not relevant to their children, and people who are not comfortable discussing the sexuality of their children. On the other hand, desexualizing may be disadvantageous for children to parents who tend to express passiveness towards vaccination, parents who attribute importance to sex education, and teenagers with homosexual orientations. The ethical analysis of vaccine desexualization reveals a complex interplay of considerations related to utility, causation of harm, duty of transparency, right to know, and right not to know. This analysis suggests that the moral merits of applying desexualization are questionable. Lastly, a sociopolitical consideration of the matter, suggests that decisions on vaccine desexualization can have implications on the interrelationships between various social groups and subgroups composing a certain population, and may highlight intercultural schisms. All this indicates that shaping the sexual framework of vaccination programs bears implications far beyond the practical considerations of vaccine promotion

On the implications of desexualizing vaccines against sexually transmitted diseases: Health policy challenges in a multicultural society

Two vaccines against sexually transmitted infections are included in many national vaccination programs: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) vaccine and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine. The trajectories of the implementation of these two programs were marked by differences in the way the sexual context of risk was communicated to the public. These trajectories fluctuated between full accounts of the sexual nature of the infection and attempts to desexualize the vaccines. Vaccine desexualization can be achieved by withholding information of sexual context, blurring information, and distancing the age of vaccination from the age of sexual debut. Desexualization may be advantageous in promoting public health and personal health of people who believe that HPV vaccination leads to increased promiscuity, people who believe that protection against STD is not relevant to their children, and people who are not comfortable discussing the sexuality of their children. On the other hand, desexualizing may be disadvantageous for children to parents who tend to express passiveness towards vaccination, parents who attribute importance to sex education, and teenagers with homosexual orientations. The ethical analysis of vaccine desexualization reveals a complex interplay of considerations related to utility, causation of harm, duty of transparency, right to know, and right not to know. This analysis suggests that the moral merits of applying desexualization are questionable. Lastly, a sociopolitical consideration of the matter, suggests that decisions on vaccine desexualization can have implications on the interrelationships between various social groups and subgroups composing a certain population, and may highlight intercultural schisms. All this indicates that shaping the sexual framework of vaccination programs bears implications far beyond the practical considerations of vaccine promotion

A post-secular interpretation of religious nationalism: the case of Religious-Zionism

Adopting the ‘post-secular’ critique of the mainstream discourse on ‘religion and politics’, this article aims to offer a novel consideration of what is commonly identified as religious nationalism. Following the post-secular cue, we highlight the importance of the nation-statist configuration of power for the very construction of the conceptual and categorical frameworks into which discussions of religion, secularity, politics, and nationalism have usually been put. We use a comprehensive study of Religious-Zionist ideology, as manifested in public debates between 1967 and 2014, to examine how this phenomenon can be interpreted without falling into the trap of employing historically and politically embodied conceptual toolkits as if they were ahistorical and universal. Our analysis highlights the foundational indebtedness of Religious-Zionism to the nation-statist configuration of power, a commitment that in effect ‘politicizes’ and ‘nationalizes’ what is seen as theology or religion

Turning the Kaleidoscope and pluralism inside-out: the case of Berlin’s Jewish scene

In recent years, Berlin has witnessed an ever-growing internationalization: Promoting itself as a creative and political centre, the city has attracted migrants from all over the world. As a consequence, its increasing internationalization has also impacted its religious communities. This chapter examines its effects on the Jewish and Hebrew scene and suggests ‘turning the kaleidoscope’ and examining religious pluralisms from the inside-out: from its inner complexities and contestations. Interrogating the conceptualization of religion and the secular in the framework of religious pluralisms, this chapter demonstrates the internal complexities of newly emerging religious groups characterized by processes of migration and conversion. Drawing on ethnographic and biographical research, the ambivalence and tensions of Jewish belonging highlight how religious pluralisms can no longer be conceptualized in terms of fixed congregations but must respond to the way in which urban cosmopolitan religious belonging is practiced and subject to constant negotiation. By doing so, this chapter sheds light on emergent religious pluralisms ‘in the making’ and thereby challenging the concept itself