Popular culture and mass media

Read more about the article Article: Israeli Government Reports on New Religious Movements – ‘Tell me Who your Enemies are…’
Disputation or conflict / History / Identity / Israel / Popular culture and mass media / State politics and law / Typology and comparative study

Article: Israeli Government Reports on New Religious Movements – ‘Tell me Who your Enemies are…’

The nature of the society's response to new religious movements actually illumonates us on the society itself. For example, in the U.K. and the U.S., the cults were mainly accused of brainwashing; in the U.S., they were also held responsible for the breakdown of the family and various economic crimes; in France, NRMs were portrayed as engaging in political plots and subverting the secular French nationality (Laïcité), which mandates separation between religion and state; in Germany, NRMs were presented as failing to make their national insurance payments and as a danger to democracy; in Japan, they were suspected of harming young people’s chances of succeeding in the workforce. And what about Israel? A study of the reports written by governmental bodies regarding "cults" serves us as to analyse the Israeli society, its major values, processes and transformations.

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January 17, 2022
Read more about the article Article: “The State of Israel vs. The Cults – The Anti-Cult Discourse and the Israeli Public Discourse in Government Reports”
Disputation or conflict / History / Identity / Israel / Popular culture and mass media / State politics and law / Typology and comparative study

Article: “The State of Israel vs. The Cults – The Anti-Cult Discourse and the Israeli Public Discourse in Government Reports”

In the state of Israel, four govenmental reports were written against "cults". What is disturbing in this phenomena? Is it likely that each one of the reports finds different kind of problems with regard to the new religious movements in Israel? What can we understand from this? What can we learn about the Israeli society from those various reports? In this study, we've analysed the wording of the reports (from a discoursive angle), and indicated the similarity as well as the difference between them. The study serves of course a mirror for the Israeli society and processes it undergone in the last decades.

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January 17, 2022
Read more about the article Lecture: Lilith’s Comeback in Contemporary Feminist Spiritualities
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Feminism gender and sex / Identity / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Mind and psychology / Myth / Popular culture and mass media

Lecture: Lilith’s Comeback in Contemporary Feminist Spiritualities

What a glorious career did Lilith had in thousands of years! Alas, always as a negative and dark image… However, in the last decades, in the feminist spirituality she's actually admired. So, what does she represent for the contemporary feminist spirituality? Not one thing, but rather different things. The lecture presents a research, that was also published in an Article. See below links to relevant items. The lecture took place at a panel on "New Religious Movements" at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Israeli Association for the Study of Religion, dedicated to the Scriptures (their nature and place in religions). The conference was conducted at Bar Ilan University on March 11th-12th, 2018. This conference's session took place in English. For the conference's program in English.

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January 16, 2022
Read more about the article A lecture: Lilith’s Image in Contemporary Feminist Spirituality and its Meanings
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Feminism gender and sex / Identity / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Mind and psychology / Myth / Popular culture and mass media

A lecture: Lilith’s Image in Contemporary Feminist Spirituality and its Meanings

"Lilith sets inspiration fo women and men in the contemporary femenist spirituality, a sourse of theological/thealogical imagination, and an image for mimicry." This lecture, on Lilith's Image in Contemporary Feminist Spirituality, took part inSchocken Institute for Jewish Research's workshop on Feminine Spiritual Leadership. The research was awarded a scholarship from the Institute. The research project on Lilith includes more articles and lectures.

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January 16, 2022
Read more about the article A Report on Neo-Shamanism in Israel
Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / Israel / Magic and paganism / Popular culture and mass media

A Report on Neo-Shamanism in Israel

The report surveys the neo-shaman movement in Israel, approximately at 2014. Due to the dynamic nature and growth of the movement, currently the Israeli neo-shamanic picture is a bit different than described. The report includes an explanation on neo-shamanism as a global phenomenon, a description of neo-shaman centers in Israel, reference to the mass media's coverage of the movement and criticism of the later, as well as a short bibliographic list. The report was written as part of the activity issued by MEIDA center - An Israeli Information Center gor Contemporary Religions, sponsered by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute (inspired by the British INFORM Centre.

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January 14, 2022
Read more about the article Article: The Witch Hunt in Ashkelon as Retold by Contemporary Spiritualities: From Embarrassment to Treasure Trove
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / History / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Myth / Popular culture and mass media / Typology and comparative study

Article: The Witch Hunt in Ashkelon as Retold by Contemporary Spiritualities: From Embarrassment to Treasure Trove

Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, dozens of witches operated at the promiscuous city Ashkelon. This study (some 8,000 words; and a similar one published in English - as follows) deals with contemporary spiritual interpretations of an ancient Jewish legend - on a witch hunt executed by Rabbi Shim'on ben Shatach at Ashkelon in the 2nd century B.C.. It presents a comparison of three spiritual leaders in Israel, each re-designing the old story in a different way, thus expressing various values - in relation to Judaism, to their feminism's character, and to the place of magic in the world. The article was published in the anthology "Between Times - Ritual and Text in a Changing Society", edited by Haim Hazan, Rachel Shar'abi, and Inbal Esther Sikurel, in the Hermeneutics and Cuture series at Carmel publishimg house.

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January 5, 2022
Read more about the article Lecture: The gates of creativity shall never be locked – A comparative study of the spiritual-musical adaptation of the liturgical poem ‘Im Nin’alu’ in contemporary pop-culture
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: The gates of creativity shall never be locked – A comparative study of the spiritual-musical adaptation of the liturgical poem ‘Im Nin’alu’ in contemporary pop-culture

This lecture is part of the research project on the current reincarnation of the liturgical poem 'Im Nin'alu' in contemporary western pop-culture. The lecture deals with issues and challenges of coping in the postmodern situation, and presents three models of contemporary spirituality through the study case that is discussed: a spirituality of return to tradition, a spirituality of yearning to the Other, and a remix-postmodern spirituality. I've co-published an English article on this subject in the journal Folklore. The lecture took place in the 2nd international conference of the center of Yemenite Judaism and its culture, conducted on September 2018, marking 400 years of Shalem Shabbazi's birthday, at Yad Ben Zvi in Jerusalem. A simultaneous translation (Hebrew-English) has been executed in the conference.

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January 3, 2022
Read more about the article Article: Witch-Hunt or Women’s Oppression? The Secularization and Re-Enchantment of the Witches of Ashkelon Tale by Contemporary Spiritualities’ Leaders
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / History / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Myth / Popular culture and mass media / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Article: Witch-Hunt or Women’s Oppression? The Secularization and Re-Enchantment of the Witches of Ashkelon Tale by Contemporary Spiritualities’ Leaders

This study (some 10,500 words; and a similar one published in Hebrew- as follows) deals with contemporary spiritual interpretations of an ancient Jewish legend - on a witch hunt executed by Rabbi Shim'on ben Shatach at Ashkelon in the 2nd century B.C.. It presents a comparison of three spiritual leaders in Israel, each re-designing the old story in a different way, thus expressing various values - in relation to Judaism, to their feminism's character, and to the place of magic in the world. The article was published in the important journal of Jewish Studies, pronted by the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies - Journal of Jewish Studies.

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December 14, 2021
Read more about the article Article: “Lilith’s Comeback from a Feministic Jungian Outlook: Contemporary Feminist Spirituality Gets into Bed with Lilith”
Feminism gender and sex / Judaism and Kabbalah / Methodology and models / Mind and psychology / Myth / Popular culture and mass media

Article: “Lilith’s Comeback from a Feministic Jungian Outlook: Contemporary Feminist Spirituality Gets into Bed with Lilith”

This prizewinner article is a feminist hermeneutical research of Lilith's myth, from a Jungian viewpoint. It was announced (January 2021) “the 2020 Honorable Mention Award Winner” by The Jewish Women's Caucus of the Association for Women in Psychology. In addition to this article, there are more items - an article and lectures that present the research project on Lilith.

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December 1, 2021