ארכיון values - Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro (PhD)

Article: The Sixties Did (Not Altogether) Skip Israel – Rosh Pinna’s Hippie Community

An article that presents the story of the first spiritual-alternative community in Israel, which was a bubble of the sixties at the heart of the mobilized Zionist miliee at the time. The hippy community of Rosh Pinna was an extraordinary refuge where a fascinating "social laboratory" functioned, which also gave birth to other spiritual and alternative Israeli spaces. The article includes a comparison between hippie and Zionist values - from the fields of society and the law to the attitude to nature and music. It includes unique illustrations and photographs.

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March 21, 2024

Read more about the article Lecture: An Academic Outlook of New Age and Contemporary Religions – Mapping the Research Field and the Challenges it Faces

Disputation or conflict / Education and higher education / Israel / Methodology and models / Science/medicine and technology / State politics and law

Lecture: An Academic Outlook of New Age and Contemporary Religions – Mapping the Research Field and the Challenges it Faces

At the founding conference of the Israeli Association for the Study of Religions, this lecture offered an extensive view of the contemporary religiosity and spirituality space, from an academic angle. Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro was a member of the founding committee of the association and later - of its executive committee.

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November 2, 2023

Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Methodology and models

Lecture: Hermenuetical Challenges in the Study of the New Israeli Mysticism

An innovative research field sometimes also calls for innovative research approaches. This lecture presented five unique hermenuetical challenges in the study of the new mysticism (New Age), in Israel and in general. Along with their presentation - a corresponding research approach is offered - a network outlook. The lecture - under the title "Hermenetical Challenges in the Study of the New Israeli Mysticism" - was presented at a conference of the Department of Jewish Thought at Ben Gurion University of the Negev on "Research Trends and Methods in the 2000s", in the spring of 2003. The lecture was based on a seminar paper, and formed the basis for the first chapter of Ruah-Midbar's doctorate on New Age culture in Israel.

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November 1, 2023

Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Education and higher education / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / State politics and law

Lecture: Criticism of New Age Culture, or New Age as Cultural Criticism

cults, the anticult movement, academia, the scientific discourse, objectivity, values, predisposition, Nurit Zaidman

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January 20, 2023

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Education and higher education / Methodology and models / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology

Article: The Dynamics of a Cultural Struggle in Academia – The Case of New Age Music Research

The academia is a cultural player, and when it deals with a culturally controversial issue - the academic discourse actually plays a role in the cultural game and struggle between forces. This article - dealing with New Age Music - is a product of a scholarly cooperation between Omri and Marianna Ruah-Midbar, as a crossroad of their sceintific interests. It was published in Berkeley University's journal - Cultural Analysis.

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November 30, 2022

Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Education and higher education / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / State politics and law

Lecture: One Can’t Expect Objective Academic Research on Contemporary Spiritualities

In the postmodern condition, it's already cleae that there is no objective academic research. This is all the more truer when the research object is culturally disputed. Thus, one shouldn't expect New Age scholars to have no interests or agendas. This lecture surveys the public debates regarding the New Age in which its scholars are involved, and inquires the leaning and predispositions of the cintemporary research discourse of the field. It's full title was: "What Should One Expect When One Can’t Expect Objective Academic Research on Contemporary Spiritualities?"

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November 28, 2022

Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Education and higher education / History / Methodology and models / Myth / Science/medicine and technology

Article: Historians as Storytellers – A Critical Examination of New-Age Religion’s Scholarly Historiography

It seems the past is not fixed, but rather ever-changing. This study isn't about the history of New Age religion, but rather a critical analysis of the history sceince as it manifests in the scholarly discourse on the history of New Age.

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January 17, 2022

Disputation or conflict / History / Identity / Israel / Popular culture and mass media / State politics and law / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Israeli Government Reports on “cults” – a critical study

A critical study of the struggle revolving "cults" in the Israeli society, through an analysis of formal Israeli reports - lectures on the subject of this research project featured in various forums (in English and Hebrew), and some articles were published in this project's framework.

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January 17, 2022

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