תוכן העניינים

הקדמה   חקר האנושי־החולף – אתנוגרפיה בהולה: פרספקטיבות חברתיות על מגפת הקורונה הגר חג'ג' ברגר וגד יאיר

שער ראשון פרפורמנס של הפוליטי

מאוחדים, במלחמה, נגד העולם (והקורונה): שיח ראש ממשלת ישראל בנימין נתניהו בהצהרות התקשורת יובל בנזימן

מלך ההנחיות:  דיבוב פרודי של שירי וולט דיסני ככלי אתנוגרפי בעיתות משבר לואי ותד

שער שני מ- Non Places למרחבים הטרוטופיים

"ושבו הורים לגבולם" ? שייכות וסולידריות אל מול הדרה וחרדה בסיקור התקשורתי של "ספינת הקורונה" אשרת ששוני־בר לב ורות אבידר

מלוניות הקורונה: לידתם של מרחבים הטרוטופיים בחסות הרפואה הדיגיטלית שירלי בר־לב

שער שלישי שוליים משמרים 

מויסר בראבק: חרדים מודרניים בראשית זמן קורונה מיקי ניות

"כל עוד אני בבית אין לי חשק ללמוד ולהתרכז בהרצאות": קשיים ואתגרים בקרב סטודנטים ערבים פלסטינים בישראל בתהליך ה'למידה מרחוק' בצל הקורונה אבסתאם ברכאת וטל מלר

שער רביעי ייצוגים מרובים

"אסרו אותי בבית" : ייצוגי זקנים וזקנה בתקשורת הישראלית בתקופת משבר הקורונה שרון רמר ביאל וענת פירסט

האומנם חרדים מהקורונה ? עמדות וחוויות הציבור החרדי בהתמודדות עם הגל הראשון של מגפת הקורונה בישראל ליפז שמוע-ניר, איירין רזפורקר- אפפלד וז'נט כהן

שער חמישי משבר והזדמנות

משבר והזדמנות: סגירת בית הכנסת בימי הקורונה יעל כרמלי

"איך מסיימים את הסמסטר?- מ־top-down ל-bottom-up בהכשרת סטודנטים להוראה עם פרוץ מגפת הקורונה רוני לידור וסימה זך

לא כלתה משמעותי: עוגני משמעות בימים של כיליון הגר חג'ג' ברגר 

שער שישי מבט מהפרופסיה על המגפה כמעבר מזורז לעידן דיגיטלי

מסכים ומסכות – דילוג מהיר למציאות דיגיטלית בימי קורונה דפנה ליבר

שער חותם אפילוג דיאלוגי: שאלות למחברים טובה גמליאל

ENGLISH SUMMARIES

UNITED, AT WAR, FIGHTING THE WORLD (AND THE CORONAVIRUS):THE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER’S DISCOURSE

Yuval Benziman

During eight months, from March until October 2020, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially addressed the Israeli public 34 times regarding the Coronavirus Pandemic. These public appearances – which lasted 22 minutes in average, in which the Prime Minister spoke for about 60% of the time and which were almost always broadcasted live in all Israeli television news channels at prime time – were an opportunity for him to frame Israelis’ perception of the pandemic. This research is based on a close reading of his speeches and focuses on three dominant themes in the discourse he created: 1. A constant comparison between Israel and other countries in the world, emphasizing Israel’s supposed successes in the way it handled COVID-19. 2. Usage of motifs, metaphors and imagery related to war and military, which are familiar to the Israeli public and create an atmosphere of emergency and a need for recruitment to a national task. 3. Calls for internal unity and mutual responsibility as a prerequisite to successfully overcoming the pandemic. These calls emphasized Jewish history, tradition, heritage and religion, thus excluding from the discourse the non-Jewish Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Each of these themes is important in itself, but put together they create a discourse that asks the Israeli-Jewish population to unite (since this is what supposedly saved the Jewish people throughout history), not to criticize the government institutions and their actions (since the comparison to other countries shows that Israel is supposedly doing better than them) and to accept harsh edicts (because this is how individuals and nations act in times of war).

KING OF GUIDELINES: DUBBING OF DISNEY SONGS AS A POLITICAL PARODIC ETHNOGRAPHY IN A TIME OF CRISIS

Loaay Wattad

At the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, Israeli YouTubers uploaded parodic videos of dubbed Disney songs to social media. The creators used the animation of the original songs and created parodic videos that presented the reality of everyday life through topical dubbing. This article presents an interpretive-thematic analysis of 25 parodic dubbing videos. The analysis shows that through the videos, the creators conveyed social and political criticisms of the Israeli government’s conduct during this time. In addition, the study shows that the videos became a diary that shared with the followers the passions, worries, and daily dealings of the creators during the crisis, and thus the videos also reveal the situations the citizens of Israel faced during that time. In the article, I will argue that the parodic ridicule that emerges in the videos expresses not only a subversive perception against the government but also the encapsulated power relations and interests of dominant groups in culture, politics, and the economy. Subversion of this kind is made possible through the Bakhtinic carnival of the parodic dubbing videos and thanks to the political fringe of a child culture that is not suspected of subversion.

“AND YOUR PARENTS SHALL RETURN TO THEIR OWN BORDERS?”: INCLUSION AND SOLIDARITY VS. EXCLUSION AND ANXIETY IN NEWS COVERAGE OF THE “CORONA CRUISE SHIP”

Oshrat Sassoni-Bar Lev and Ruth Avidar

In February 2020, the Japanese authorities isolated the cruise ship The Diamond Princess in a Japanese harbor after finding infected passengers with COVID-19. It was soon discovered that fifteen Israelis were also on the ship, initiating a daily Israeli media update of their experiences on the isolated boat, later known as “The Corona Cruise Ship”. During the media coverage, the passengers’ families advocated the return home of their relatives, while various Israeli individuals voiced their concerns of “importing” the virus into Israel.

This study uses framing theory and explores how the Israeli media and online Israeli commentators framed the “Corona Cruise Ship” crisis. A qualitative thematic content analysis of 47 news articles and 342 individual comments regarding the “Corona Cruise Ship” were conducted. The analysis revealed two rival frames. The first, “And your parents shall return to their own borders”, framed the crisis as a “life-or-death” situation that calls for immediate action by the Israeli government to

return the passengers back home. This frame was used by the passengers’ families and the Israeli media to convey “Social Solidarity” – a fundamental Israeli ethos calling for ‘brotherhood’ and mutual support. The second frame, “This is the price you pay for your own hedonistic way”, brought forward alternative voices of individuals that also used the Israeli ethos of “solidarity”, but from a different perspective – “Health Solidarity” – asking the passengers to demonstrate their solidarity with the Israeli public by not “importing” the virus into Israel, thus counter-framing mainstream media in times of a health crisis.

CORONA HOTELS – THE BIRTH OF HETEROTOPIC SPACES UNDER THE AUSPICES OF DIGITAL MEDICINE

Shirly Bar Lev

The assimilation of remote medical technology and digital medicine in the Israeli healthcare system has led to conceptual and infrastructural maturity conducive to the establishment of hybrid spaces, which are neither fully treatment-oriented nor fully incarcerational, and which are operated using certain power/knowledge technologies. This paper examines how the use of information technologies in healthcare reshapes the consciousness and physicality of both potential patients and actual patients. This study joins a research stream within the sociology of science that investigates the covert assumptions, norms, and values that shape both the uses of technology and the meanings attributed to it. Through the experience of twenty-five people who stayed in convalescence and isolation hotels established in Israel between March and July 2020, I will show how such treatment spaces are rooted in institutionalized perceptions of risk that characterize Israeli biopolitics. The study is based on an analysis of dozens of texts published on social media and online news channels, and on in-depth interviews the researcher held with people staying at the convalescence and isolation hotels. Among the interviewees were both religious and secular men and women of various ages. I will claim that it is, in fact, the limited use of information technology that contributed to the shaping of three kinds of physicalities: the monitored physicality, the rebellious physicality, and the community entrepreneur physicality.

MOISSER B’RABAK: AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CORONA ERA

Miki Nayot

The sociological research concerning the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) society in Israel often deals with the tension between the ideological ideal and the social reality. This has been demonstrated more than once through a historical observation of changes in the mainstream society’s relations with the state. Over the years, theories that are based on ideological entrenchment have given way to pragmatic methods of ‘ultra-Orthodox modernization’ or ‘Israelization of the ultra-Orthodox’ that emphasize their conciliation of concept and values with the constraints of reality. The coronavairus epidemic and its interpretation in the ultra-Orthodox community in view of the restrictions placed on the routines of religious life invite a re-examination of their ingathering versus change processes. This ethnography focuses on those known as ‘modern ultra-Orthodox’ who are seen as the main agents of change. It covers the first six months of the coronavirus epidemic and is based on an analysis of 3,500 articles from the Kikar Hashabat website, some 17,000 feedbacks, hundreds of WhatsApp conversations, and related content as they appeared in ultra-Orthodox groups, as well as conversations with informants. The findings of the study show that entrenchment is not a negligible component in contemporary ultra-Orthodoxy, and that the modern ultra-Orthodox have a role in the inward convergence and reproduction of classical and radical thought. These processes are illustrated through five channels: sectoral reflex, segregation reflex, reproduction of preservation, ratification of stratification, and doing nationalism.

“AS LONG AS I’M AT HOME, I DON’T FEEL LIKE STUDYING OR PAYING ATTENTION IN LECTURES”: DIFFICULTIES AND CHALLENGES OF DISTANCE LEARNING AMONG PALESTINIAN-ARAB STUDENTS IN ISRAEL DURING COVID-19

Abtesam Barakat and Tal Meler

This article studies the distance learning (DL) experiences of Palestinian-Arab college students in Israel during COVID-19. Studies argue that DL promotes independence and student motivation and enables students from disadvantaged groups to participate in higher education (HE) while tending to social and economic responsibilities. The qualitative research in this article is based on interviews conducted with Palestinian-Arab students in Israel (n=27). The findings describe difficulties and challenges of DL, including communication obstacles, lack of suitable learning environments, and an inability to combine familial commitments with academic responsibilities. The findings also reveal how DL exacerbates existing difficulties like low learning self-efficacy and self-esteem.

“HOME PRISONERS”: REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ELDERLY AND OLD AGE IN THE ISRAELI MEDIA DURING THE CORONA CRISIS

Sharon Ramer Biel and Anat First

This study expands the discourse on construction of old age as a social phenomenon in times of health crises. It focuses on media representations of old age during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in which the elderly constituted a high rate of patients and deaths in Israel.

Theoretically, the study looks at the nature of this representation from two perspectives: Gerontology and communication studies. The gerontological discourse frequently examines consequences of crises (especially security, economic, and health) for the elderly and focuses on their vulnerability on the one hand and their resilience on the other. It studies how age-related perceptions have been translated into policies centered on human rights violations in the COVID-19 age. Media representation of minorities in Israel includes a reference to representations of national and gender minorities in security and health crises. Similar to these studies that examined how social reality in crisis constructs media representations, this study assumes that old age and COVID-19 are social and cultural phenomena no less than biological and epidemiological phenomena. It is therefore important to examine how old age is understood in media discourse in times of the COVID-19 crisis.

Methodologically, the corpus includes 85 news items, 13 opinion columns published in the daily printed and online press, and 14 television sketches from two satire programs that used various rhetorical tools. The texts were circulated during the first three months of the first COVID-19 wave. They were analyzed by employing a model of ‘circles of belonging’, by which media images of aging were salient: belonging to a group, a family, workplace, and community.

The ‘circles of belonging’ reveal a variety of stereotypical representations of the elderly that reinforced the perception of old age as a disease, alongside criticism of the sweeping lockdown imposed on the entire elderly population.

THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX (HAREDI) COMMUNITY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN ISRAEL: ATTITUDES AND EXPERIENCES DURING THE FIRST WAVE

Lipaz Shamoa-Nir, Irene Razpurker-Apfeld and Janet Cohen

This study examined experiences, behaviors and attitudes in Haredi Jewish communities in Israel during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We interviewed ultra-Orthodox society members and then conducted content analysis. The findings showed that most of the interviewees were disappointed with the secular media and the state authorities. They felt that the Israeli media treated the ultra-Orthodox society with hostility and led to alienation between their community and the general society in Israel. At the same time, it was found that the pandemic was an opportunity for the general public in Israel to become familiar with the socio-cultural diversity that exists in the ultra-Orthodox sector, and an opportunity to strengthen Haredi integration into general society, especially among community leaders and opinion leaders in new media and modern ultra-Orthodox groups. This study contributes to a better theoretical understanding of the social processes in the ultra-Orthodox society within the context of the events in Haredi communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and within the broader context of general trends occurring in this sector. In addition, from a practical point of view, this research may contribute to reducing differences, tensions and disputes between the ultra-Orthodox society and the general-secular public in Israel.

CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY: CLOSING DOWN THE SYNAGOGUE DURING THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

Yael Carmeli

Territorial restrictions implemented in midst of the covid-19 crisis, greatly influenced the prayer routines of religious people all around the world. In Israel, prayer houses were instructed to close down in April 2020, right before the Passover holiday, during which a complete lockdown was issued in the country. As a result, Jewish prayers spent the holiday away from their synagogues and congregations.

Drawing on in-depth phone interviews with 24 Gabaim (members of the community in charge of logistic management of the synagogue), this paper will discuss the process of synagogues closing down in Religious-Zionist congregations all over the country. Using concepts from sociology and anthropology of disasters and crisis, this paper will argue that communal discourse attributing religious meaning to the safety precautions, helped to legitimize the decision to stay away from the synagogue and gave solace to the prayers.

Furthermore, the study documens the shaping and developing of unique forms of social religious ritual suitable for the lockdown restrictions that helped maintain community life. These alternative prayer practices, although derived from a great longing for the prayer house, and sorrow over its closing, also portray hidden critiques on certain elements of current synagogue culture and customs. Therefore, this paper proposes to research religious discourse to study the social life of crisis and its wider symbolic implications.

“HOW CAN WE FINISH THE SEMESTER?” – FROM TOP-DOWN TO BOTTOM-UP IN TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Ronnie Lidor and Sima Zach

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 led to decisions and emergency regulations using a top-down approach of the government in Israel. The Ministry of Health, the Council for Higher Education, and the Ministry of Education announced an immediate transition to distance learning. Classes in all educational institutions – from kindergarten to high school, as well as all colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher education, were closed. The aim of our qualitative study was to examine the challenges/difficulties faced by leading figures who were involved in the decision-making process during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic: two key figures in the Ministry of Education, and five presidents of academic colleges whose main goal is to prepare students to be teachers in Israel. We focused on the implementation of guidelines that are of an active nature and structure in the curricula of one program – teaching preparation in physical education (PE). We selected this program since it is composed not only of academic classes, but also sport activities, such as ball games and individual sports. The implementation of distance learning in such a program is indeed an instructional-pedagogical challenge. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with the participants. Their perceptions and thoughts were explored, as well as how they made decisions during this period. We reveal that a bottom-up process complemented the top-down process imposed by the regulatory bodies. We discuss a number of aspects related to curricula in teaching PE during the crisis, which can serve as a platform for planning actions in the possible continuation of this crisis period, as well as for any future event in which similar constraints of distance learning are presented.

ANCHORS OF MEANING IN DAYS OF ARMAGEDDON

Hagar Hazaz-Berger

The paper examines the quarantine experiences of Israelis before the first lockdown, collected through an urgent ethnography around February-March 2020. The quarantine experience brought about an intensive deliberation in questions of loneliness and demise, and a search for practices that create meaning in the context of social isolation. As part of the research, I conducted 53 phone interviews with quarantined individuals, while also documenting life under the Covid-19 threat in a field journal. The findings suggest that the first quarantine period was characterized as a pre-Covid-reality, which lead to a sense of loneliness and death anxiety. In response, the participants developed what I describe as “anchors of meaning”. These anchors allowed the participants to feel in control over their chaotic situation, while their freedom was taken away and they were forced to face existential issues. I will argue that by further examining these anchors of meaning we may project from the micro to the macro level, understanding strategies that can fortify society at times of crisis by creating a more extensive mental resilience, and reducing anxiety, loneliness and uncertainty.

CONNECTING THROUGH SCREENS – COVID–19 AND THE QUICK DEVELOPMENT OF A HYBRID GENERATION

Daphna Liber

We have witnessed in recent years the growing involvement of digital reality in a variety of areas of life. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated processes and overnight made the digital reality the only possible option to connect. In conditions of social distance, because of a life-threatening pandemic, the possibility of closeness, and a meeting without “masks“ was possible only through the digital screens.

My work in the clinic and research has in recent years accompanied the daily encounter with digital dimensions and their effects on the intimate relationship that takes place in therapy. Covid-19 pandemic turned the gradual change into a one-way revolution.

This article will examine the basic concepts underlying the human and therapeutic relationship, in order to explore their change in the rapid transition to digital reality. A transition that, due to the sense of urgency in epidemic days, did not go through control mechanisms, or the possibility of formulating an orderly stance in relation to it.

A digital age influences the world of stimuli and patterns of relationship, intimacy, communication and employment. The article will examine the components of human encounter, in a reality in which the virtual spaces have changed with the development and accessibility of technology and its becoming the only way of communication in the reality of social distancing.

Hybrid Generation, as a concept that allows the examination of the link between the technological and the human will be presented. The hybrid dimension evokes alienation, along with uniqueness and the possibility of meeting different generations to create a common and meaningful value.

A case study will be presented to illustrate the possibility of a therapeutic process and an integrated presence in a digital space. The complex encounter of social distance, digital encounter and the creation of a hybrid reality all led to the formation of the H generation, Hybrid Generation.