Rebecca Kook
Biographic Data
| ID | 638714 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rebecca Kook |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rebecca |
| FAMILY NAME | Kook |
| SIGNATURE | KOOK R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3379-2185 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 146 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Constrained Choice and Tactical Negotiations
This study examines how educated, non-pious Druze women in Israel navigate the tension between individual advancement and community belonging through narrative analysis of group interviews with thirty-four women. Drawing on feminist theories of agency and belonging, we analyze the perspectives these women employ to narrate their life choices, their relationship with the community, and their commitment to conservative collective values. Our findin…
Symbolic objects of memory and war
This article offers a new way to think about objects of memory, focusing on how a single item can take on various roles – from a cherished personal keepsake through a commercial product to a powerful political symbol. By examining the ‘Bring Them Home’ dog tags created in response to the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel in 2023, the article explores how these dog tags emerged as expressions of empathy for the hostages and their families, then evo…
Narratives of memory and national identity; analyzing agency in contemporary Holocaust memory initiatives
Constructing narratives of memory has long been acknowledged as a major component of nationalism and nation building. In Israel the memory of the Holocaust is widely seen as constituting one of these major components and is at the core of Israeli national identity. Since the early 2000s, the imminent passing of Holocaust survivors has resulted in an intense preoccupation with the question of the future of this memory. This preoccupation has produ…
Don't cry, it doesn't belong to us”; critical thoughts on commemoration as a means of inclusion
Efforts to incorporate the collective memories of minority communities into national memory narratives are viewed as an integral part of efforts to revive democracy, while contributing to social integration and equality. In this context, the inclusion of minority histories is increasingly being mandated by law and policy in many countries. Recently, Israel passed memory laws that set out to include the previously excluded history of its North Afr…
The Politics of Belonging
The past few decades have witnessed significant increases in levels of education among women members of conservative religions. Contrary to the expectations of both researchers and policymakers, this trend has not been accompanied by decreases in levels of piety. The purpose of this article is to explore what it means to educated religious women to belong to conservative religious communities that embody values and practices that do not conform t…
Israel’s Innovative Young Adults Lists
Scholars have pointed to the alarming decline in the participation of young people in the institutional political activities underlying representative democracy, such as voting, joining political parties, or running for office. Solutions previously proposed have dealt with participatory democracy rather than representative democracy. Based on in-depth interviews, this article shows that, since 1998, the involvement of Young Adults Lists (YALs) in…
Agents of memory in the post-witness era
With the passing of the survivors of the Holocaust and the aging of the second generation, new agents and initiatives are transforming the commemorative landscape of Holocaust remembrance. This article examines the impact of this generational transition on the production of collective memory of the Holocaust with focus on a new remembrance project in Israel, known as Memory in the Living Room. While some attention has been paid to its innovative …
Changing (?) Gender Roles Within Conservative Communities
This article focuses on the creative and innovative modes of negotiation that women in severely patriarchal societies often exhibit in their attempts to actively pursue their own goals in the face of risk. Based on group interviews with Bedouin women in southern Israel about their everyday lives, the research explores both the risks and the ways in which the women deal with them. The research expands on discussions about the nature of women’s age…
Patriarchal norms, practices and changing gendered power relations - narratives of Ultra-Orthodox women in Israel
The Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is undergoing massive changes, and these changes are clearly impacting the status of women, the different types of goals women set for themselves, and the myriad of ways in which they act towards achieving them. In this article, we examine these changes, focusing on how these women formulate and reformulate articulations of domestic femininity in ways that do not challenge the ‘Orthodox Ideal’ in the fundame…
It reminds me that I still exist'. Critical thoughts on intersectionality; refugee Muslim women in Berlin and the meanings of the hijab
Following the open-door refugee policy initiated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in August 2015, approximately 550,000 refugee women, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived in Germany. Studies that address the realities of immigrant Muslim women, primarily through the perspective of intersectionality, do not pay enough attention to the millions of immigrants whose legal status is as yet undefined. This article explores the experiences…
Yearning for a Home
This paper presents the findings of an international Symposium held in New-York in 1958, organized by the Institute for Mediterranean Affairs aimed at producing a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. The Symposium included a panel of seventeen independent scholars that included political theorist Hannah Arendt. In this paper we examine the ways in which the proposed solution reflects Arendt's notion of human rights and her criticism of th…
Focus groups and the collective construction of meaning
Gender relations in Bedouin communities in Israel
In this article, we examine the perceptions towards women and gender relations maintained by male, local authority officials within two Bedouin towns in Israel. As such, the current research lies at the intersection of local politics, gender, space and culture. We argue that analysis of these perspectives provides insights into the ambivalent nature of modernity: into the tension between the desire to preserve the traditional role of women in mai…
Representation, minorities and electoral reform
The article examines the impact of the recent change in the electoral threshold in Israel, from 2 per cent to 3.25 per cent, on the political representation of the Palestinian minority in Israel in the 2015 national election. I argue that the change in the threshold had a direct impact on Palestinian electoral representation and that this change provided incentives to Palestinian leadership to broaden their appeal and become more inclusive in the…
Changing Representations of National Identity and Political Legitimacy
The construction of meaning and the invention of tradition always take place within a social and political context. Hence, the apolitical purpose of memory and the apolitical utility of national identity, in a broad sense, are linked to power; to the myriad and diverse efforts to maintain, stabilise and perpetuate that power. Focusing on official acts of commemoration, this article explores how political legitimacy—the primary basis for stabilisi…
Public policy and social science training in Israel
Recent reforms instituted In the network of higher education in Israel have focused on two elements: adjusting the managerial structure of the universities to make it more amenable to market criteria of efficiency and reducing the proportional weight of state funding to the universities compared to that allotted to the technical and professional colleges. The main elements of this process—increasing power of managers in academic institutions, shi…
Mapping the nation
The naming of streets is part of the ongoing process of mapping the boundaries of the nation. This article examines three sets of Arab‐Palestinian street names – pre‐1948 Haifa and Jerusalem and post‐1948 Umm el Fahm – as locally constructed ‘texts of identity’ in the historical and political context of their official creation. The investigation aims at charting the ideological orientations represented and the political messages entailed in these…
The 1999 Israeli elections
The Shifting Status of African Americans in the American Collective Identity
In the name of G‐D and our rabbi
The fact of pluralism and Israeli national identity
Much of John Rawls' later work is concerned with the appli cation of his philosophical conceptions to the reality of liberal-democratic polities. I suggest that given the modern democratic reality of ethno national pluralism, Rawls' political conception of justice is insufficient to ensure democratic stability. Democratic states manage to contain ethnic pluralism while remaining compatible with liberal principles by promoting a corporate national…
Dilemmas of Ethnic Minorities in Democracies
Au sein des democraties et en periode de conflits, la discrimination envers une minorite ethnique est generalement exprimee en termes de securite. A la fin des hostilites, il s'opere un « retour a la normalite », une restitution legale de l'egalite de tous devant la loi. La minorite palestinienne en Israel, bien que relativement protegee par l'institution democratique de la citoyennete, a subi une discrimination fondamentale depuis l'instauration…
Mapping the nation
The naming of streets is part of the ongoing process of mapping the boundaries of the nation. This article examines three sets of Arab‐Palestinian street names – pre‐1948 Haifa and Jerusalem and post‐1948 Umm el Fahm – as locally constructed ‘texts of identity’ in the historical and political context of their official creation. The investigation aims at charting the ideological orientations represented and the political messages entailed in these…
Representation, minorities and electoral reform
The article examines the impact of the recent change in the electoral threshold in Israel, from 2 per cent to 3.25 per cent, on the political representation of the Palestinian minority in Israel in the 2015 national election. I argue that the change in the threshold had a direct impact on Palestinian electoral representation and that this change provided incentives to Palestinian leadership to broaden their appeal and become more inclusive in the…
Focus groups and the collective construction of meaning
Patriarchal norms, practices and changing gendered power relations - narratives of Ultra-Orthodox women in Israel
The Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is undergoing massive changes, and these changes are clearly impacting the status of women, the different types of goals women set for themselves, and the myriad of ways in which they act towards achieving them. In this article, we examine these changes, focusing on how these women formulate and reformulate articulations of domestic femininity in ways that do not challenge the ‘Orthodox Ideal’ in the fundame…
In the name of G‐D and our rabbi
Gender relations in Bedouin communities in Israel
In this article, we examine the perceptions towards women and gender relations maintained by male, local authority officials within two Bedouin towns in Israel. As such, the current research lies at the intersection of local politics, gender, space and culture. We argue that analysis of these perspectives provides insights into the ambivalent nature of modernity: into the tension between the desire to preserve the traditional role of women in mai…
Agents of memory in the post-witness era
With the passing of the survivors of the Holocaust and the aging of the second generation, new agents and initiatives are transforming the commemorative landscape of Holocaust remembrance. This article examines the impact of this generational transition on the production of collective memory of the Holocaust with focus on a new remembrance project in Israel, known as Memory in the Living Room. While some attention has been paid to its innovative …
It reminds me that I still exist'. Critical thoughts on intersectionality; refugee Muslim women in Berlin and the meanings of the hijab
Following the open-door refugee policy initiated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in August 2015, approximately 550,000 refugee women, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived in Germany. Studies that address the realities of immigrant Muslim women, primarily through the perspective of intersectionality, do not pay enough attention to the millions of immigrants whose legal status is as yet undefined. This article explores the experiences…
Changing Representations of National Identity and Political Legitimacy
The construction of meaning and the invention of tradition always take place within a social and political context. Hence, the apolitical purpose of memory and the apolitical utility of national identity, in a broad sense, are linked to power; to the myriad and diverse efforts to maintain, stabilise and perpetuate that power. Focusing on official acts of commemoration, this article explores how political legitimacy—the primary basis for stabilisi…
Dilemmas of Ethnic Minorities in Democracies
Au sein des democraties et en periode de conflits, la discrimination envers une minorite ethnique est generalement exprimee en termes de securite. A la fin des hostilites, il s'opere un « retour a la normalite », une restitution legale de l'egalite de tous devant la loi. La minorite palestinienne en Israel, bien que relativement protegee par l'institution democratique de la citoyennete, a subi une discrimination fondamentale depuis l'instauration…
The Politics of Belonging
The past few decades have witnessed significant increases in levels of education among women members of conservative religions. Contrary to the expectations of both researchers and policymakers, this trend has not been accompanied by decreases in levels of piety. The purpose of this article is to explore what it means to educated religious women to belong to conservative religious communities that embody values and practices that do not conform t…
Changing (?) Gender Roles Within Conservative Communities
This article focuses on the creative and innovative modes of negotiation that women in severely patriarchal societies often exhibit in their attempts to actively pursue their own goals in the face of risk. Based on group interviews with Bedouin women in southern Israel about their everyday lives, the research explores both the risks and the ways in which the women deal with them. The research expands on discussions about the nature of women’s age…
Yearning for a Home
This paper presents the findings of an international Symposium held in New-York in 1958, organized by the Institute for Mediterranean Affairs aimed at producing a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. The Symposium included a panel of seventeen independent scholars that included political theorist Hannah Arendt. In this paper we examine the ways in which the proposed solution reflects Arendt's notion of human rights and her criticism of th…
Narratives of memory and national identity; analyzing agency in contemporary Holocaust memory initiatives
Constructing narratives of memory has long been acknowledged as a major component of nationalism and nation building. In Israel the memory of the Holocaust is widely seen as constituting one of these major components and is at the core of Israeli national identity. Since the early 2000s, the imminent passing of Holocaust survivors has resulted in an intense preoccupation with the question of the future of this memory. This preoccupation has produ…
Don't cry, it doesn't belong to us”; critical thoughts on commemoration as a means of inclusion
Efforts to incorporate the collective memories of minority communities into national memory narratives are viewed as an integral part of efforts to revive democracy, while contributing to social integration and equality. In this context, the inclusion of minority histories is increasingly being mandated by law and policy in many countries. Recently, Israel passed memory laws that set out to include the previously excluded history of its North Afr…
Dilemmas of Ethnic Minorities in Democracies
Au sein des democraties et en periode de conflits, la discrimination envers une minorite ethnique est generalement exprimee en termes de securite. A la fin des hostilites, il s'opere un « retour a la normalite », une restitution legale de l'egalite de tous devant la loi. La minorite palestinienne en Israel, bien que relativement protegee par l'institution democratique de la citoyennete, a subi une discrimination fondamentale depuis l'instauration…
The Shifting Status of African Americans in the American Collective Identity
In the name of G‐D and our rabbi
The fact of pluralism and Israeli national identity
Much of John Rawls' later work is concerned with the appli cation of his philosophical conceptions to the reality of liberal-democratic polities. I suggest that given the modern democratic reality of ethno national pluralism, Rawls' political conception of justice is insufficient to ensure democratic stability. Democratic states manage to contain ethnic pluralism while remaining compatible with liberal principles by promoting a corporate national…
The 1999 Israeli elections
Mapping the nation
The naming of streets is part of the ongoing process of mapping the boundaries of the nation. This article examines three sets of Arab‐Palestinian street names – pre‐1948 Haifa and Jerusalem and post‐1948 Umm el Fahm – as locally constructed ‘texts of identity’ in the historical and political context of their official creation. The investigation aims at charting the ideological orientations represented and the political messages entailed in these…
Public policy and social science training in Israel
Recent reforms instituted In the network of higher education in Israel have focused on two elements: adjusting the managerial structure of the universities to make it more amenable to market criteria of efficiency and reducing the proportional weight of state funding to the universities compared to that allotted to the technical and professional colleges. The main elements of this process—increasing power of managers in academic institutions, shi…
Changing Representations of National Identity and Political Legitimacy
The construction of meaning and the invention of tradition always take place within a social and political context. Hence, the apolitical purpose of memory and the apolitical utility of national identity, in a broad sense, are linked to power; to the myriad and diverse efforts to maintain, stabilise and perpetuate that power. Focusing on official acts of commemoration, this article explores how political legitimacy—the primary basis for stabilisi…
Representation, minorities and electoral reform
The article examines the impact of the recent change in the electoral threshold in Israel, from 2 per cent to 3.25 per cent, on the political representation of the Palestinian minority in Israel in the 2015 national election. I argue that the change in the threshold had a direct impact on Palestinian electoral representation and that this change provided incentives to Palestinian leadership to broaden their appeal and become more inclusive in the…
Gender relations in Bedouin communities in Israel
In this article, we examine the perceptions towards women and gender relations maintained by male, local authority officials within two Bedouin towns in Israel. As such, the current research lies at the intersection of local politics, gender, space and culture. We argue that analysis of these perspectives provides insights into the ambivalent nature of modernity: into the tension between the desire to preserve the traditional role of women in mai…
Yearning for a Home
This paper presents the findings of an international Symposium held in New-York in 1958, organized by the Institute for Mediterranean Affairs aimed at producing a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. The Symposium included a panel of seventeen independent scholars that included political theorist Hannah Arendt. In this paper we examine the ways in which the proposed solution reflects Arendt's notion of human rights and her criticism of th…
Focus groups and the collective construction of meaning
Israel’s Innovative Young Adults Lists
Scholars have pointed to the alarming decline in the participation of young people in the institutional political activities underlying representative democracy, such as voting, joining political parties, or running for office. Solutions previously proposed have dealt with participatory democracy rather than representative democracy. Based on in-depth interviews, this article shows that, since 1998, the involvement of Young Adults Lists (YALs) in…
Agents of memory in the post-witness era
With the passing of the survivors of the Holocaust and the aging of the second generation, new agents and initiatives are transforming the commemorative landscape of Holocaust remembrance. This article examines the impact of this generational transition on the production of collective memory of the Holocaust with focus on a new remembrance project in Israel, known as Memory in the Living Room. While some attention has been paid to its innovative …
Changing (?) Gender Roles Within Conservative Communities
This article focuses on the creative and innovative modes of negotiation that women in severely patriarchal societies often exhibit in their attempts to actively pursue their own goals in the face of risk. Based on group interviews with Bedouin women in southern Israel about their everyday lives, the research explores both the risks and the ways in which the women deal with them. The research expands on discussions about the nature of women’s age…
Patriarchal norms, practices and changing gendered power relations - narratives of Ultra-Orthodox women in Israel
The Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is undergoing massive changes, and these changes are clearly impacting the status of women, the different types of goals women set for themselves, and the myriad of ways in which they act towards achieving them. In this article, we examine these changes, focusing on how these women formulate and reformulate articulations of domestic femininity in ways that do not challenge the ‘Orthodox Ideal’ in the fundame…
It reminds me that I still exist'. Critical thoughts on intersectionality; refugee Muslim women in Berlin and the meanings of the hijab
Following the open-door refugee policy initiated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in August 2015, approximately 550,000 refugee women, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived in Germany. Studies that address the realities of immigrant Muslim women, primarily through the perspective of intersectionality, do not pay enough attention to the millions of immigrants whose legal status is as yet undefined. This article explores the experiences…
Don't cry, it doesn't belong to us”; critical thoughts on commemoration as a means of inclusion
Efforts to incorporate the collective memories of minority communities into national memory narratives are viewed as an integral part of efforts to revive democracy, while contributing to social integration and equality. In this context, the inclusion of minority histories is increasingly being mandated by law and policy in many countries. Recently, Israel passed memory laws that set out to include the previously excluded history of its North Afr…
The Politics of Belonging
The past few decades have witnessed significant increases in levels of education among women members of conservative religions. Contrary to the expectations of both researchers and policymakers, this trend has not been accompanied by decreases in levels of piety. The purpose of this article is to explore what it means to educated religious women to belong to conservative religious communities that embody values and practices that do not conform t…
Narratives of memory and national identity; analyzing agency in contemporary Holocaust memory initiatives
Constructing narratives of memory has long been acknowledged as a major component of nationalism and nation building. In Israel the memory of the Holocaust is widely seen as constituting one of these major components and is at the core of Israeli national identity. Since the early 2000s, the imminent passing of Holocaust survivors has resulted in an intense preoccupation with the question of the future of this memory. This preoccupation has produ…
Constrained Choice and Tactical Negotiations
This study examines how educated, non-pious Druze women in Israel navigate the tension between individual advancement and community belonging through narrative analysis of group interviews with thirty-four women. Drawing on feminist theories of agency and belonging, we analyze the perspectives these women employ to narrate their life choices, their relationship with the community, and their commitment to conservative collective values. Our findin…
Symbolic objects of memory and war
This article offers a new way to think about objects of memory, focusing on how a single item can take on various roles – from a cherished personal keepsake through a commercial product to a powerful political symbol. By examining the ‘Bring Them Home’ dog tags created in response to the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel in 2023, the article explores how these dog tags emerged as expressions of empathy for the hostages and their families, then evo…
Sociology (19 works) · Political science (18 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (16 works) · Law (15 works) · Politics (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Psychology (6 works)