Martin-Springer Center for Conflict Studies

PI: Professor Shifra Sagy and Dr. Adi Mana together with many colleagues. Project supported initially by the Preparedness Center of the Ben Gurion University and later supported by The Israel National Institute For Health Policy Research (100,000 nis).

 

The Coronavirus pandemic has affected the life of millions worldwide. Employing the salutogenic model, we ask how individuals in different countries cope with this crisis and stay healthy. We are interested in exploring the individual (i.e., sense of coherence) as well as the social and national resources (i.e., social support, sense of national coherence, and trust in governmental institutions) that could explain levels of mental health and anxiety during the outbreak of the pandemic. This research is currently ongoing with research partners in several difference countries. 

PI: Professor Shifra Sagy (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) with Professor Martin Leiner (Jena University, Germany) and Professor Mohammed Daoud Dajani (Wasatia, East Jerusalem). Project supported by the DFG (900,000 Euro).

 

The project title “Hearts of Flesh – Not Stone” is a reference to an image in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (36:26). The image, which is significant for Jewish, Christian, and Muslim cultures, gives insight into the central questions of this project which sought to understand the movement of individuals and groups from lesser to greater willingness for reconciliation.

PI: Professor Shifra Sagy (Ben Gurion University of the Negev), Professor Gabriela Rosenthal (Gottingen University, Germany), and Professor Mohammad Daoud Dajani (Wasatia, East Jerusalem). This project was supported by a grant from the DFG foundation (1225,000 Euro).

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This research group studied the present-day social relations and dynamics of interaction between minority and majority groupings within society in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority territories (West Bank). The study concentrated on the perspectives and experiences of Palestinians as members of different groupings in several social settings (Palestinian and Jewish Israelis, Muslim and Christian Palestinian Israelis in a local context of a Muslim or Christian majority and Jewish Israelis, Christian, and Muslim Palestinians interacting in the Palestinian Authority territories). In addition the study explored the relationships between Haredi - ultraOrthodox and national religious Jews in Israel.