One Health, as an international movement and as a research methodology, aspires to cross boundaries between disciplines. However, One Health has also been viewed as “reductionist” due to its overemphasize on physicians-veterinarians cooperation and surveillance capacity enhancement, while limiting the involvement with socio-political preconditioning factors that shape the impact of diseases, and the ethical questions that eventually structure interventions. The current article draws on a qualitative study of Brucellosis control in Israel, to address the benefits of broadening the One Health (...) perspective to include ethical considerations and the socio-political aspects of health. Using in-depth-interviews, observations and document review, the article analyzes stakeholders’ knowledge (policy makers, practitioners and livestock owners) to understand Brucellosis control interventions in the Negev region of Israel. The analysis highlights four different types of boundaries: geographical, professional, disciplinary and participatory. The variety of boundaries going beyond disciplinary ones, are often neglected by traditional One Health discourses, however they provide clearer understanding regarding the role of the Israel and Palestine relations; enforcement activities and trust creation; and mechanisms of decision-making and public participation, in Brucellosis interventions. A broad One Health analysis that addresses ethical concerns and socio-political environments, as well as human and veterinary medicine, encourages re-framing of causes and solutions when dealing particularly with Brucellosis in the Negev, but more generally with zoonotic diseases, low-trust settings and inequitable distribution of power. The inclusion of historical, political and bioethical considerations of Public Health in One Health creates opportunities to increase the relevance of One Health and expand its scope as a novel scientific paradigm. (shrink)

Empirical evidence shows that personal values have an influence on empathy in intrapersonal relationships. We examine the relationship between the values of self-enhancement and self-transcendence among members of the majority group and empathy towards in-group and out-group members. Two hundred and ninety-seven Israeli Jewish students took part in the study. While the results show that self-transcendence values have a consistent effect on empathy whether it is towards in-group or out-group members, the hypotheses regarding the impact of self-enhancement values on empathy (...) towards out-group members were partly supported. We discuss the universality of self-transcendence values in their influence on empathy in different contexts and emphasize the complex relationships among in-group members. (shrink)

"Proceedings of an international workshop held in memory of Professor Shlomo Pines at the Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 28 February - 2 March 2005".

A survey of a number of themes common to the Book of the Twelve shows that an intertextual approach to Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and the whole Book of the Twelve offers perspectives on issues in the texts not available to studies that isolate the individual collections.

The Religious and Spiritual Life of the Jews of Medina. By Haggai Mazuz. Brill Reference Library of Judaism, vol. 38. Leiden: Brill, 2014. Pp. xvi + 132. $122, €103.