This is the nineteenth installment of The Cocoon Goes Global, a series that gives a sense of what the philosophy profession looks like outside of the Anglophone West. Today's entry is by Dr. Samuel Lebens, Research Fellow at the University of Haifa.
Israel is a country of approximately 9 million citizens. Roughly 75% of the population is Jewish, and roughly 25% are Arabs. Both of those communities are host to tremendous cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity.
Roughly a quarter of the Jewish population are religiously observant, and that, in itself, spans a range from ultra-Orthodoxy to Modern-Orthodoxy. The Jewish population, more generally, is host to distinct ethnic communities: Moroccan, Yemenite, Persian, Ethiopian, Eastern European, Western-European, and more.
The Arabic population is host to Bedouin, Muslim, Christian, and Druze communities, and more. All of this is focusing only on Israeli citizens, and not on the many Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.
I imagine that any population with this much diversity will likely be witness to all sorts of internal tensions, and Israel is no exception. There are tensions between religious and secular Jews, between Eastern and Western Jews, between Jews and Arabs, between Muslims and Christians, between Arabs who identify as Israeli (with many Druze and Bedouins, in particular, serving in the Israeli army) and Arabs who identify as Palestinians with Israeli citizenship (who are exempt from serving in the Israeli army). There are also pronounced political tensions between the Israeli right, and the often beleaguered Israeli left. For about a year, we haven't had a functioning government, since the various parties are too divided to form a coalition.
And yet, this context of tension and conflict can often make Israel a very rewarding place in which to teach University level philosophy. I teach in the university of Haifa, which is perhaps Israel's most ethnically diverse university, with roughly 40% of our student body coming from the Arab community of Israel.
As in many countries, philosophy in Israel tends to attract students of a more privileged background - in this context, male Ashkenazi Jews (i.e., Jews of European heritage). It's often the case that Israeli citizens of a less privileged background are under considerable economic and cultural pressure to pursue a more obviously vocational degree at University level. But I have found, at Haifa, that if you offer courses in English, a considerable number of humanities-minded Arab students are likely to register (if only to take the course as an elective). This means that I walk into class, at the beginning of the semester, and am often met with a class of students from a very wide array of backgrounds: ex-service men and women, both Jewish and Druze, sometimes soldiers in uniform (taking university courses as part of their officer training), Muslim and Christian Palestinians, religious, or at least theistic students (mainly Arabic), as well as secular, atheistic students (mainly Jewish). The opportunity to learn philosophy together, in such a context, lends an added layer of significance to the endeavour.
Encouraging people to think critically, and to listen deeply, in such a class room, even if what you're talking about is Berkeley, or the metaphysics of time (and is therefore removed from the daily political reality of life in Israel), can become a deeply humanising experience.
There's no doubt that, in the wider academic world, outside of Israel, there has been much talk of academic and cultural boycotts directed against Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory. There's also no doubt that my own (very liberal, and left-wing version of) Zionism makes me biased against this boycott from the outset. I don't see similar calls for boycotts against Russian, Iranian, Chinese, or even American academics. But putting that debate to one side; until one has taught at an Israeli university, and built a relationship with Palestinian students here, it is hard to appreciate the role that Israeli universities can play in helping young Palestinians to flourish against considerable odds (which isn't to ignore the fact that Palestinians without Israeli citizenship, living under occupation in the territories, are not afforded the same opportunities - but the politics of the occupation, and the best way to bring peace, security, and prosperity to the region is beyond the scope of this little post!).
Another wonderful opportunity I've had, as an academic in Haifa, is our outreach program to Arab high schools. In order to encourage more diversity in our profession, we organise lectures in Muslim, Christian and Druze schools, in the hope of encouraging students to enroll in philosophy. We bring Arab undergraduate and graduate students with us to hold smaller discussions with the students after the lecture. So far, the program has been a wonderful success; promoting more than just our degree course; it promotes critical thinking, and dialogue.
Moving on to more specific details about academic philosophy in Israel... Unlike America, where philosophy can be a good major for undergraduates hoping to move into law, or even medical degrees, later on; law and medicine are undergraduate degrees in Israel. Unlike many countries in Europe, there is not a culture of hiring people with only humanities degrees in the professions, although with the rise of high-tech industry in Israel, there are signs that this is beginning to change as small start-ups are becoming more creative in terms of what they're looking for in their hiring policies. But as things stand, it is very difficult to convince people to major in philosophy. Moreover, a large number of students are coming to their studies later on in life, after their compulsory military service, which also adds to the sense of urgency regarding vocational training.
Having said that, philosophy can still be marketed as a very attractive double-major alongside computer-science, or law, or psychology. In the University of Haifa, for example, we have a very well regarded philosophy and psychology double major.
English literature is a very popular degree in Israel because there is always need for English teachers in the school system; the degree is therefore, at once, vocational and within the humanities. Accordingly, there is a lot of scope for courses in philosophy of literature - which is also something that we've explored here in Haifa.
Philosophy is relatively healthy in Israel. We have philosophy departments (of varying sizes) in each of the five multi-disciplinary state universities. There are also, smaller, private colleges, that offer under-graduate degrees, and many of them employ philosophers to teach various courses. At least one of them has a dedicated philosophy department.
The funding system here perhaps exacerbates the publish or perish mentality, as each journal publication in the humanities, brings the university 250,000 shekels, which is a little over $70,000, from the state. And, there is much more demand for science degrees than for humanities degrees, among students, which can add to pressure felt in a department to justify its own existence.
Jobs are not easy to come by. Sometimes, the university will grant a philosophy department a tenure line, but then rescind the line if the incumbent resigns. For that reason, a department will want to feel secure that a new appointment is planning to stay for the long-term (or at least for a good few years), since they won't want to lose the line. Moreover, compulsory under-graduate classes generally have to be offered in Hebrew. So, although it's possible to teach graduate classes, and electives in English (as I do), or in Arabic, and although a university will employ a person who doesn't speak Hebrew, there is an expectation that new hires will enedavour to work on their Hebrew until they're able to teach the core undergraduate classes. But if a job candidate demonstrates commitment to stay for a good amount of time, and to try to learn Hebrew, when jobs are on offer, I sense a real desire, on the part of philosophy departments, to bring in academics from a wide range of backgrounds, and specifically, from overseas (although it can be very difficult to tick all of these boxes!).
We have a vibrant philosophical association which holds its own annual conference. Some departments have a distinctively analytic bent, some are more continental, and some of them are very eclectic. Most departments hold regular colloquia, with guest speakers, and there are regularly international conferences of a high caliber. There are also a number of possibilities for securing research grants from the Israeli Science Foundation and from the European Research Council (among other sources). From the establishment of its universities, until today, the Israeli philosophical community has punched above its weight, being home to, or producing, a large number of world-class philosophers. So, in spite of the recognisable challenges facing publicly funded higher-education humanities departments, Israel remains a very rewarding place in which to conduct a career in philosophy, for those who are lucky enough to get a job.
As another philosopher from Israel, I'd like to add one small thing to Sam's thoughtful post on the philosophy scene here.
One interesting aspect of professional life in Israel is the very small size of the country. While for obvious reasons this is a source of security challenges, when it comes to local philosophy events it's an advantage because most philosophy departments are only a couple of hours driving away from most other philosophy departments (and a bit more with public transit). This means that the philosophy scene of Israel often more resembles that of a very large city, rather than that of a bigger country.
While in many ways convenient, the main downside I see with this is that it contributes to the absence of what I perhaps most miss from philosophy as it's done in the English-speaking world: the post-event drinks. Since in domestic philosophy events participants usually rush back to the city where they live, there's very little of that here (though my sense is that many of us who got used to the US/UK way of doing things are working to change this!)
Posted by: David Kovacs | 03/06/2020 at 12:03 PM