“Jews, open your eyes, wait, why hurry?” Public health and the cultural politics of protection in Jerusalem
Drawing on an ethnographic study into child care and health in Jerusalem, this paper explores the cultural politics of protection that surrounds responses to public health intervention during outbreaks of infectious disease. This paper situates the voices of Orthodox and Haredi Jewish parents alongside activism and print cultures (pashkevilim) that circulated anonymous messaging in Jerusalem neighbourhoods – casting public health intervention against historical narratives of danger and deception. Pandemic responses interact with deeply-rooted tensions at the intersection of religion, health and state, as viral outbreaks play into long-running struggles over military conscription and the character of the ‘Jewish state’.
Date: 27 April 2021, 14:15 (Tuesday, 1st week, Trinity 2021)
Venue: https://zoom.us/j/92898163373?pwd=Ym90S2pmMGRNdVppZnZLcEhNV2kyUT09
Speaker: Dr Ben Kasstan (University of Bristol)
Organising department: Oxford School of Global and Area Studies
Organiser: Professor Yaacov Yadgar
Organiser contact email address: middle.east@area.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Israel Studies Seminar Trinity term 2021
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Stephen Minay