Arab-Jewish Coexistence Programs

Israeli Jewish and Arab intergroup relations experts within Israel have developed innovative coexistence programs. These programs consist of educational efforts designed to improve relations between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. This issue presents theory, methods, and data from these coexistence programs.

• Studies the diverse Israeli coexistence programs, which attempt to improve relations between Israeli Jews and Arabs
• Addresses conceptual and theoretical issues involved in establishing conditions for positive coexistence in Israel.
• Examines specific coexistence programs, presenting the background, goals, techniques and assessments of each program.
• Critically evaluates coexistence programs.

Rachel Hertz-Lazarowitz (Ph.D.) is a social-educational psychologist at the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa. The social psychological principles of cooperation inspire her work. Her areas of research include cooperative pedagogy and the study of existence and co-existence of different ethnic and national groups in Israel. She has published widely in English and Hebrew. Her edited book (with Norman Miller), Interaction in Cooperative Groups: The Theoretical Anatomy of Group Learning, was published in 1992.

Tamar Zelniker is a senior lecturer in the Psychology Department at Tel-Aviv University, and the head of the Graduate Cognitive Psychology Program. Her research interests are in the areas of cognitive development, theories of mind and cooperative learning. She has published journal articles and chapters on cognitive style in young children, and an edited book (with Tamar Globerson), Cognitive Style and Cognitive Development (1989). Dr. Zelniker has been co-director of a Palestinian-Israli academic training program (1995-1999), and is one of the founders of a new academic program of studies in Gaza, where she has been on the academic board since 1995.

Cookie White Stephan is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at New Mexico State University. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1971. Stephan's major research focus is on intergroup relations, specifically the antecedents of prejudice and ethnic identity. With Walter G. Stephan, she is the author of Intergroup Relations (1996), and Improving Intergroup Relations (2001).

Walter G. Stephan received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1971. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin and at New Mexico State University where he currently holds the rank of Emeritus Professor. He has published articles on attribution processes, cognition and affect, intergroup relations, and intercultural relations. He co-authored, with Cookie Stephan, Intergroup Relations (1996), and Improving Intergroup Relations (2001). He has also published Reducing Prejudice and Stereotyping in the Schools (1998), and is co-authoring, with W. Paul Vogt, Multicultural Education Programs: Research and Theory (forthcoming).