Women agricultural collective, 1924.
Prof. Deborah Bernstein honored with
Israel Prize for her deep and insightful
work on the evolution of Israeli society
Prof. Deborah Bernstein of the Department of Sociology has won this year’s Israel Prize in the field of Sociology and Anthropology.
Prof. Bernstein, who has taught at the University for over three decades, devoted her career to studying inequality and relations of dominance in Israeli society in its formative periods, during the pre-state period and early statehood. She focused on gender inequality in the labor market, as well as the social history of women workers and marginalized women during the British Mandate. Bernstein contributed to the development of new trends in the sociology of Israeli society, and to the emergence of ‘critical sociology’ in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She studied the evolving ethnic relations (Ashkenazim-Mizrahim) and the formation of the Israeli system of stratification. Bernstein’s research is innovative in combining sociological and historical perspectives, which she employed in her study of relations between Jews and Arabs in Haifa during the mandate period. She has published widely, both in Hebrew and in English.
The award committee remarked that “her trailblazing research has led to important insights into understanding women and gender, social marginalization, labor relations, law and contemporary Israeli society from the time of the [British] mandate until today.”
In a congratulatory letter sent to Bernstein, President Ron Robin and Rector Gustavo Mesch wrote: “Your original research exploring Israeli society has contributed to a deep and unique understanding of ‘Israeliness’ as we know it today. Your achievements are an inspiration to the university community, especially since your work was written at the University of Haifa, which aims to be a gateway to social mobility for anyone who so aspires. Together, through research and action, we hope to affect positive change in Israeli society.”
Prof. Bernstein received the prestigious award at the annual state ceremony on Independence Day in Jerusalem.