Eliezer Ben-Rafael (born 1938 in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

) is an Israeli sociologist. He is Weinberg Professor of Sociology, emeritus, at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

. Ben-Rafael is known for his work on the

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

, on language and

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

in Israel, and on

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

and Jewish identity. He is editor of a series on Jewish identities for

Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 27 ...

. Ben-Rafael is a former president of the

International Institute of Sociology The International Institute of Sociology (IIS) is a scholarly organization which seeks to stimulate and facilitate the development, exchange, and application of scientific knowledge to questions of sociological relevance. Membership is open to all ...

and former Chair of the Israeli Association for the Study of Language.

Childhood

Eliezer Ben-Rafael was an hidden child in Belgium during the Holocaust.

Work on Kibbutz Reform

In the early 1990s, Ben-Rafael was asked by the members of the

movement to chair a working group, "The Kibbutz at the Turn of the Century Project," to explore potential paths to the future for kibbutzim, many of which were failing both economically and failing to retain or attract members. Ben-Rafael was Chair of the Ben-Raphael Committee, a committee appointed by the

Cabinet of Israel The Cabinet of Israel (officially: he, ממשלת ישראל ''Memshelet Yisrael'') exercises executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of ministers who are chosen and led by the prime minister. The composition of the government ...

to produce a series of recommendations on structuring a process by which those kibbutzim that so chose could transition to a more market-oriented economic model. The recommendations were accepted by the government in 2004.

Books

*
The Metamorphosis of the Kibbutz
'' Ben-Rafael, E. & Shemer, O. (eds.) Brill, 2020 *
Confronting Allosemitism in Europe: The Case of Belgian Jews
'' Brill, 2014

References

1938 births Belgian Jews Living people Belgian emigrants to Israel Israeli Jews Israeli people of Belgian-Jewish descent Israeli sociologists Academic staff of Tel Aviv University {{Asia-sociologist-stub