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Intergenerational Family Relations in the Multicultural Society of Israel

Our long-term, scientific collaboration in the research arena of intergenerational family relations directed us to initiate this special issue of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships (JIR) on “Intergenerational Family Relations in the Multicultural Society of Israel.” Coming from diverse social disciplines, gerontology and sociology, we intertwined our interests in understanding family lives of elders in modern societies and especially within the pluralistic society of Israel. Global aging is diversifying individual life courses as well as family forms (Lowenstein, 2005). The change has important impacts for intergenerational ties. The variation in family types creates uncertainty in intergenerational relations and expectations (Bengtson & Lowenstein, 2003). The set of articles in this special issue seeks to address the core issues of aging and intergenerational family relations in a multicultural society. Bringing a number of social scientists together with an interdisciplinary research background can, thus, contribute to paint and analyze different aspects of family intergenerational relations within various cultural groups from theoretical and empirical perspectives. There are at least three reasons why this special issue is timely. First, a number of social issues are emerging that have an intergenerational dimension, including, for example, ageism and questions of generational equity around pensions and forms of care. Second, changes in family structures and forms and increasing individualization and globalization raise strongly the issue of renegotiating the balance between family responsibility for elder care and state responsibility (Daatland & Lowenstein, 2005). Third, an implication