Although Jewish culture and tradition are quite compatible with the goals and philosophy of mediation, family mediation has barely begun to develop in the state of Israel Three major obstacles to its development are identified and discussed: the problematic structure of the judicial system, the complex blend of both religious and secular laws, and the prevailing attitudes and practices of family law attorneys. Additional obstacles include certain attitudes and practices of mediators, the need for training, the lack of ideological commitment and financial resources, and the need for public education. The challenge facing family mediation in Israel is to prove its viability and efficacy in spite of all the obstacles.

Divorce mediation, as it has evolved in North America, is a relatively new development in Israel. The Israeli socio‐legal and cultural context present several obstacles along the road to cooperative settlement of divorce conflicts. This article discusses the secular and religious dual court systems, the Jewish law requiring mutual agreement to divorce, and the impact of certain inequalities of the sexes. Mediation services in the public and private sectors are described.

What prerequisites are needed for family mediators?

are experienced family mediators, trainers, educators, and clinical supervisors in Australia. The wealth of their experience is embedded in their new book on family mediation, a text which combines theory, process, and practice in a reader-friendly manner. Although the majority of references and resources are from Australia and New Zealand, the book has value for an international audience as well.In marked contrast to the many books about mediating divorce, this book presents the use of mediation with a broad range of family issues: separating couples, cohabitation and prenuptial agreements, parent-adolescent disputes, issues between adult children and their aging parents, stepfamily conflicts, family businesses, wills and estates, and a variety of adoption issues. Not all these contexts are described with the same amount of detail, but examples are provided which give the reader a glimpse into mediation of typical issues in each arena.Another unique feature of the authors' approach is their emphasis on premediation interviews with each party in order to assess the suitability of mediation and to prepare the parties for the mediation process. The premediation sessions are used to identify the issues in dispute and to help the mediator plan how to conduct the mediation, given his understanding of the people involved and the current state of their relationship. Although an intake process is common procedure in clinics offering psychological services, it is less common among mediators, particularly those who are private practitioners and work alone.The authors point out the importance of understanding the family dynamics of each situation (divorce, adolescent-parent conflict, adoption, etc.) in addition to the generic skills and techniques that a mediator makes use of in any mediation. Throughout the book, Fisher and Brandon interweave substantive knowledge with process descriptions when describing and analyzing the various cases they use to illustrate the theoretical material. The authors provide additional resources at the end of each chapter to guide the reader in obtaining the specialized knowledge needed to enhance the mediator's sensitivity to the kind of conflicts and other issues dealt with in that chapter.After presenting the family systems' approach to family mediation, an overview of the mediation process, and a description of the different conflict areas in which family mediation has been used, the authors present the kind of generic material found in most books on mediation-communication skills, negotiation styles, use of caucus and other mediation techniques, ethical issues, and the impact of culture on the mediation process. Although the material presented in the later chapters is not original, it is well-written and illustrated with case studies and sample dialogues. The authors' discussion of various practice issues raises questions which the reader needs to answer for himself. Fisher and Brandon do not claim to have definitive answers.The book is likely to be helpful to newcomers to the field of fa...

The study examined certain aspects of the validity of the Inter personal Maturity Level Classification, which has been used in treating delinquents in the California Youth Authority. Specifi cally, the roles of intelligence and affect awareness in the classifi cation system were studied. Groups of institutionalized deliquent girls at different levels of "interpersonal maturity" were compared on several measures of intelligencre and degree of awareness of feelings in others. The results indicated that intelligence, verbal fluency, and race were the most important components of Inter personal Maturity Level considered. Higher levels of maturity were also accompanied by greater attention to affect cues and better judgment of nonverbal expressions of affect. The findings concerning affect awareness, while consistent with the theory behind the classification system, point to differential salience of affect as the key variable underlying differences in awareness of feelings in others. The data on intelligence point to the need for further research to clarify the actual components of the Inter personal Maturity Level Classification.