ABSTRACT
This chapter extends the tools of understanding and work within the world of group relations to examine processes of identity and belonging in and between groups. Every group has identity characteristics, mechanisms of belonging and links between its sub-groups. The historical experience marks the Jews as a group that dispersed and returned to its home-land. The first international conference organized by OFEK, the Israel Association for the Study of Group and Organizational Processes, was held in May 2005, at Kfar Blum, Israel. The conference experience indicates the potential of investigating group relations from a culturally sensitive stance and a dualistic approach to ethnic identity, specifically. It is possible that the conference brought together "extreme images" and enabled an encounter based on authentic, liberating reflection, an investigation such as that which occurs in "no-man's land" and permits osmosis and rejuvenation. The space of defining Jewish identity is limited both by Jewish tradition and by the stereotypic attribution of traits to Jews.
