The Evolving Concept of Risk and Israel’s Child Policy

Israel is a multi-cultural country composed of many minority groups. There are many requests for Israel’s child policy and services to deal with minority groups in a context-informed manner. This chapter examines the evolving concept of “risk” and Israel’s child policy; it includes a review of the development of the concept of risk for Israeli children and its expressions in policy within a cultural context throughout the years. The following is a review of how the existing Israeli policy relates to the cultural aspects of children at risk. The chapter continues by discussing the ways in which context and cultural awareness can be increased and the challenges inherent to this process. In that regard, the chapter concludes with a call for new policies that will adhere to the reduction of the gaps between the characteristics of various minority groups and Israel’s child policy. Those will serve to create a context-informed perspective in this field.