At a time when folklorists flounder in America, they flourish in Israel. Being under the perennial threat of department closures, American folklorists have ventured into the fields of public folklore that politicians have mined. In contrast, in Israel, while making slow and modest progress at the universities, folklorists have joined forces with non-academic intellectuals and scholars in other disciplines to present before the public their latest research analyses and their explorations of new directions. Theory and Criticism ("Teoria unikoret") is one of Israel's leading forums for ideas and scholarship. It is an interdisciplinary journal that appeals to a growing public of academically educated readers and adheres to scholarly standards and format. The publication of a special issue devoted to "Folk Culture and Popular Culture," following shortly the appearance of a volume edited by Benjamin Z. Kedar, Studies in the History of Popular Culture (Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 1996), attests to the strengthened position of folklore in Israel.