{"id":49895,"date":"2026-09-22T17:28:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T17:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/?page_id=49895"},"modified":"2026-09-22T18:27:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:27:04","slug":"soffer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/soffer\/","title":{"rendered":"Soffer-Elnekave, Ruti"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Social justice, human rights, and relationships are the values that guide me in my work as a social worker, educator, and researcher. My research examines social work roles in conflict-affected and polarized societies, advancing a conflict-aware approach to social work theory, practice, and education with an emphasis on profession-based activism and peacebuilding.<\/p>\n

As a practitioner, I worked for many years in the Israeli foster care services, promoting access for marginalized communities. In the last few years, I founded and have been active in Social Workers for Democracy, a profession-based protest movement aimed at resisting democratic backsliding in Israel and promoting peace. Prior to coming to Augsburg, I was an Assistant Professor at the Haddasah Academic College in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

At Augsburg, I teach in both the BSW and MSW programs. I love working with students and learning together about how we might achieve their dreams of changing the world!<\/p>\n

TEACHING:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  • SWK 303: Human Development and the Social Environment<\/li>\n
  • SWK 316: Social Work Practice 2: Groups and Families<\/li>\n
  • SWK 500: Ways of Being and Knowing: Theories of Human Behavior in the Social Environment<\/li>\n
  • SWK 504: Applied Research Methods<\/li>\n
  • SWK 530: Integrated Field Seminar<\/li>\n
  • SWK 535: Integrated Field Seminar 2<\/li>\n
  • SWK 640: Anti-Oppressive Capstone<\/li>\n
  • SWK 660: Anti-Oppressive Macro Practice Research Methods<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Education:<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    • BSW from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel<\/li>\n
    • MSW from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel<\/li>\n
    • Ph.D from the University of Minnesota<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Publication:<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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      • Weishut, D. J., Soffer-Elnekave, R., Vass, A., & Zalcberg, S. (2026). Translation and validation of the Hebrew HITS screening tool for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). BMC Public Health.<\/li>\n
      • Toft, J., Soffer-Elnekave, R., Calhoun, M., Mendel, J., Otis, J., Zheng, M., Choy-Brown, M., & Lightfoot, L. (2026). Working Conditions, Professional Discretion, and Resistance of Frontline Social Workers. Social Work 71(1), 11-24. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/sw\/swaf052<\/li>\n
      • Soffer-Elnekave, R. (2025). Politically informed social work \u2013 theoretical perspectives. The Journal of Society & Welfare (Hebrew).<\/li>\n
      • Toft, J., Soffer-Elnekave, R., Calhoun, M., Zheng, M., Otis, J., (2025). Social work supervision under neoliberalism. Social Work 70(3), 195-204.<\/li>\n
      • Mahajne, I., Allassad Alhuzail, N., & Soffer-Elnekave, R. (2025). Supervision of minoritized Arab social work students under the shadow of the October 7th, 2023 war: Challenges and coping strategies, British Journal of Social Work. bcaf132, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/bjsw\/bcaf132<\/li>\n
      • Soffer-Elnekave, R. (2024). Global and local realities shaping the social work profession: A case study of social work in Israel. British Journal of Social Work. 00, 1\u201320. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/bjsw\/bcae006<\/li>\n
      • Weishut, D. J., & Soffer-Elnekave, R. (2023). Israelis in support of mental health. The Lancet. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/s0140-6736(23)02361-9<\/li>\n
      • Soffer-Elnekave, R., Haight, W., Cho, M., Nashshandi, N., & Suleiman, J. (2023). Re-orienting narratives of moral injury towards positive development: The experiences of emerging adults with child welfare histories Children and Youth Services Review. 149, 106922.<\/li>\n
      • Haight, W., Cho, M., Soffer-Elnekave, R., Nashshandi, N., Jader, B., & Suleiman, J. (2022). Moral injury experienced by emerging adults with child welfare histories in developmental and sociocultural contexts: \u201cI knew the system was broken.\u201d Children and Youth Services Review, 139. 106537.<\/li>\n
      • Toft, J., Lightfoot, E., Calhoun, M., Choy-Brown, M., Merighi, J., Renner, L., Marsalis, S., Soffer-Elnekave, R., & Mendel, J. (2023). Impacts of Neoliberalism on Social Work Practice in the United States: A Scoping Review Study. Social Work Research, 42(7), 99-110.<\/li>\n
      • Soffer \u2013Elnekave, R., Haight, W. & Jader, B. (2020). Parent mentoring relationships as a vehicle for reducing racial disparities: experiences of child welfare-involved parents, mentors and professionals. Children and Youth Services Review, 109, 104682.<\/li>\n
      • Haight, W.L, Taylor, E.H. & Soffer-Elnekave, R. (2020). Human Behavior for Social Work Practice: A Developmental Ecological Framework (3rd Edition). Oxford University Press.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Social justice, human rights, and relationships are the values that guide me in my work as a social worker, educator, and researcher. My research examines social work roles in conflict-affected and polarized societies, advancing a conflict-aware approach to social work theory, practice, and education with an emphasis on profession-based activism and peacebuilding. As a practitioner, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":514,"featured_media":49896,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-49895","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/514"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49895"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49898,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49895\/revisions\/49898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}