Resilience and well-being as positive determinants of mental health in Israel amid challenges

The State of Israel, with its unique social fabric, provides a distinctive context for examining resilience and well-being as positive indicators of mental health. Although a growing body of research has addressed these issues, existing knowledge remains fragmented and lacks an integrative, multilevel synthesis. This narrative review synthesizes empirical research conducted in Israel since 2000 on resilience and well-being in the contexts of war and armed conflict, immigration waves, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The review is guided by a multidimensional analytical framework comprising two axes. The first examines resilience and well-being at the macro, meso, and micro levels, emphasizing societal-, institutional-, community-, and individual-level factors that potentially enhance or maintain resilience and well-being in the face of these challenges. The second compares findings across population groups, including ethnic groups, age cohorts, essential workers, and other vulnerable populations in Israeli society. The findings indicate that resilience and well-being vary across the individual, community, and societal levels and across different societal challenges, reflecting the interaction of personal, relational, and structural factors under prolonged stress. Overall, resilience and well-being emerge as key positive dimensions of mental health, highlighting the need for context-sensitive and multilevel approaches to strengthen adaptive functioning during challenging times.