Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis

Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis

Author: Yaacov Yadgar

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-01-30

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1108488943

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An innovative and provocative study tackling the main assumptions surrounding Israel's claim to Jewish identity.


Book Synopsis Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis by : Yaacov Yadgar

Download or read book Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis written by Yaacov Yadgar and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-30 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative and provocative study tackling the main assumptions surrounding Israel's claim to Jewish identity.


Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis

Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis

Author: Yaacov Yadgar

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-01-30

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1108801153

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An important and topical contribution to the field of Middle East studies, this innovative, provocative, and timely study tackles head-on the main assumptions of the foundation of Israel as a Jewish state. Theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, Yaacov Yadgar provides a novel analysis of the interplay between Israeli nationalism and Jewish tradition, arriving at a fresh understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through its focus on internal questions about Israeli identity. By critiquing and transcending the current discourse on religion and politics in Israel, this study brings to an international audience debates within Israel that have been previously inaccessible to non-Hebrew speaking academics. Featuring discussions on Israeli jurisprudence, nation-state law, and rabbinic courts, Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis will have far-reaching implications, not only within the state of Israel but on politics, society and culture beyond its borders.


Book Synopsis Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis by : Yaacov Yadgar

Download or read book Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis written by Yaacov Yadgar and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An important and topical contribution to the field of Middle East studies, this innovative, provocative, and timely study tackles head-on the main assumptions of the foundation of Israel as a Jewish state. Theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, Yaacov Yadgar provides a novel analysis of the interplay between Israeli nationalism and Jewish tradition, arriving at a fresh understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through its focus on internal questions about Israeli identity. By critiquing and transcending the current discourse on religion and politics in Israel, this study brings to an international audience debates within Israel that have been previously inaccessible to non-Hebrew speaking academics. Featuring discussions on Israeli jurisprudence, nation-state law, and rabbinic courts, Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis will have far-reaching implications, not only within the state of Israel but on politics, society and culture beyond its borders.


Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity

Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity

Author: Asher Cohen

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2000-06-16

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780801863455

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The role of religion in a democratic society Best Book award given by the Israel Political Science Association Since the 1980s, relationships between secular and religious Israelis have gone from bad to worse. What was formerly a politics of accommodation, one whose main objective was the avoidance of strife through "arrangements" and compromises, has become a winner-take-all, zero-sum game. The conflict is not over who gets what. Rather, it is a conflict over the very character of the polity, a struggle to define Israel's collective character. In Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity Asher Cohen and Bernard Susser show how this transformation has been caused by structural changes in Israel's public sphere. Surveying many different levels of public life, they explore the change of Israel's politics from a dominant-party system to a balanced two-camp system. They trace the rise of the Haredi parties and the growing consonance of religiosity with right-wing politics. Other topics include the new Basic Laws on Freedom, Dignity, and Occupation; the effects of massive immigration of secular Jews from the former Soviet Union; the greater emphasis on liberal "good government"; and the rise of an aggressive investigative press and electronic media.


Book Synopsis Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity by : Asher Cohen

Download or read book Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity written by Asher Cohen and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2000-06-16 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role of religion in a democratic society Best Book award given by the Israel Political Science Association Since the 1980s, relationships between secular and religious Israelis have gone from bad to worse. What was formerly a politics of accommodation, one whose main objective was the avoidance of strife through "arrangements" and compromises, has become a winner-take-all, zero-sum game. The conflict is not over who gets what. Rather, it is a conflict over the very character of the polity, a struggle to define Israel's collective character. In Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity Asher Cohen and Bernard Susser show how this transformation has been caused by structural changes in Israel's public sphere. Surveying many different levels of public life, they explore the change of Israel's politics from a dominant-party system to a balanced two-camp system. They trace the rise of the Haredi parties and the growing consonance of religiosity with right-wing politics. Other topics include the new Basic Laws on Freedom, Dignity, and Occupation; the effects of massive immigration of secular Jews from the former Soviet Union; the greater emphasis on liberal "good government"; and the rise of an aggressive investigative press and electronic media.


The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity

The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity

Author: D. Waxman

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2006-09-02

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 140398347X

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This book offers a theoretically-informed analysis of the way in which Israeli national identity has shaped Israel's foreign policy. By linking domestic identity politics to Israeli foreign policy, it reveals how a crisis of Israeli identity inflamed the debate in Israel over the Oslo peace process.


Book Synopsis The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity by : D. Waxman

Download or read book The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity written by D. Waxman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2006-09-02 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a theoretically-informed analysis of the way in which Israeli national identity has shaped Israel's foreign policy. By linking domestic identity politics to Israeli foreign policy, it reveals how a crisis of Israeli identity inflamed the debate in Israel over the Oslo peace process.


Sovereign Jews

Sovereign Jews

Author: Yaacov Yadgar

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2017-03-15

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1438465351

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Offers a novel exploration of the relationship between religion and the state in Israel. The question of Jewish sovereignty shapes Jewish identity in Israel, the status of non-Jews, and relations between Israeli and Diaspora Jews, yet its consequences remain enigmatic. In Sovereign Jews, Yaacov Yadgar highlights the shortcomings of mainstream discourse and offers a novel explanation of Zionist ideology and the Israeli polity. Yadgar argues that secularism’s presumed binary pitting religion against politics is illusory. He shows that the key to understanding this alleged dichotomy is Israel’s interest in maintaining its sovereignty as the nation-state of Jews. This creates a need to mark a majority of the population as Jews and to distinguish them from non-Jews. Coupled with the failure to formulate a viable alternative national identity (either “Hebrew” or “Israeli”), it leads the ostensibly secular state to apply a narrow interpretation of Jewish religion as a political tool for maintaining a Jewish majority. Yaacov Yadgar is Stanley Lewis Professor of Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and the author of Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics: Traditionists and Modernity.


Book Synopsis Sovereign Jews by : Yaacov Yadgar

Download or read book Sovereign Jews written by Yaacov Yadgar and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2017-03-15 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a novel exploration of the relationship between religion and the state in Israel. The question of Jewish sovereignty shapes Jewish identity in Israel, the status of non-Jews, and relations between Israeli and Diaspora Jews, yet its consequences remain enigmatic. In Sovereign Jews, Yaacov Yadgar highlights the shortcomings of mainstream discourse and offers a novel explanation of Zionist ideology and the Israeli polity. Yadgar argues that secularism’s presumed binary pitting religion against politics is illusory. He shows that the key to understanding this alleged dichotomy is Israel’s interest in maintaining its sovereignty as the nation-state of Jews. This creates a need to mark a majority of the population as Jews and to distinguish them from non-Jews. Coupled with the failure to formulate a viable alternative national identity (either “Hebrew” or “Israeli”), it leads the ostensibly secular state to apply a narrow interpretation of Jewish religion as a political tool for maintaining a Jewish majority. Yaacov Yadgar is Stanley Lewis Professor of Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and the author of Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics: Traditionists and Modernity.


The Crisis of Zionism

The Crisis of Zionism

Author: Peter Beinart

Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0522861768

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A dramatic shift is taking place in Israel and America. In Israel, the deepening occupation of the West Bank is putting Israeli democracy at risk. In the United States, the refusal of major Jewish organisations to defend democracy in the Jewish state is alienating many young liberal Jews from Zionism itself. In the next generation, the liberal Zionist dream, the dream of a state that safeguards the Jewish people and cherishes democratic ideals, may die. In The Crisis of Zionism, Peter Beinart lays out in chilling detail the looming danger to Israeli democracy and the American Jewish establishment's refusal to confront it. And he offers a fascinating, groundbreaking portrait of the two leaders at the centre of the crisis: Barack Obama, America's first 'Jewish president', a man steeped in the liberalism he learned from his many Jewish friends and mentors in Chicago; and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who considers liberalism the Jewish people's special curse. These two men embody fundamentally different visions, not just of American and Israeli national interests, but of the mission of the Jewish people itself. Beinart concludes with provocative proposals for how the relationship between American Jews and Israel must change, and with an eloquent and moving appeal for American Jews to defend the dream of a democratic Jewish state before it is too late.


Book Synopsis The Crisis of Zionism by : Peter Beinart

Download or read book The Crisis of Zionism written by Peter Beinart and published by Melbourne Univ. Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dramatic shift is taking place in Israel and America. In Israel, the deepening occupation of the West Bank is putting Israeli democracy at risk. In the United States, the refusal of major Jewish organisations to defend democracy in the Jewish state is alienating many young liberal Jews from Zionism itself. In the next generation, the liberal Zionist dream, the dream of a state that safeguards the Jewish people and cherishes democratic ideals, may die. In The Crisis of Zionism, Peter Beinart lays out in chilling detail the looming danger to Israeli democracy and the American Jewish establishment's refusal to confront it. And he offers a fascinating, groundbreaking portrait of the two leaders at the centre of the crisis: Barack Obama, America's first 'Jewish president', a man steeped in the liberalism he learned from his many Jewish friends and mentors in Chicago; and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who considers liberalism the Jewish people's special curse. These two men embody fundamentally different visions, not just of American and Israeli national interests, but of the mission of the Jewish people itself. Beinart concludes with provocative proposals for how the relationship between American Jews and Israel must change, and with an eloquent and moving appeal for American Jews to defend the dream of a democratic Jewish state before it is too late.


Israel

Israel

Author: Akiva Orr

Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13:

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'Orr's great clarity in forming and forwarding his ideas and ideological critique of nationalism, statehood, socialism and Zionism over four decades makes this book an important and timely contribution to the discussion of fundamental values for the 1990s and their relevance to the Middle East' Meir Vanunu'By virtue of the articles that appear in hth book , it should be said that [Orr] was a pioneer in the cultural renaissance that is shaping the Israeli intellectual landscape, and the herald ... of a moral-political renaissance' News Within'An illuminating and unique anti-Zionist perspective. Certainly not a beginners' book on Israel but a refreshingly honest attempt at creating debate on this tragic conflict' Socialist Review'Orr's writings are highly thought-provoking, and are worth reading for anyone interested in the way politics and ethnicity meet in ethnic conflicts' Outlook (Canada)His topics are also the stuff of which crises are made. Questions of identity go to the hear of ideological debates in and around Israel. Orr's book uses a wide range of anecdotal, historical. literary and social psychological sources, and provides a strong point of view. Middle East Journal (Autumn '95) 49, No 4


Book Synopsis Israel by : Akiva Orr

Download or read book Israel written by Akiva Orr and published by Pluto Press (UK). This book was released on 1994 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Orr's great clarity in forming and forwarding his ideas and ideological critique of nationalism, statehood, socialism and Zionism over four decades makes this book an important and timely contribution to the discussion of fundamental values for the 1990s and their relevance to the Middle East' Meir Vanunu'By virtue of the articles that appear in hth book , it should be said that [Orr] was a pioneer in the cultural renaissance that is shaping the Israeli intellectual landscape, and the herald ... of a moral-political renaissance' News Within'An illuminating and unique anti-Zionist perspective. Certainly not a beginners' book on Israel but a refreshingly honest attempt at creating debate on this tragic conflict' Socialist Review'Orr's writings are highly thought-provoking, and are worth reading for anyone interested in the way politics and ethnicity meet in ethnic conflicts' Outlook (Canada)His topics are also the stuff of which crises are made. Questions of identity go to the hear of ideological debates in and around Israel. Orr's book uses a wide range of anecdotal, historical. literary and social psychological sources, and provides a strong point of view. Middle East Journal (Autumn '95) 49, No 4


Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics

Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics

Author: Yaacov Yadgar

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-07-28

Total Pages: 607

ISBN-13: 113693992X

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Common discourse on Jewish identity in Israel is dominated by the view that Jewish Israelis can, and should, be either religious or secular. Moving away from this conventional framework, this book examines the role of secularism and religion in Jewish society and politics. With a focus on the ‘traditionists’ (masortim) who comprise over a third of the Jewish-Israeli population, the author examines issues of religion, tradition and secularism in Israel, giving a fresh approach to the widening theoretical discussion regarding the thesis of secularisation and modernity and exploring the wider implications of this identity. Yadgar’s conclusions have significant social, cultural and political implications, serving not only as a new contribution to the academic discourse on Jewish-Israeli identity, but as a platform upon which traditionist positions on central issues of Israeli politics can be heard. Offering a detailed investigation into a central and important Jewish-Israeli identity construct, the book is relevant not only to the study of Jewish identity in Israel but also within the wider social-theoretical issues of religion, tradition, modernity and secularization. The book will be of great interest to students of Israeli society and to anyone looking into the issues of Jewish identity, Israeli nationalism and ethnicity, religion and politics in Israel, and the sociology of religion.


Book Synopsis Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics by : Yaacov Yadgar

Download or read book Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics written by Yaacov Yadgar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-07-28 with total page 607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Common discourse on Jewish identity in Israel is dominated by the view that Jewish Israelis can, and should, be either religious or secular. Moving away from this conventional framework, this book examines the role of secularism and religion in Jewish society and politics. With a focus on the ‘traditionists’ (masortim) who comprise over a third of the Jewish-Israeli population, the author examines issues of religion, tradition and secularism in Israel, giving a fresh approach to the widening theoretical discussion regarding the thesis of secularisation and modernity and exploring the wider implications of this identity. Yadgar’s conclusions have significant social, cultural and political implications, serving not only as a new contribution to the academic discourse on Jewish-Israeli identity, but as a platform upon which traditionist positions on central issues of Israeli politics can be heard. Offering a detailed investigation into a central and important Jewish-Israeli identity construct, the book is relevant not only to the study of Jewish identity in Israel but also within the wider social-theoretical issues of religion, tradition, modernity and secularization. The book will be of great interest to students of Israeli society and to anyone looking into the issues of Jewish identity, Israeli nationalism and ethnicity, religion and politics in Israel, and the sociology of religion.


Israel Has a Jewish Problem

Israel Has a Jewish Problem

Author: Joyce Dalsheim

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-10-16

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 019068027X

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The long-standing debate about whether the State of Israel can be both Jewish and democratic raises important questions about the rights of Palestinian Arabs. In Israel Has a Jewish Problem, Joyce Dalsheim argues that this debate obscures another issue: Can the Jewish state protect the right to be Jewish, whatever form that "being" might take? Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, she investigates that question by looking at ways in which Jewish citizens of Israel struggle to be Jewish within the confines of a Jewish state. She focuses on everyday experiences, on public interpretations of the possibilities of being Jewish in the context of state policy, and on media representations of conflicts between Jewish citizens over social, religious, and political issues. Despite Israel's claim that every religious community "is free, by law and in practice, to exercise its faith, observe its holidays ... and administer its internal affairs," Israel is foundationally a Jewish state. It privileges Orthodox regulation of who will be considered a Jew, of marriage and family law, and of conversion. This arrangement, and the constant tensions it has produced over the years, is often understood as a compromise between secular and religious political factions. But this religious-secular framing conceals broader patterns inherent in nationalist projects more generally. Using insights from Franz Kafka's writing as a theoretical lens through which the ethnographic data can be viewed, Dalsheim interrogates the relationship between nationalism and religion, asking what kinds of liberation have been achieved by Jews in the Jewish State. Ultimately the book argues, in a Kafkaesque reversal of the liberatory promise of national sovereignty, that national self-determination involves collective self-elimination.


Book Synopsis Israel Has a Jewish Problem by : Joyce Dalsheim

Download or read book Israel Has a Jewish Problem written by Joyce Dalsheim and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-16 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long-standing debate about whether the State of Israel can be both Jewish and democratic raises important questions about the rights of Palestinian Arabs. In Israel Has a Jewish Problem, Joyce Dalsheim argues that this debate obscures another issue: Can the Jewish state protect the right to be Jewish, whatever form that "being" might take? Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, she investigates that question by looking at ways in which Jewish citizens of Israel struggle to be Jewish within the confines of a Jewish state. She focuses on everyday experiences, on public interpretations of the possibilities of being Jewish in the context of state policy, and on media representations of conflicts between Jewish citizens over social, religious, and political issues. Despite Israel's claim that every religious community "is free, by law and in practice, to exercise its faith, observe its holidays ... and administer its internal affairs," Israel is foundationally a Jewish state. It privileges Orthodox regulation of who will be considered a Jew, of marriage and family law, and of conversion. This arrangement, and the constant tensions it has produced over the years, is often understood as a compromise between secular and religious political factions. But this religious-secular framing conceals broader patterns inherent in nationalist projects more generally. Using insights from Franz Kafka's writing as a theoretical lens through which the ethnographic data can be viewed, Dalsheim interrogates the relationship between nationalism and religion, asking what kinds of liberation have been achieved by Jews in the Jewish State. Ultimately the book argues, in a Kafkaesque reversal of the liberatory promise of national sovereignty, that national self-determination involves collective self-elimination.


American Shtetl

American Shtetl

Author: Nomi M. Stolzenberg

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2024-02-20

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 0691259291

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Settled in the mid-1970s by a small contingent of Hasidic families, Kiryas Joel is an American town with few parallels in Jewish history-but many precedents among religious communities in the United States. This book tells the story of how this group of pious, Yiddish-speaking Jews has grown to become a thriving insular enclave and a powerful local government in upstate New York. While rejecting the norms of mainstream American society, Kiryas Joel has been stunningly successful in creating a world apart by using the very instruments of secular political and legal power that it disavows. Nomi Stolzenberg and David Myers paint a richly textured portrait of daily life in Kiryas Joel, exploring the community's guiding religious, social, and economic norms. They delve into the roots of Satmar Hasidism and its charismatic founder, Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, following his journey from nineteenth-century Hungary to post-World War II Brooklyn, where he dreamed of founding an ideal Jewish town modeled on the shtetls of eastern Europe. Stolzenberg and Myers chart the rise of Kiryas Joel as an official municipality with its own elected local government. They show how constant legal and political battles defined and even bolstered the community, whose very success has coincided with the rise of political conservatism and multiculturalism in American society over the past forty years.


Book Synopsis American Shtetl by : Nomi M. Stolzenberg

Download or read book American Shtetl written by Nomi M. Stolzenberg and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-02-20 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Settled in the mid-1970s by a small contingent of Hasidic families, Kiryas Joel is an American town with few parallels in Jewish history-but many precedents among religious communities in the United States. This book tells the story of how this group of pious, Yiddish-speaking Jews has grown to become a thriving insular enclave and a powerful local government in upstate New York. While rejecting the norms of mainstream American society, Kiryas Joel has been stunningly successful in creating a world apart by using the very instruments of secular political and legal power that it disavows. Nomi Stolzenberg and David Myers paint a richly textured portrait of daily life in Kiryas Joel, exploring the community's guiding religious, social, and economic norms. They delve into the roots of Satmar Hasidism and its charismatic founder, Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, following his journey from nineteenth-century Hungary to post-World War II Brooklyn, where he dreamed of founding an ideal Jewish town modeled on the shtetls of eastern Europe. Stolzenberg and Myers chart the rise of Kiryas Joel as an official municipality with its own elected local government. They show how constant legal and political battles defined and even bolstered the community, whose very success has coincided with the rise of political conservatism and multiculturalism in American society over the past forty years.