Your search for: subjects:"Jews Israel Identity"

"Like all of Baruch Kimmerling's work, this is a penetrating and provocative book. It offers a new paradigm for the current and future direction of Israeli society that will certainly become a central point of reference in the field. Kimmerling's explanation for the rise and fall of classic Labor ...

"Like all of Baruch Kimmerling's work, this is a penetrating and provocative book. It offers a new paradigm for the current and future direction of Israeli society that will certainly become a central point of reference in the field. Kimmerling's explanation for the rise and fall of classic Labor Zionism is a seminal contribution to the ongoing debate over this central thread of the Israeli experience."--Alan Dowty, author of "The Jewish State: A Century Later

"Baruch Kimmerling is an influential and controversial scholar whose books have set the agenda for contemporary Israel Studies. "The Invention and Decline of Israelinessoffers an original and provocative interpretation of the formation and transformation of Israeli national identity. Anyone seriously interested in Israeli society should read this book."--Derek Penslar, author of "Shylock's Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe

Throughout history, the persecutions of the Jewish people have been central to their identity and to the cohesion of their religion and cultural heritage. But now, with the success of the Jewish State of Israel and the prosperity of Jews in the United States, the collective sufferings that have ...

Throughout history, the persecutions of the Jewish people have been central to their identity and to the cohesion of their religion and cultural heritage. But now, with the success of the Jewish State of Israel and the prosperity of Jews in the United States, the collective sufferings that have forged the Jewish identity are disappearing. The compelling question Bernard Susser and Charles Liebman ask in Choosing Survival is: Will this success paradoxically prove fatal to Judaism? Susser and Liebman paint a disturbing portrait of the decline of Judaism in both Israel and the United States and the various--and mainly ineffective--efforts to reverse that decline. In Israel, as Jews are increasingly drawn to cosmopolitan Western culture, Jewishness is in danger of being reduced merely to communal folkways, while political tensions between religious and secular Jews threaten to pull the state apart. In the U.S., assimilation and secularization is even harder to resist. Efforts to strengthen Jewish identity by claiming the U.S. is still anti-Semitic and by pointing to the Holocaust and the threats to Israel's survival have not worked. The authors do, however, see a hopeful sign in Jewish Orthodoxy which, while not a viable solution to the problem, is successfully passing on its tenets and practices and attracting many non-Orthodox Jews. They identify several aspects of Orthodoxy that can be emulated by all Jews and hold the best hope for Jewish survival--its reverence for study, its ability to set and maintain boundaries, and its deep belief in community. For anyone concerned about the fate of Judaism and what it means to be Jewish, Choosing Survival is an impassioned, troubling, and essential book.

"Fascinating in both its materials and its conclusions. [Almog's] arguments are forceful, yet very well grounded in empirical and theoretical works. The integrative and analytic power of this scholarly yet highly interesting work is extremely rich and sophisticated; its theoretical understanding and ...

"Fascinating in both its materials and its conclusions. [Almog's] arguments are forceful, yet very well grounded in empirical and theoretical works. The integrative and analytic power of this scholarly yet highly interesting work is extremely rich and sophisticated; its theoretical understanding and linkage to other works of sociology are truly remarkable." --Amia Lieblich, author of "Conversations with Dvora: An Experimental Biography of the First Modern Hebrew Woman Writer

"The Sabra encompasses the entire spectrum of its subject and is quite unique in its breadth and its depth. In his pursuit of Sabra culture Almog excels in the gathering and analysis not only of published documents, literature, and Hebrew textbooks, but equally of a great variety of expressions of everyday life. In this respect this book is an unprecedented tour de force."--Shabtai Teveth, author of "Ben-Gurion's Spy: The Story of the Political Scandal That Shaped Modern Israel

"The Sabra is singularly important given the centrality of the Sabra in Israeli life both symbolically--as a guiding myth or 'key scenario' for young Israelis--and in terms of the leadership positions that the first Sabras occupied until recently in the political and military affairs of Israel."--Yoram Bilu, author of "Grasping Land: Space and Place in Contemporary Israeli Discourse and Experience