Jewish Identity

"Rarely have I encountered a collection of essays that coheres so well around an overarching theme. This will be an important resource."--Hillel J. Kieval, author of "Languages of Community"

"How can we make sense of being born and growing up in the shadows of the Shoah without being able to speak about the unspeakable terror that killed so many in our families? As the second generation we were rarely to hear stories of love and loss or to participate in the mourning of so many who had been brutally murdered. Rather we were to grow up 'normally', and to learn to turn our backs on the past as we struggled towards future identities while imagining ourselves 'like everyone else'. Fearful of difference we were often ambivalent about Jewish identities that could threaten a sense of 'Englishness'."Exploring the painful dynamics of personal identity and belonging, Victor Jeleniewski Seidler shares the difficulties of memory. How is it possible ever really to belong and feel safe and yet remember what happened to Jewish families in Poland? How can one remember without feeling overwhelmed by the terror? Crossing boundaries in a journey to Poland enabled the author to rethink a relationship between Judaism and modernity, as well as to reflect on the painful histories between Poles and Jews. Questions about memory, identity and belonging touch the lives of many people who live in the shadows of historical trauma. Learning to think in new ways about the Shoah as a defining crisis within modernity, Seidler also helps us imagine an ethics for a postmodern time.

Focusing on the way Jewish history -- particularly the Holocaust -- and tradition inform postwar Canadian and American Jewish literature, A House of Words offers innovative readings of the works of such influential writers as Saul Bellow, Leonard Cohen, Eli Mandel, Mordecai Richler, Chava Rosenfarb, Philip Roth, and Nathanael West. Norman Ravvin highlights the concerns that these disparate writers share as Jewish writers as well as places their work in the context of the broader traditions of multiculturalism, post-colonial writing, and critical theory.

Arguing that Jewish North American writing is too commonly discussed as part of the mainstream, neglecting the Jewish aspects of the works, Ravvin places the writing of Bellow, Richler, Cohen, West, Mandel, Roth, and Rosenfarb within the Jewish context that the works demand. Ravvin depicts a Jewish cultural landscape within which postwar writers contend with community and identity, continuity and loss, and highlights the way this particular landscape is entangled with broader literary and cultural traditions. He considers Bellow and West alongside apocalyptic narratives, discusses Cohen in relation to the counterculture, examines Mandel's postmodern view of history, and looks at autobiography and ethics in Roth and Rosenfarb.

At once scholarly and poetic, A House of Words will appeal to the general reader of Canadian, American, and Jewish literature and history, as well as to specialists in these fields.

"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

"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

Focuses on imaginative kosher recipes that are simple to prepare, low fat and health conscious: the recipes explore the wide range of possibilities in kosher cookery from simple lunches to elegant dinner menus. Features a section on Kosher wines. Helen Nash is an established and popular cookery writer. She has studied with famous chefs Michael Field and Lydie Marshall. She lives in New York City.

Jewish identity in German culture remains in a critical state of flux. Analyzing its construction and perception in public discourse, the contributors of this volume discuss the works of a number of authors--from Kafka to new writers such as Irene Dische and Maxim Biller. In addition, topics covered include: American-Jewish writers in Germany, minority culture, homosexuality, and Jewish magazines.

This absorbing book of interviews takes one to the heart of modern German Jewish history. Of the eleven German Jews interviewed, four are from West Berlin, and seven are from East Berlin. The interviews provide an exceptionally varied and intimate portrait of Jewish experience in twentieth-century Germany. There are first-hand accounts of the Weimar Republic, the Nazi era, the Holocaust, and the divided Germany of the Cold War era. There are also vivid descriptions of the new united Germany, with its alarming resurgence of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Some of the men and women interviewed affirm their dual German and Jewish identities with vigor. There is the West Berliner, for instance, who proclaims, "I am a German Jew. I want to live here". Others describe the impossibility of being both German and Jewish: "I don't have anything in common with the whole German people". Many confess to profound ambivalence, such as the East Berliner who feels that he is neither a native nor a foreigner in Germany: "If someone asks me, 'Who are you?' then I can only say, 'I am a fish out of water.'"

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.

Often regarded as the only true manifestation of political pluralism in the contemporary Middle East, the state of Israel has dominated the history and politics of the region for over fifty years. Yet despite its position as a regional superpower, Israel continues to struggle with the whole issue of its own identity, the complexities of which have exposed deep clefts throughout Israeli society that threaten to undermine the collective ideal of a viable Jewish polity in the Middle East. This book explores the complex challenges facing Israel, and the extent to which its present state structures and institutions can adapt and accommodate themselves to the diversity of security threats that it now faces. This book will be of interest to those who wish to understand the dynamics that have shaped and continue to shape the state of Israel, and the extent to which these have influenced its search for security in the modern Middle East.