Israel's Dead Soul


Book Description

In his courageous book, Israel's Dead Soul, Steven Salaita explores the failures of Zionism as a political and ethical discourse. He argues that endowing nation-states with souls is a dangerous phenomenon because it privileges institutions and corporations rather than human beings. Asserting that Zionism has been normalized--rendered "benign" as an ideology of "multicultural conviviality"—Salaita critiques the idea that Zionism, as an exceptional ideology, leads to a lack of critical awareness of the effects of the Israeli occupation in Palestinian territory and to an unquestioning acceptance of Israel as an ethnocentric state. Salaita's analysis targets the Anti-Defamation League, films such as Munich and Waltz with Bashir, intellectuals including Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson, gay rights activists, and other public figures who mourn the decline of Israel's "soul." His pointed account shows how liberal notions of Zionism are harmful to various movements for justice.




Dead Souls


Book Description

For readers of Roberto Bolaño's Savage Detectives and Muriel Spark's Loitering with Intent, this "sublime" and "delightfully unhinged" metaphysical mystery disguised as a picaresque romp follows one poet's spectacular fall from grace to ask a vital question: Is everyone a plagiarist? (Nicolette Polek, author of Imaginary Museums). A scandal has shaken the literary world. As the unnamed narrator of Dead Souls discovers at a cultural festival in central London, the offender is Solomon Wiese, a poet accused of plagiarism. Later that same evening, at a bar near Waterloo Bridge, our narrator encounters the poet in person, and listens to the story of Wiese's rise and fall, a story that takes the entire night—and the remainder of the novel—to tell. Wiese reveals his unconventional views on poetry, childhood encounters with "nothingness," a conspiracy involving the manipulation of documents in the public domain, an identity crisis, a retreat to the country, a meeting with an ex-serviceman with an unexpected offer, the death of an old poet, a love affair with a woman carrying a signpost, an entanglement with a secretive poetry cult, and plans for a triumphant return to the capital, through the theft of poems, illegal war profits, and faked social media accounts—plans in which our narrator discovers he is obscurely implicated. Dead Souls is a metaphysical mystery brilliantly encased in a picaresque romp, a novel that asks a vital question for anyone who makes or engages with art: Is everyone a plagiarist?




Jewish Views of the Afterlife


Book Description

Originally published in 1994, Jewish Views of the Afterlife is a classic study of ideas of afterlife and postmortem survival in Jewish tradition and mysticism. As both a scholar and pastoral counselor, Raphael guides the reader through 4,000 years of Jewish thought on the afterlife by investigating pertinent sacred texts produced in each era. Through a compilation of ideas found in the Bible, Apocrypha, rabbinic literature, medieval philosophy, medieval Midrash, Kabbalah, Hasidism and Yiddish literature, the reader learns how Judaism conceived of the fate of the individual after death throughout Jewish history. In addition, this book explores the implications of Jewish afterlife beliefs for a renewed understanding of traditional rituals of funeral, burial, shiva, kaddish and more. This newly released twenty-fifth anniversary edition presents new material on little-known Jewish mystical teachings on reincarnation, a chapter on “Spirits, Ghosts and Dybbuks in Yiddish Literature”, and a foreword by the renowned scholar of Jewish mysticism, Rabbi Arthur Green. Both historical and contemporary, this book provides a rich resource for scholars and laypeople and for teachers and students and makes an important Jewish contribution to the growing contemporary psychology of death and dying.




I've Been Here Before


Book Description

This ground-breaking book opens a closet and allows hundreds of people of this generation to emerge, with their nightmares, phobias, and flashbacks suggestive of an incarnation in the Holocaust. Through that open door, author Sara Rigler introduces the reader to people from all over the world whose stories defy rational explanation-unless they are indeed reincarnated souls from the Holocaust. Because the purpose of reincarnation is to rectify past mistakes and failings, Part Two narrates the journeys of souls who in their current lifetime replaced fear with courage, hatred with love, and guilt with self-forgiveness. Fascinating and convincing, this page-turner will quicken your awareness of your own soul and how your inexplicable fears, attractions, and repulsions may be comprehensible through the notion of past-life experiences. "Sara Rigler has written a powerful and gripping narrative.... The stories make for fascinating reading." -Rabbi Yitzchak A. Breitowitz, Kehillat Ohr Somayach "An eye-opening journey." --Alicia Yacoby, Founder, Our6Million "Sara Rigler's extensive research and collection of past-life Holocaust memories confirms the reality of this phenomenon, and offers hope for healing the trauma that carried over for many of us. For those who have not had their own memories, the case studies offer compelling evidence for the continuation of a personal consciousness after death." --Carol Bowman, author of Children's Past Lives "This book is not only credible, it is important." -Rebbetzin Tziporah (Heller) Gottlieb, author and lecturer "Sara Rigler has done exceptional work in meticulously compiling, recording, and describing personal stories of Jews and non-Jews from many countries. By doing so she has rendered an invaluable service ... to humanity." --Sabine Lucas, Ph.D., Jungian analyst




Israel Denial


Book Description

A work of “rigorous intellectual inquiry” critiquing the BDS movement in academia (Jewish Journal). Israel Denial is the first book to offer detailed analyses of the work faculty members have published—individually and collectively—in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement; it contrasts their claims with options for promoting peace. The faculty discussed here have devoted a significant part of their professional lives to delegitimizing the Jewish state. While there are beliefs they hold in common—including the conviction that there is nothing good to say about Israel—they also develop distinctive arguments designed to recruit converts to their cause in novel ways. They do so both as writers and as teachers; Israel Denial is the first to give substantial attention to anti-Zionist pedagogy. No effort to understand the BDS movement’s impact on the academy and public policy can be complete without the kind of understanding this book offers. A co-publication of the Academic Engagement Network




Dead Soul Syndrome


Book Description

Most Evangelical Christians only know and thoroughly believe the traditional doctrine of eternal torment in Hell for the lost and eternal bliss in Heaven for the saved. As a result, they neglect scores of Bible verses with that provide an alternative teaching. This book veers from some long-held assumptions while reinforcing others, as it humbly attempts to discover the truth of what the Bible teaches about the hereafter. Written for the serious layman, scripturally founded clergy, and open-minded scholar, Dead Soul Syndrome provides wisdom and thought-provoking insight for those interested in thinking anew about heaven and hell.







Walking Israel


Book Description

From the much lauded author of Breaking News comes a version of Walking the Bible just for Israel. With its dense history of endless conflict and biblical events, Israel's coastline is by far the most interesting hundred miles in the world. As longtime chief of NBC's Tel Aviv news bureau, Martin Fletcher is in a unique position to interpret Israel, and he brings it off in a spectacular and novel manner. Last year he strolled along the entire coast, from Lebanon to Gaza, observing facets of the country that are ignored in news reports, yet tell a different and truer story. Walking Israel is packed with hilarious moments, historical insights, emotional, true-life tales, and, above all, great storytelling.




Israel's Messenger


Book Description