Reconsidering Israel-Diaspora Relations


Book Description

In this era of globalization, Jewish diversity is marked more than ever by transnational expansion of competing movements and local influences on specific conditions. One factor that still makes Jewish communities one is the common reference to Israel. Today, however, differentiations and discrepancies in identification and behavior generate plurality and ambiguities about Israel-Diaspora relationships. Moreover the Judeophobia now rife in Europe and beyond as well as the spread of the Palestinian cause as a civil religion make Israel the world’s "Jew among nations.” This weighs heavily on community relations - despite Israel’s active presence in the diaspora. In this context, the contributions to this volume focus on Jewish peoplehood, religiosity and ethnicity, gender and generation, Israelophobia and world Jewry, and debate the perspectives that are most pertinent to confront the question: how far is the Jewish Commonwealth (Klal Yisrael) still an important code of Jewry today?




Reading Israel, Reading America


Book Description

American and Israeli Jews have historically clashed over the contours of Jewish identity, and their experience of modern Jewish life has been radically different. As Philip Roth put it, they are the "heirs jointly of a drastically bifurcated legacy." But what happens when the encounter between American and Israeli Jewishness takes place in literary form—when Jewish American novels make aliyah, or when Israeli novels are imported for consumption by the diaspora? Reading Israel, Reading America explores the politics of translation as it shapes the understandings and misunderstandings of Israeli literature in the United States and American Jewish literature in Israel. Engaging in close readings of translations of iconic novels by the likes of Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Amos Oz, A. B. Yehoshua, and Yoram Kaniuk—in particular, the ideologically motivated omissions and additions in the translations, and the works' reception by reviewers and public intellectuals—Asscher decodes the literary encounter between Israeli and American Jews. These discrepancies demarcate an ongoing cultural dialogue around representations of violence, ethics, Zionism, diaspora, and the boundaries between Jews and non-Jews. Navigating the disputes between these "rival siblings" of the Jewish world, Asscher provocatively untangles the cultural relations between Israeli and American Jews.




American Jewish Year Book 2016


Book Description

The American Jewish Year Book, now in its 116th year, is the annual record of the North American Jewish communities and provides insight into their major trends. Part I presents a forum on the Pew Survey, “A Portrait of American Orthodox Jews.” Part II begins with Chapter 13, "The Jewish Family." Chapter 14 examines “American Jews and the International Arena (April 1, 2015 – April 15, 2016), which focuses on US–Israel Relations. Chapters 15-17 analyze the demography and geography of the US, Canadian, and world Jewish populations. In Part III, Chapter 18 provides lists of Jewish institutions, including federations, community centers, social service agencies, national organizations, synagogues, Hillels, day schools, camps, museums, and Israeli consulates. In the final chapters, Chapter 19 presents national and local Jewish periodicals and broadcast media; Chapter 20 provides academic resources, including Jewish Studies programs, books, articles, websites, and research libraries; and Chapter 21 presents lists of major events in the past year, Jewish honorees, and obituaries. An invaluable record of Jewish life, the American Jewish Year Book illuminates contemporary issues with insight and breadth. It is a window into a complex and ever-changing world. Deborah Dash Moore, Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History and Judaic Studies, and Director Emerita of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan A century from now and more, the stately volumes of the American Jewish Year Book will stand as the authoritative record of Jewish life since 1900. For anyone interested in tracing the long-term evolution of Jewish social, political, religious, and cultural trends from an objective yet passionately Jewish perspective, there simply is no substitute. Lawrence Grossman, American Jewish Year Book Editor (1999-2008) and Contributor (1988-2015)




Wandering Jews


Book Description

Despite the importance of historical and contemporary migration to the American Jewish community, popular awareness of the diversity and complexity of the American Jewish migration legacy is limited and largely focused upon Yiddish-speaking Jews who left the Pale of Settlement in Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1920 to settle in eastern and midwestern cities. Wandering Jews provides readers with a broader understanding of the Jewish experience of migration in the United States and elsewhere. It describes the record of a wide variety of Jewish migrant groups, including those encountering different locations of settlement, historical periods, and facets of the migration experience. While migrants who left the Pale of Settlement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are discussed, the volume’s authors also explore less well-studied topics. These include the fate of contemporary Jewish academics who seek to build communities in midwestern college towns; the adaptation experience of recent Jewish migrants from Latin America, Israel, and the former Soviet Union; the adjustment of Iranian Jews; the experience of contemporary Jewish migrants in France and Belgium; the return of Israelis living abroad; and a number of other topics. Interdisciplinary, the volume draws upon history, sociology, geography, and other fields. Written in a lively and accessible style, Wandering Jews will appeal to a wide range of readers, including students and scholars in Jewish studies, international migration, history, ethnic studies, and religious studies, as well as general-interest readers.




American Jewish Year Book 2015


Book Description

This Year Book, now in its 115th year, provides insight into major trends in the North American Jewish communities and is the Annual Record of the North American Jewish Communities. The first two chapters of Part I examine Jewish immigrant groups to the US and Jewish life on campus. Chapters on “National Affairs” and “Jewish Communal Affairs” analyze the year’s events. Three chapters analyze the demography and geography of the US, Canada, and world Jewish populations. Part II provides Jewish Federations, Jewish Community Centers, social service agencies, national organizations, overnight camps, museums, and Israeli consulates. The final chapters present national and local Jewish periodicals and broadcast media; academic resources, including Jewish Studies Programs, books, articles websites, and research libraries; and lists of major events in the past year, Jewish honorees, and obituaries. For those interested in the North American Jewish community—scholars, service providers, volunteers—this volume undoubtedly provides the single best source of information on the structure, dynamics, and ongoing religious, political, and social challenges confronting the community. It should be on the bookshelf of everyone interested in monitoring the dynamics of change in the Jewish communities of North America. Sidney Goldstein, Founder and Director, Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University, and Alice Goldstein, Population Studies and Traini ng Center, Brown University The American Jewish Year Book is a unique and valuable resource for Jewish community professionals. It is part almanac, directory, encyclopedia and all together a volume to have within easy reach. It is the best, concise diary of trends, events, and personalities of interest for the past year. We should all welcome the Year Book’s publication as a sign of vitality for the Jewish community. Brenda Gevertz, Executive Director, JPRO Network, the Jewish Professional Resource Organization




Jews in Dialogue


Book Description

Jews in Dialogue discusses Jewish post-Holocaust involvement in interreligious and intercultural dialogue in Israel, Europe, and the United States. The essays within offer a multiplicity of approaches and perspectives (historical, sociological, theological, etc.) on how Jews have collaborated and cooperated with non-Jews to respond to the challenges of multicultural contemporaneity. The volume’s first part is about the concept of dialogue itself and its potential for effecting change; the second part documents examples of successful interreligious cooperation. The volume includes an appendix designed to provide context for the material presented in the first part, especially with regard to relations between the State of Israel and the Catholic Church.




Antisemitism in the North


Book Description

Is research on antisemitism even necessary in countries with a relatively small Jewish population? Absolutely, as this volume shows. Compared to other countries, research on antisemitism in the Nordic countries (Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) is marginalized at an institutional and staffing level, especially as far as antisemitism beyond German fascism, the Second World War, and the Holocaust is concerned. Furthermore, compared to scholarship on other prejudices and minority groups, issues concerning Jews and anti-Jewish stereotypes remain relatively underresearched in Scandinavia – even though antisemitic stereotypes have been present and flourishing in the North ever since the arrival of Christianity, and long before the arrival of the first Jewish communities. This volume aims to help bring the study of antisemitism to the fore, from the medieval period to the present day. Contributors from all the Nordic countries describe the status of as well as the challenges and desiderata for the study of antisemitism in their respective countries.




How Young Holocaust Survivors Rebuilt Their Lives


Book Description

Rising from the abyss of humiliation -- From victims to social actors -- France: the struggle to rebuild after captivity -- Hidden children strive to achieve in France -- United States: survivors begin again -- A new life for hidden children and refugees in America -- Israel: to build and to be built -- Jewish identity, Israel, and the diaspora -- Unexpected international impact of survivors -- An unbroken chain?




Handbook of Israel: Major Debates


Book Description

The Handbook of Israel: Major Debates serves as an academic compendium for people interested in major discussions and controversies over Israel. It provides innovative, updated and informative knowledge on a range of acute debates. Among other topics, the handbook discusses post-Zionism, militarism, democracy and religion, (in)equality, colonialism, today’s criticism of Israel, Israel-Diaspora relations, and peace programs. Outstanding scholars face each other with unadulterated, divergent analyses. These historical, political and sociological texts from Israel and elsewhere make up a major reference book within academia and outside academia. About seventy contributions grouped in thirteen thematic sections present controversial and provocative approaches refl ecting, from different angles, on the present-day challenges of the State of Israel. Other Major Works by the Editors: Eliezer Ben-Rafael Is Israel One? Religion, Nationalism and Ethnicity Confounded, Brill (2005) Ethnicity, Religion and Class in Israel, Cambridge University Press (paperback) (2007) Julius H. Schoeps Begegnungen. Menschen, die meinen Lebensweg kreuzten. Suhrkamp (2016) Pioneers of Zionism: Hess, Pinsker, Rülf. Messianism, Settlement Policy, and the Israeli-Palestinan Conflict. De Gruyter (2013) Yitshak Sternberg World Religions and Multiculturalism: A Relational Dialectic. Brill (2010). Transnationalism. Brill (2009) Olaf Glöckner Being Jewish in 21st Century Germany. De Gruyter (2015, with Haim Fireberg) Deutschland, die Juden und der Staat Israel. Olms (2016, with Julius H. Schoeps)




Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis


Book Description

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