The Israeli Peace Movement

The Israeli Peace Movement
Author: Tamar S. Hermann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2009-09-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139483447

This book discusses the predicament of the Israeli peace movement, which, paradoxically, following the launching of the Oslo peace process between Israel and the Palestinians in 1993, experienced a prolonged, fatal decline in membership, activity, political significance, and media visibility. After presenting the regional and national background to the launching of the peace process and a short history of Israeli peace activism, the book focuses on external and internal processes and interactions experienced by the peace movement, after some basic postulates of its agenda were actually, although never explicitly, embraced by the Rabin government. The book concludes that, despite its organizational decline and the zero credit given to it by the policy makers, in retrospect it appears that the movement contributed significantly to the integration of new ideas for possible solutions to the Middle East conflict in the Israeli mainstream political discourse.

The Kabbalistic Culture of Eighteenth-Century Prague

The Kabbalistic Culture of Eighteenth-Century Prague
Author: Sharon Flatto
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2015-09-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1800345437

Sharon Flatto's comprehensive study offers the first systematic overview of the eighteenth-century Jewish community of Prague and the first critical account of the life and thought of its pre-eminent rabbinic authority, Ezekiel Landau. Her detailed analysis, firmly rooted in the historical and cultural context of the period, challenges the conventional portrayal of Landau as a staunch opponent of esoteric practices and reveals the centrality of kabbalistic thought in this key central European city.

Haskalah and Beyond

Haskalah and Beyond
Author: Moshe Pelli
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2012-07-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0761852042

Haskalah and Beyond deals with the Hebrew Haskalah (Enlightenment) — the literary, cultural, and social movement in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe. It represents the emergence of modernism and perhaps the budding of some aspects of secularism in Jewish society, following the efforts of the Hebrew and Jewish enlighteners to introduce changes into Jewish culture and Jewish life, and to revitalize the Hebrew language and literature. The author classifies these activities as a 'cultural revolution.' In effect, the Haskalah was a counter-culture intended to modify or replace some of the contemporary rabbinic cultural framework, institutions, and practices and adopt them for its own envisioned 'Judaism of the Haskalah.' The pioneering work of the 'founding fathers' of the early Haskalah had greatly impacted the later developments of the Haskalah in the 19th century. Its reception in that century is studied as is the reception of one of the major figures of the early Haskalah, Isaac Euchel, and of one of the important German Enlightenment poets and philosophers, Johann Gottfried Herder, in the 19th-century Haskalah. The study of reception continues on the language of the sublime and the poetic imagery used in Haskalah, melitzah, as well as on the three major journals of Haskalah as instruments of change and of disseminating the Haskalah ideology. Finally, the aftermath of the Haskalah is addressed.

Black Zion

Black Zion
Author: Yvonne Chireau
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 1999-12-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0195354621

This volume explores the myriad ways in which African American religions have encountered Jewish traditions, beliefs, and spaces. In contrast to previous works, which have typically focused on the social and political relationship between blacks and Jews, Black Zion places religion at the center of its discussion, thereby illuminating a critically important but little explored aspect of black-Jewish relations in America. The essays gathered here examine groups such as the Nation of Islam and the Hebrew Israelites, individuals such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Abraham Joshua Heschel, and topics such as the transformation of synagogue space into African American churches and the symbolic role of the Jew in the Haitian religious imagination. This collection draws on sacred texts, interviews, and ethnographic and archival research to discuss the shared elements in black and Jewish sacred life, as well as the development and elaboration of new religious identities by African Americans. Featuring contributions from a group of renowned scholars and writers, this groundbreaking volume reveals a great deal about both African American religions and the meaning of Judaism in the contemporary world. It is essential reading for students of religion, history, cultural studies, black studies, and American studies.

Oriental Neighbors

Oriental Neighbors
Author: Abigail Jacobson
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2016-12-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1512600067

A fresh look at Jewish-Arab relations in Palestine under the British Mandate

A Glossary of Jewish Life

A Glossary of Jewish Life
Author: Kerry M. Olitzky
Publisher: Jason Aronson
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1992
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780876685471

2,400 entries on most every aspect of Judaism including theology, religious practices, daily living, and world history.

Unorthodox Kin

Unorthodox Kin
Author: Naomi Leite
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2017-02-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520285050

Unorthodox Kin is a groundbreaking exploration of identity, relatedness, and belonging in a global era. Naomi Leite paints an intimate portrait of Portugal’s urban Marranos, who trace their ancestry to fifteenth-century Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism, as they seek to rejoin the Jewish people. Focusing on mutual imaginings and direct encounters between Marranos, Portuguese Jews, and foreign Jewish tourists and outreach workers, Leite tracks how visions of self and kin evolve over time and across social spaces, ending in a surprising path to belonging. A poignant evocation of how ideas of ancestry shape the present, how feelings of kinship arise among far-flung strangers, and how some find mystical connection in a world said to be disenchanted, this is a model study for anthropology today.

B'chol L'vavcha: With All Your Heart

B'chol L'vavcha: With All Your Heart
Author: Rabbi Harvey J. Fields
Publisher: CCAR Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2021-02-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0881233439

This extensively revised third edition, now compatible with Mishkan T'filah, offers many voices and unique, contemporary perspectives on our siddur, the order of the service, and the meaning of individual prayers. It reflects on the ways in which our prayer practices continue to evolve. This is an essential educational resource and is indispensable for bar/bat mitzvah and confirmation preparation, as well as for Introduction to Judaism courses and general adult education. "This timely and creative update of a timeless commentary will inspire a new generation of teachers and learners to explore their own expression of Jewish prayer. The rabbinic source materials, contemporary readings, poetry, and probing questions all come together in a seamless whole that serves to open the heart to ever deeper meaning and possibility in our sacred liturgy." - Rabbi Dr. Lisa Grant, Director of the Rabbinical Program, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York "As a young Jewish educator fresh out of graduate school, I turned to the original edition of this book to teach my b'nei mitzvah students. I have come back to it over the decades for the thoughtful commentary and context it has given me as a teacher and teacher of teachers. As the foreword notes, Rabbi Harvey Fields, a consummate gardener, understood the need to prune a vine to encourage new growth. This new edition showcases that new growth yet continues to provide both the ease and depth that have always made it a "go to" on my bookshelf. The updated explanations, references, and questions reflect Mishkan T'filah's fresh approach to prayer. In short, B'chol L'vavcha is a stunning tribute to Rabbi Fields as well as to those who have come after him to encourage our Movement's evolving relationship to worship. Every page I turned inspired a new idea for a lesson, activity, or wondering I could share with my b'nei mitzvah tutors, religious school students, families, and adult learners. And personally, it sparked a renewal of my own belief in the power of prayer to come from my heart and to fill all of my heart." - Dr. Katherine Schwartz, President, Association of Reform Jewish Educators