Jewish Revival Inside Out

Jewish Revival Inside Out
Author: Daniel Monterescu
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2022-12-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0814349498

This volume explores the global transformations of contemporary Jewishness, which give renewed meaning to identity, tradition, and politics in our post secular world.

Resurrecting the Jew

Resurrecting the Jew
Author: Geneviève Zubrzycki
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2022-09-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0691237239

An in-depth look at why non-Jewish Poles are trying to bring Jewish culture back to life in Poland today Since the early 2000s, Poland has experienced a remarkable Jewish revival, largely driven by non-Jewish Poles with a passionate new interest in all things Jewish. Klezmer music, Jewish-style restaurants, kosher vodka, and festivals of Jewish culture have become popular, while new museums, memorials, Jewish studies programs, and Holocaust research centers reflect soul-searching about Polish-Jewish relations before, during, and after the Holocaust. In Resurrecting the Jew, Geneviève Zubrzycki examines this revival and asks what it means to try to bring Jewish culture back to life in a country where 3 million Jews were murdered and where only about 10,000 Jews now live. Drawing on a decade of participant-observation in Jewish and Jewish-related organizations in Poland, a Birthright trip to Israel with young Polish Jews, and more than a hundred interviews with Jewish and non-Jewish Poles engaged in the Jewish revival, Resurrecting the Jew presents an in-depth look at Jewish life in Poland today. The book shows how the revival has been spurred by progressive Poles who want to break the association between Polishness and Catholicism, promote the idea of a multicultural Poland, and resist the Far Right government. The book also raises urgent questions, relevant far beyond Poland, about the limits of performative solidarity and empathetic forms of cultural appropriation.

Virtually Jewish

Virtually Jewish
Author: Ruth Ellen Gruber
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2002-01-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520213637

The author explores the phenomenon of the Jewish culture in Europe. In this book she askes in what way do non-Jews embrace and enact Jewish culture and for what reasons.

Jews and Human Rights

Jews and Human Rights
Author: Michael Galchinsky
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780742552678

The history of human rights is intricately intertwined with the history of Jews. Drawing inspiration from their tradition and history, Jews have played a role in the human rights drama as victims, advocates, violators, and judges. Whether working to free persecuted Jews, prevent and intervene in genocides, defend Israel in human rights forums, or strengthen Israel's democracy, Jews have stood for_and stood up for_human rights. In Jews and Human Rights: Dancing at Three Weddings, Michael Galchinsky states that Jews around the world have tried simultaneously to 'dance at three weddings, ' celebrating their commitments to international human rights, Jewish nationalism, and domestic civil rights. After World War II, all three of these commitments seemed to be aligned, but now many Jews perceive them as distinct, or even opposed. Michael Galchinsky investigates the contributions of Jewish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the formation of international human rights, analyzing how they responded to the emerging tensions among their political commitments. He explores the cooperation and conflict among elite and grassroots organizations, the relationships among Jewish governmental officials and Jewish human rights activists, and examines the goals, strategies, and scope of Jewish human rights activism. Making extensive use of previously unknown archival documents and interviews with key activists, Galchinsky recounts how Jews' initial optimism about human rights turned to pessimism and ambivalence--and argues that a reverse process may still be possible. Jews and Human Rights: Dancing at Three Weddings is intended for scholars, students and general readers of: modern Jewish history, Israeli international/transnational studies, human rights activists, diplomats, and international lawyers, history and politics, international law, UN history, cultural sociology, and genocide studies.

Cultural Exchange

Cultural Exchange
Author: Joseph Shatzmiller
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2017-05-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691176183

Demonstrating that similarities between Jewish and Christian art in the Middle Ages were more than coincidental, Cultural Exchange meticulously combines a wide range of sources to show how Jews and Christians exchanged artistic and material culture. Joseph Shatzmiller focuses on communities in northern Europe, Iberia, and other Mediterranean societies where Jews and Christians coexisted for centuries, and he synthesizes the most current research to describe the daily encounters that enabled both societies to appreciate common artistic values. Detailing the transmission of cultural sensibilities in the medieval money market and the world of Jewish money lenders, this book examines objects pawned by peasants and humble citizens, sacred relics exchanged by the clergy as security for loans, and aesthetic goods given up by the Christian well-to-do who required financial assistance. The work also explores frescoes and decorations likely painted by non-Jews in medieval and early modern Jewish homes located in Germanic lands, and the ways in which Jews hired Christian artists and craftsmen to decorate Hebrew prayer books and create liturgical objects. Conversely, Christians frequently hired Jewish craftsmen to produce liturgical objects used in Christian churches. With rich archival documentation, Cultural Exchange sheds light on the social and economic history of the creation of Jewish and Christian art, and expands the general understanding of cultural exchange in brand-new ways.

Cosmopolitans and Parochials

Cosmopolitans and Parochials
Author: Samuel C. Heilman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1989
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9780226324968

Far from simply vanishing in the face of modernity, Orthodox Jews in the United States today are surviving and flourishing. Samuel C. Heilman and Steven M. Cohen, both distinguished scholars of Jewish studies, have joined forces in this pathbreaking book to articulate this vibrancy and to characterize the many faces of Orthodox Jewry in contemporary America. Who are these Orthodox Jews? How have they survived, what do they believe and practice and how do they accommodate the tension between traditional Jewish and modern American values? Drawing on a survey of more than one thousand participants, the authors address these questions and many more. Heilman and Cohen reveal that American Jewish Orthodoxy is not a monolith by distinguishing its three broad varieties: the "traditionalists," the "centrists," and the "nominally" orthodox. To illuminate this full spectrum of orthodoxy the authors focus on the "centrists," taking us through the dimensions of their ritual observances, religious beliefs, community life, and their social, political, and sexual attitudes. Both parochial and cosmopolitan, orthodox and liberal, these Jews are characterized by their dualism, by their successful involvement in both the modern Western world and in traditional Jewish culture. In painting this provocative and fascinating portrait of what Jewish Orthodoxy has become in America today, Heilman and Cohen's study also sheds light on the larger picture of the persistence of religion in the modern world.

Spiritual Complaint

Spiritual Complaint
Author: Miriam J Bier
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2014-01-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0227902262

Every life, and every land and people, has reasons for lament and complaint. This collection of essays explores the biblical foundations and the contemporary resonances of lament literature. This new work presents a variety of responses to tragedy and a world out of joint are explored. These responses arise from Scripture, from within the liturgy of the church, and from beyond the church; in contemporary life (the racially conflicted land of Aotearoa- New Zealand, secular music concerts and cyber-space).The book thus reflects upon theological and pastoral handling of such experience, as it bridges these different worlds. It brings together in conversation specialists from different fields of academy and church to provide a resource for integrating faithand scholarship in dark places.

A Short History of Jewish Ethics

A Short History of Jewish Ethics
Author: Alan L. Mittleman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2012-01-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1405189428

A Short History of Jewish Ethics traces the development of Jewish moral concepts and ethical reflection from its Biblical roots to the present day. Offers an engaging and thoughtful account of Jewish ethics Brings together and discusses a broad range of historical sources covering two millennia of writings and conversations Combines current scholarship with original insights Written by a major internationally recognized scholar of Jewish philosophy and ethics

Twilight Nationalism

Twilight Nationalism
Author: Daniel Monterescu
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781503604322

The city of Jaffa presents a paradox: intimate neighbors who are political foes. The official Jewish national tale proceeds from exile to redemption and nation-building, while the Palestinians' is one of a golden age cut short, followed by dispossession and resistance. The experiences of Jaffa's Jewish and Arab residents, however, reveal lives and nationalist sentiments far more complex. Twilight Nationalism shares the stories of ten of the city's elders--women and men, rich and poor, Muslims, Jews, and Christians--to radically deconstruct these national myths and challenge common understandings of belonging and alienation. Through the stories told at life's end, Daniel Monterescu and Haim Hazan illuminate how national affiliation ultimately gives way to existential circumstances. Similarities in lives prove to be shaped far more by socioeconomic class, age, and gender than national allegiance, and intersections between stories usher in a politics of existence in place of politics of identity. In offering the real stories individuals tell about themselves, this book reveals shared perspectives too long silenced and new understandings of local community previously lost in nationalist narratives.

A Road to Nowhere? (paperback)

A Road to Nowhere? (paperback)
Author: Julius H. Schoeps
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2011-02-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004201602

Europe is in the midst of a rapid political and economic unification. What does this mean for the Jewish minority – numbering less than 2 million people and still suffering from the aftermath of the Shoah? Will the Jewish communities participate in Europe’s bold venture without risking total assimilation? Are they vibrant enough to form a new Jewish center alongside Israel and the American Jewish community, or are they hopelessly divided and on a “Road to Nowhere”? Different perspectives are predicted, relating to demographical, cultural and sociological aspects. This volume provides exciting, thorough and controversial answers by renowned scholars from Europe, Israel, North- and Latin America – many of them also committed to local Jewish community building.