Jewish society in the Ottoman Empire has not been the subject of systematic research. The seventeenth century is the main object of this study, since it was a formative era. For Ottoman Jews, the 'Ottoman century' constituted an era of gradual acculturation to changing reality, parallel to the changing character of the Ottoman state. Continuous changes and developments shaped anew the character of this Jewry, the core of what would later become known as 'Sephardi Jewry'.Yaron Ben-Naeh draws from primary and secondary Hebrew, Ottoman, and European sources, the image of Jewish society in the Ottoman Empire. In the chapters he leads the reader from the overall urban framework to individual aspects. Beginning with the physical environment, he moves on to discuss their relationships with the majority society, followed by a description and analysis of the congregation, its organization and structure, and from there to the character of Ottoman Jewish society and its nuclear cell - the family. Special emphasis is placed throughout the work on the interaction with Muslim society and the resulting acculturation that affected all aspects and all levels of Jewish life in the Empire. In this, the author challenges the widespread view that sees this community as being stagnant and self-segregated, as well as the accepted concept of a traditional Jewish society under Islam.
Among Moroccan Jews, saint worship is an important cultural characteristic, practiced throughout the population. Saint Veneration among the Jews in Morocco, the only book in English on this topic, contains essential information about Moroccan Jewry not available anywhere else. The Hebrew edition, published by Magnes Press in 1984, has become a standard classic in the study of the history, culture, and religious practices of Moroccan Jewry. In this new English language edition, based on ten years of fieldwork, Issachar Ben-Ami provides the basic historical and ethnographic information about saint veneration. He illuminates the intricate network that connects the saints and their faithful followers, while revealing the ideological fundamentals that sustain the interrelationship and ensure ritual continuity. Using material selected from more than 1,200 testimonies collected during the course of his research, Ben-Ami describes historical and legendary types of saints, customs and beliefs related to the saints or their sanctuaries, and the practices and ceremonies that take place during or outside the hillulah, the the festival that celebrates the anniversary of the death of a saint. Two chapters are dedicated to a comparison with the cult of saints among the Muslims in Morocco as well as to the relationship between Jews and Muslims in Morocco in what concerning saint veneration. In addition, Ben-Ami has included an exhaustive list of 656 saints-25 of whom are women-as well as documentation of the burial sites and legendary stories of the saints' lives as they have been told by their followers and worshippers in Israel. Also included are popular creative works such as legends, stories, dreams, and songs extolling the greatness and miraculous deeds of the saints. The picture that emerges from this study is that of a strong community of believing Jews who lived in the expectancy of the coming of the Messiah and welcomed miracles as part of their routine life. With the immigration of the Jews of Morocco to other countries, this fascinating world has disappeared, although it has found new ways of expression in Israel.
Ben-Yehuda presents an in-depth inquiry into the nature and patterns of political assassinations and executions by Jews in Palestine and Israel. Extensive empirical evidence is used to analyze the social construction of violent and aggressive human behavior, using a sociology of deviance perspective. Political assassinations and executions are placed within their particular cultural matrix to describe how this specific form of killing has been conceptualized as part of an alternative system of justice. "The taking of a human life is generally regarded as the ultimate evil. Given this fact, it is important to examine and understand how it is explained, justified, and cloaked in a 'vocabulary of motives.' Such acts are, in the author's words, 'socially constructed and interpreted,' dependent on the observer's location in a specific 'symbolic-moral universe.'Moreover, such acts (political assassination specifically) are manifestations of struggles that represent attempts to legitimate these world-views, rhetorical devices that serve to define 'boundary-markers' between such universes — moral crusades that attempt to validate one view vis-a-vis another. This general approach to political assassinations is original. Its application to assassinations by Israelis is original. The fact that the book is empirical marks it off from many speculations on the subject. A number of the author's findings make a distinct contribution.
Benjamin Netanyahu is currently serving his fourth term in office as Prime Minister of Israel, the longest serving Prime Minister in the country’s history. Now Israeli journalist Ben Caspit puts Netanyahu’s life under a magnifying glass, focusing on his last two terms in office. Caspit covers a wide swath of topics, including Netanyahu’s policies, his political struggles, and his fight against the Iranian nuclear program, and zeroes in on Netanyahu’s love/hate relationship with the American administration, America’s Jews, and his alliances with American business magnates. A timely and important book, The Netanyahu Years is a primer for anyone looking to understand this world leader.
Napoleon’s invasion of the Middle East marks the beginning of the modern era in the region. This book traces the developments that led to the making of a new and separate geographical-political entity in the Middle East known as Eretz Israel and the establishment of the State of Israel within its bounds. Thus, its time frame runs from Napoleon’s invasion of Eretz Israel / Palestine in 1799 to the establishment of Israel in 1948–1949. Eretz Israel as the formal name of a separate entity in the modern era first appeared in the early translations into Hebrew of the Balfour Declaration, while in the original document the country was referred to as “Palestine.” During the period of Ottoman rule the territory that would in time be called Eretz Israel / Palestine was not a separate political unit. Among Jews, use of “Eretz Israel” increased only after the beginning of Zionist aliyot. Had the Zionist movement not arisen, it is doubtful whether the development to which this study is devoted would have occurred. The motivating force behind that process is without doubt the Zionist element. That is why Jews are the major protagonists in this book.
The decisive consequences of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 had ramifications over the entire Ottoman Empire - and the Ottoman territory of Palestine was no exception. "Late Ottoman Palestine" examines the impact of Young Turk policies and reforms on local societies and administration, using Palestine as a prism through which to explore the impact of the Revolution in the provincial arena far from the administrative and political centre of the capital. It thus sheds light upon the last decade of Ottoman rule in Palestine, crucially dealing with the roots of Jewish-Arab conflict in the area and the early crystallization of Arab, Palestinian and Zionist identities, along with that of an Ottoman imperial identity. It will be a vital resource for students and researchers interested in the modern history of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire and Palestine.
Throughout history, the relationship between Jews and their land has been a vibrant, much-debated topic within the Jewish world and in international political discourse. Identity and Territory explores how ancient conceptions of Israel—of both the land itself and its shifting frontiers and borders—have played a decisive role in forming national and religious identities across the millennia. Through the works of Second Temple period Jews and rabbinic literature, Eyal Ben-Eliyahu examines the role of territorial status, boundaries, mental maps, and holy sites, drawing comparisons to popular Jewish and Christian perceptions of space. Showing how space defines nationhood and how Jewish identity influences perceptions of space, Ben-Eliyahu uncovers varied understandings of the land that resonate with contemporary views of the relationship between territory and ideology.
I swear by all that’s Holy, I will never come anywhere near the Palestine problem once I liberate myself from this trap." Ralph Bunche wrote these lines to his wife in 1949, during the armistice talks on Rhodes. A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his success in ending the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Ralph Bunche and the Arab-Israeli Conflict provides a comprehensive study of Ralph Bunche’s diplomatic activities on the Palestine question. Bunche was at the centre of the story from the referral of the issue to the United Nations in 1947 until the signing of the armistice agreements that ended the war. He began as advisor to UNSCOP and then headed the secretariat of the commission tasked with implementing partition. Later, after serving as the senior aide to UN mediator Folke Bernadotte, he was appointed to replace the Count after the latter’s assassination. Using extensive archival materials (some of it revealed here for the first time), this book addresses central questions, such as the relationship between Bunche’s African American identity and his diplomatic endeavours, and the complexities of his outlook on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Through research and careful analysis, it uncovers how Ralph Bunche managed to bridge the gaps between Israel and Arab states. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Middle Eastern History, particularly Israeli History, as well as Political Science and Diplomacy.
The Golden Age of the Lithuanian Yeshivas tells the story of the last chapter of Jewish rabbinical schools in Eastern Europe, from the eve of World War I to the outbreak of World War II. The Lithuanian yeshiva established a rigorous standard for religious education in the early 1800s that persisted for over a century and continues to this day. Although dramatically reduced and forced into exile in Russia and Ukraine during World War I, the yeshivas survived the war, with yeshiva heads and older students forming the nucleus of the institutions. These scholars rehabilitated the yeshivas in their original locations and quickly returned to their regular activities. Moreover, they soon began to expand into areas now empty of yeshivas in lands occupied by Hasidic populations in Poland and even into the lands that would soon become Israel. During the economic depression of the 1930s, students struggled for food and their leaders journeyed abroad in search for funding, but their determination and commitment to the yeshiva system continued. Despite the material difficulties that prevailed in the yeshivas, there was consistently a full occupancy of students, most of them in their twenties. Young men from all over the free world joined these yeshivas, which were considered the best training programs for the religious professions and rabbinical ordination. The outbreak of World War II and the Soviet occupation of first eastern Poland and then Lithuania marked the beginning of the end of the Yeshivas, however, and the Holocaust ensured the final destruction of the venerable institution. The Golden Age of the Lithuanian Yeshivas is the first book-length work on the modern history of the Lithuanian yeshivas published in English. Through exhaustive historical research of every yeshiva, Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky brings to light for the first time the stories, lives, and inner workings of this long-lost world.
This book has been written out of a deep concern to see Jewish believers in Yeshua-Jesus playing their part in the worldwide church of Messiah, using their knowledge of God's word, their Jewishness, their natural and spiritual gifts, and a humble, thankful heart. Knowledge of the truths of Scripture is a vital key to love for God and fruitfulness in his service, and this book focuses on both the Bible's unfolding story (biblical theology) and its specific doctrines and their interrelationship (systematic theology). Our aim is to build a biblical framework of thinking in the heart and mind. It is written from an evangelical understanding and in a way that interacts with the main forms of Judaism and Christianity. It is a study book, with questions to answer and further reading suggestions. Similar books of doctrine with the same scope have been written, but few if any take account of the context of Jewish readers and the issues which are important to them. The authors have attempted to achieve this within the context of the whole counsel of God. Error sets no one free but truth does; the hope of the authors is for readers to be free to love and serve the Lord with all their mind and heart.
This 5,800-page encyclopedia surveys 100 generations of great thinkers, offering more than 2,000 detailed biographies of scientists, engineers, explorers and inventors who left their mark on the history of science and technology. This six-volume masterwork also includes 380 articles summarizing the time-line of ideas in the leading fields of science, technology, mathematics and philosophy.
A state is not handed to a people on a silver platter." -Haim Weizmann, first president of Israel, 1948. Four generations of strong, dedicated women live through one of the greatest, most intriguing and dangerous times in Jewish history - 120 years of Zionism. Spinning a web of struggle, joy, tragedy and love, Yahrzeit uncovers the dramatic journey of a family and the rebirth of a nation. In Yahrzeit (memorial days), the family matriarchs take us on a dramatic journey through time, during the most important events of modern history in Israel. These women are fortified through troubled times by the spirits and traditions of the past, and create their own tradition - the "Yahrzeit candle lighting ceremony." By perpetuating this ritual, started in Russia by one of the two matriarchs in 1880, the women of the family transform the days of the ancient holiday of Hannukah, the Jewish holiday celebrating independence and victory, into days of personal remembrance of the journey of a remarkable family during remarkable times. Continued in Jerusalem, Lebanon, Palestine, the United States and Israel, the Yahrzeit candle-lighting ceremony becomes a symbol of the love and inescapable commitment of these women toward their people and family alike.
Ehud Ben Zvi has been at the forefront of exploring how the study of social memory contributes to our understanding of the intellectual worldof the literati of the early Second Temple period and their textual repertoire. Many of his studies on the matter and several new relevant works are here collected together providing a very useful resource for furthering research and teaching in this area. The essays included here address, inter alia, prophets as sites of memory, kings as sites memory, Jerusalem as a site of memory, a mnemonic system shaped by two interacting ‘national’ histories, matters of identity and othering as framed and explored via memories, mnemonic metanarratives making sense of the past and serving various didactic purposes and their problems, memories of past and futures events shared by the literati, issues of gender constructions and memory, memories understood by the group as ‘counterfactual’ and their importance, and, in multiple ways, how and why shared memories served as a (safe) playground for exploring multiple, central ideological issues within the group and of generative grammars governing systemic preferences and dis-preferences for particular memories.
A high-level insider's history of the efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from 2000 Camp David Talks to the present, that explains why successive attempts have all failed. The clash between Israel and Palestine has been one of the most emotionally engaging causes of modern times. Prophets without Honor tells the story of the grueling attempts to solve the conflict and examines the reasons for its resilience. Shlomo Ben-Ami, who participated at a high level in the July 2000 Camp David peace talks that almost led to a historic deal, uses his insider experience to illuminate the specific factors that impede a solution to the conflict. He finds that the occupation's traits of permanence, Israel's insatiable quest for Lebensraum, and a hopelessly fragmented and disoriented Palestinian national movement are to blame. Ben-Ami challenges the funereal historiography that emerged in the wake of the Camp David process, when--for the first time ever--Israelis and Palestinians engaged in the Sisyphean task of breaking the taboos surrounding the conflict. The Clinton Peace Parameters that emerged out of this process eventually became the litmus test of every serious peace proposal in the future. But ill-conceived perceptions of the other party, all-or-nothing theological fanaticism, and a lack of bold and enlightened leadership have made these attempts at peace-making a defining failure of the two-state concept. Ben-Ami scrutinizes the ominous alternatives to the two-state solution, such as the binational state, a unilateral pullout from much of the West Bank, and Donald Trump's Deal of the Century. He also examines the merits of a Jordanian-Palestinian solution. In discussing Palestine from a comparative perspective, he underlines its singularity while also shedding light on the dilemmas that stand at the center of any peace enterprise. Ultimately, his account is the most non-partisan, comprehensive, and balanced written by an insider representing one of the parties.
In The Ten Lost Tribes, Zvi Ben-Dor Benite shows for the first time the extent to which the search for the lost tribes of Israel became, over two millennia, an engine for global exploration and a key mechanism for understanding the world.
This book seeks to reconstruct and elucidate the processes behind the decisions made by the Johnson Administration during the years 1965-68 to sell Israel M-48 tanks, A-4 Skyhawk planes and F-4 Phantom planes.
Volume 27 of the CGL-Studies – “Jewish Horticultural Schools and Training Centers in Germany and their Impact on Horticulture and Landscape Architecrture in Palestine / Israel“ – presents the results of a symposium which was held in September 2016 at the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, jointly organized by the Leo Baeck Institute, the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning of the Technion, Haifa, and the Center of Garden Art and Landscape Architecture of Leibniz University Hannover. The volume presents four main chapters. The first, „Hachsharot in Context“, deals with the context and changing role of Jewish agricultural training in Germany and Hachsharot in the time of the Nazi dictatorship. In the next chapter, „Perceptions of Nature“, ideas of the Jewish youth movement about nature and landscape and the perceptions of nature among Hachshara members are discussed. „Hachsharot in Germany and Palestine“, the third chapter, presents papers on Jewish horticultural training centers in Germany in the regions of Hannover and Berlin/Brandenburg, as well as on Gross-Gaglow, a cooperative Jewish settlement located near Cottbus, and on Kfar Ruppin and Sde Eliyahu, a secular and a religious Kibbutz in Israel, respectively. The papers in the concluding chapter „Beyond Hachsharot“, deal with the lives and work of female Jewish gardeners and garden architects in Vienna, and with the Ahlem memorial and documentation center, established at the site of the former Israelitische Gartenbauschule Ahlem (Jewish Horticultural School Ahlem) in Hannover.
The mashgiach of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, left behind a precious legacy of writings and teachings, published in Hebrew as Sifsei Chaim. Now, for the first time in translation, the Mashgiach's collected shiurim on the Yomim Noraim Shmoneh Esrei, are available to English-speaking readers. Gain a deeper understanding of tefillah, shofar, the ultimate Redemption and HaShem's Divine plan - as seen through the exalted words, themes, and messages of these awesome days. Simple yet profound, uplifting and majestic, every page of this book is filled with stimulating insights that will help you unleash the power of prayer during the Yamim Noraim. Contains the entire Hebrew text of Rinas Chaim, newly typeset and fully vowelized.
The Middle East conflict, be it between the state of Israel and Arab states or between Jews and Palestinians, is a staple of international news. Utilizing both theoretical approaches and empirical evidence, Hemda Ben-Yehuda and Shmuel Sandler argue that despite the recent upswing in violence, particularly over the Palestinian issue, conflict has gradually been giving way, since the 1970s, to a more orderly regime of conflict management. By integrating ethnonational theoretical literature into their analysis, the authors move beyond the current International Relations debate over the relative merits of realist/neo-realist approaches versus neo-liberal-institutional approaches. Ethnic-state disputes are the primary source for failing to terminate the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Sabbath has been one of the most significant and beloved institutions of Jewish life since late antiquity. Over a period of several centuries, the classical Kabbalists developed a rich body of ritual and myth that articulated a fresh vision of the Sabbath. The mystical understanding of the Sabbath was assimilated by virtually every Jewish community. This volume is a translation and critical commentary to Sod ha-Shabbat, a treatise on the mystical Sabbath by the influential Spanish-Turkish Kabbalist, R. Meir ibn Gabbai. This important text, the most systematic treatment of the Sabbath in classical Kabbalah, has been inaccessible to the English reader until now. The study includes an Introduction to ibn Gabbai's life and work, accompanied by extensive critical notes that clarify general problems of translation and place the work in its historical context. Broader theoretical issues regarding myth and the ritual process are also discussed.
. . . an original interpretation of the wide-ranging impact of the military on Israeli society . . . one of the most insightful works on Israeli society in general." —Gershon Shafir From the early days of the Yishuv, militarism and the military have become a way of life for Israelis. Focusing on the period between 1936 and 1956, Uri Ben-Eliezer traces the ways in which military force acquired legitimacy in civilian society and how the use of organized violence became an acceptable solution to conflicts, especially the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Your Shabbos table is transformed into an uplifting experience when there is stimulating discussion of the weekly Torah reading. This enlightening volume contains stories, parables and insights on the weekly parashah that will delight every member of your household. Culled from Gemara, Midrash, commentaries and traditional lore, each selection is simply told, yet delivers an inspiring and profound message. A Shabbos Vort is a superb English translation of the work, Vekarasa L'Shabbos Oneg. A bestseller in the original Hebrew, this collection is a wonderful gift for your Shabbos host and a meaningful addition to your own home library. Compiled by Rabbi Yisroel Bronstein.
An insightful and thorough account of the Arab-Israeli conflict ranges from the birth of Israel to the present day, told from firsthand knowledge of the major characters and events, written by a former high-ranking Israeli official.
A Seminary Co-op Notable Book “An astute and evenhanded study of how both faiths view themselves and each other.” —Publishers Weekly “An illuminating and important new book...An intellectual, cultural, and political challenge...[F]or anyone for whom the Jewish-Christian story is an important element in defining his or her identity.” —Israel Jacob Yuval, Haaretz “An extraordinarily sophisticated, insightful and provocative examination of how Roman Catholics and Orthodox Jews addressed the prospect of reconciliation in the second half of the twentieth century.” —Glenn C. Altschuler, Jerusalem Post “A volume from which both Jewish and Catholic scholars may learn...This is an excellent book.” —Eugene J. Fisher, Catholic News Service A new chapter in Jewish-Christian relations opened in the second half of the twentieth century when the Second Vatican Council exonerated Jews from the accusation of deicide and declared that the Jewish people had never been rejected by God. In a few carefully phrased statements, two millennia of deep hostility were swept into the trash heap of history. But old animosities die hard. While Catholic and Jewish leaders publicly promoted interfaith dialogue, doubts remained behind closed doors. Drawing on extensive research in contemporary rabbinical literature, Karma Ben-Johanan shows that Jewish leaders welcomed the Catholic condemnation of antisemitism but were less enthusiastic about the Church’s sudden urge to claim their friendship. Catholic theologians hoped Vatican II would turn the page on an embarrassing history, while Orthodox rabbis, in contrast, believed they were finally free to say what they thought of Christianity. Jacob’s Younger Brother pulls back the veil of interfaith dialogue to reveal how Orthodox rabbis and Catholic leaders spoke about each other when outsiders were not in the room. There Ben-Johanan finds Jews reluctant to accept the latest whims of a Church that had unilaterally dictated the terms of Jewish-Christian relations for centuries.
Thanks to these generous donors for making the publication of the books in this series possible: Lloyd E. Cotsen; The Maurice Amado Foundation; National Endowment for the Humanities; and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture Tales from Arab Lands presents tales from North Africa, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq in the latest volume of the most important collection of Jewish folktales ever published. This is the third book in the multi-volume series in the tradition of Louis Ginzberg?s timeless classic, Legends of the Jews. The tales here and the others in this series have been selected from the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA), named in Honor of Dov Noy, at The University of Haifa, a treasure house of Jewish lore that has remained largely unavailable to the entire world until now. Since the creation of the State of Israel, the IFA has collected more than 20,000 tales from newly arrived immigrants, long-lost stories shared by their families from around the world. The tales come from the major ethno-linguistic communities of the Jewish world and are representative of a wide variety of subjects and motifs, especially rich in Jewish content and context. Each of the tales is accompanied by in-depth commentary that explains the tale's cultural, historical, and literary background and its similarity to other tales in the IFA collection, and extensive scholarly notes. There is also an introduction that describes the culture and its folk narrative tradition, a world map of the areas covered, illustrations, biographies of the collectors and narrators, tale type and motif indexes, a subject index, and a comprehensive bibliography. Until the establishment of the IFA, we had had only limited access to the wide range of Jewish folk narratives. Even in Israel, the gathering place of the most wide-ranging cross-section of world Jewry, these folktales have remained largely unknown. Many of the communities no longer exist as cohesive societies in their representative lands; the Holocaust, migration, and changes in living styles have made the continuation of these tales impossible. This series is a monument to a rich but vanishing oral tradition. This series is a monument to a rich but vanishing oral tradition.
In Civil-Military Relations in Israel, Yehuda Ben Meir examines the reasons preventing Israel from becoming a "garrison state". A former deputy minister for foreign affairs and longtime member and analyst of the Israeli political scene, Ben Meir is uniquely qualified to give a behind-the-scenes picture of the intimate relationship between Israel's civilian and military leaders. Civil-Military Relations in Israel examines the changing face of the military over the years from an idealistic defense force to a professional army. Ben Meir also views the great divisiveness in Israeli politics as a threat to the unified strength of purpose that in the past characterized the nation's civil authority, and he examines present and future threats to continued civilian control of the military. The book also delves into the legal and constitutional foundations of Israel's civil-military relations, providing a valuable perspective on the organization and role of the current defense establishment, as well as the informal relationship between the key players in the system. In addition, Ben Meir pinpoints the areas in which the military is involved in key political decision making. Despite continuing efforts to resolve the pattern of violence and conflict in the Middle East, the long-standing hostility between Arab and Jew in the region is unlikely to disappear in the near future. And as long as such animosity lingers, Israel's military will remain a strong force in Israeli politics.
It was 1933 when Yissakhar Ben-Yaacov left Hamburg, the city of his birth. His traditional Jewish family made its way to the Land of Israel, fleeing the impending disaster. In the next few years, the young pupil succeeded in making his way within his new society. After joining Ha-No ar Ha-Oved youth movement and the Haganah, Ben-Yaacov entered Israel s nascent Foreign Ministry in 1948. His service took him around the world to Munich, Cologne, Philadelphia, Lagos, Vienna, and Canberra. In A Lasting Reward, the author describes his life in detail, covering myriad exciting events both well-known and not so well-known events that span many decades and continents. He offers insightful descriptions of the inner workings of the Foreign Ministry and the calling of an Israeli diplomat. Yissakhar Ben-Yaacov s memoirs are an outstanding example of an Israeli autobiography that bears witness to the events that have shaped the history of the Jewish people in the last century.
This is the first book of a three-book series on the Messiah, the final end of days redemption, the ten tribes, and the war of Gog and Magog according to Judaism, which is based on authentic Torah sources. The book gives information on how to identify the real Messiah son of David and son of Josef based on his traits, such as where he was raised and his birth date, his talents, such as being a musician and man of war and administrator of Torah justice, appearance, skills, wisdom, his suffering and imprisonment, signs of the times preceding his coming, prophesies of the days of the Messiah, the anti-Christs Armilus and Gog, the role of Elijah the prophet and the Sanhedrin, what we can do to hasten his coming before the final end time, the divinity of Torah, the Noahide Covenant, overview of what is the end of days final redemption and the war of Gog and Magog, barriers to the Messiah and their destruction, Messiah as a world leader who establishes peace based on Torah justice and builds the third Temple, the importance of love and kindness for all, and a realistic Torah-based peace plan for the Palestinians.
This book is an odyssey to discover exotic Jewish communities around the world––a road map of travel and adventure set in such locals as Russia (including Siberia), Tahiti, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Cuba, Morocco, Algeria, and Israel.
In 73 A.D., legend has it, 960 Jewish rebels under siege in the ancient desert fortress of Masada committed suicide rather than surrender to a Roman legion. Recorded in only one historical source, the story of Masada was obscure for centuries. In The Masada Myth, Israeli sociologist Nachman Ben-Yehuda tracks the process by which Masada became an ideological symbol for the State of Israel, the dramatic subject of movies and miniseries, a shrine venerated by generations of Zionists and Israeli soldiers, and the most profitable tourist attraction in modern Israel. Ben-Yehuda describes how, after nearly 1800 years, the long, complex, and unsubstantiated narrative of Josephus Flavius was edited and augmented in the twentieth century to form a simple and powerful myth of heroism. He looks at the ways this new mythical narrative of Masada was created, promoted, and maintained by pre-state Jewish underground organizations, the Israeli army, archaeological teams, mass media, youth movements, textbooks, the tourist industry, and the arts. He discusses the various organizations and movements that created “the Masada experience” (usually a ritual trek through the Judean desert followed by a climb to the fortress and a dramatic reading of the Masada story), and how it changed over decades from a Zionist pilgrimage to a tourist destination. Placing the story in a larger historical, sociological, and psychological context, Ben-Yehuda draws upon theories of collective memory and mythmaking to analyze Masada’s crucial role in the nation-building process of modern Israel and the formation of a new Jewish identity. An expert on deviance and social control, Ben-Yehuda looks in particular at how and why a military failure and an enigmatic, troubling case of mass suicide (in conflict with Judaism’s teachings) were reconstructed and fabricated as a heroic tale.
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