Israel presents a panoramic display of fresh interpretations and new research findings related to Israel's first decade of independence. Those years of rapid change are widely regarded as a formative period in the development of the state and the society. As new archival materials have become available for scrutiny, a new generation of historians and social scientists has begun to re-examine old issues and to raise new questions. In this context of academic ferment, scholars in diverse disciplines, of different generations and of opposing ideological orientations, have collaborated in this book in examining the period anew. Thirty-two authoritative essays offer new understandings from the diverse perspectives of history, political science, sociology, literary criticism, geography, anthropology, and law. The intention is to provide a wide-ranging reconsideration of post-independence Israel that will serve as a benchmark for future study and research.

An outstanding book, original, well written, and incisive. It will become the point of departure for all other research in the area.-William B. Helmreich, author of The World of the Yeshiva Danzger's volume treats a subject that is both fascinating and complex. Especially noteworthy is his exploration of an inclusionary strain in Orthodox Jewish life that is often overlooked by sociologists and other contemporary observers.-Norman Lamm, Yeshiva University The issues raised in this book are critical for our times.-Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Founding Rabbi, Lincoln Square Synagogue In a clear and lucid style, he examines the reasons for return, the schools established by Orthodox Judaism to deal with this return, and the values and conflicts thus engendered.-Library Journal If one were to select the most important of the books on baalei teshuvah, 'returnees to Judaism, ' the choice would clearly be Danzger's Returning to Tradition. This book goes far beyond the work of Janet Aviad and others. It offers the reader a clear, unified, and comprehensive approach to understanding the world of the baal teshuvah.It is based on many years of careful research into that community, both in Israel and in the United States. The author is intimately familiar with the ins and outs of the group he has chosen to study. He knows where they hang out, what their problems are, and the diversity of backgrounds from which they originate...First rate.-William B. Helmreich, American Jewish Histor

This book investigates the mappings of ideas about sexual and ethnic difference in Galilee during the centuries following the last Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire—centuries that saw major socioeconomic changes in the region, as well as the development of that small community of Jewish authors/authorities known as the rabbis. It examines aspects of Jewish identity as these were constructed both in the earliest rabbinic texts and “on the ground,” through practices that created (or contested) topographies of self vs. other, male vs. female, and insider vs. outsider. Three sociospatial sites, which the author explores through texts and archaeology, ground this study: house, marketplace, and courtyard/alleyway. The book questions long-standing historical narratives that have cast ancient Jewish women as “private,” housebound creatures and Jewish men as “public,” social, mobile agents. Offering useful strategies for working with, and combining, literary and nonliterary material remains, it fleshes out a richer narrative of Jewish antiquity.

It is through this study of the imagery and remains of spinning that Peskowitz shows how gender and rabbinic Judaism were indeed inextricable.

Describes and evaluates the problem of traditional Judaism in relation to the Jewish state, a problem with which the state of Israel has been concerned from the day of its creation in 1948.

“‘A covenantal vision of life, with mitzvah (divine commandment) as the central organizing principle in the relationship between Jews and God, liberates the intellect and the moral will. I seek to show that a tradition mediated by the Sinai covenant can encourage the development of a human being who is not afraid to assume responsibility for the ongoing drama of Jewish history. Passive resignation is seen not to be an essential trait of one whose relationship to God is mediated by the hearing of mitzvot.” —from the Introduction This interpretation of Jewish teaching will appeal to all people seeking to understand the relationship between the idea of divine demand and the human response, between religious tradition and modernity. Hartman shows that a life lived in Jewish tradition need not be passive, insulated, or self-effacing, but can be lived in the modern pluralistic world with passion, tolerance, and spontaneity. The Judaic tradition is often seen as being more concerned with uncritical obedience to law than with individual freedom and responsibility. In A Living Covenant, Hartman challenges this approach by revealing a Judaism grounded in a covenant—a relational framework—informed by the metaphor of marital love rather than that of parent-child dependency. This view of life places the individual firmly within community. Hartman shows that the Judaic tradition need not be understood in terms of human passivity and resignation, but rather as a vehicle by which human individuality and freedom can be expressed within a relational matrix.

These essays address Jewish identity, Jewish survival, and Jewish continuity. The authors account for and analyze trends in Jewish identification and the reciprocal effects of the relationship between the Diaspora and Israel at the end of the twentieth century.Jewish identification in contemporary society is a complex phenomenon. Since the emancipation of Jews in Europe and the major historic events of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel, there have been substantial changes in the collective Jewish identity. As a result, Jewish identity and the Jewish process of identification had to confront the new realities of an open society, its economic globalization, and the impacts of cultural pluralism. The trends in Jewish identification are toward fewer and weaker points of attachment: fewer Jews who hold religious beliefs with such beliefs held less strongly; less religious ritual observance; attachment to Zionism and Israel becoming diluted; and ethnic communal bonds weakening. Jews are also more involved in the wider society in the Diaspora due to fewer barriers and less overt anti-Semitism. This opens up possibilities for cultural integration and assimilation. In Israel, too, there are signs of greater interest in the modern world culture. The major questions addressed by this volume is whether Jewish civilization will continue to provide the basic social framework and values that will lead Jews into the twenty-first century and ensure their survival as a specific social entity.The book contains special contributions by Professor Julius Gould and Professor Irving Louis Horowitz and chapters on "Sociological Analysis of Jewish Identity"; "Jewish Community Boundaries"; and "Factual Accounts from the Diaspora and Israel."

This “fascinating, original, well-researched, and persuasively argued work” examines the phenomenon of co-ethnic migration in Israel and Germany (Sebastian Conrad, author of What Is Global History?). Co-ethnic migration happens when migrants seek admission to a country based on their purported ethnicity or nationality being the same as the country of destination. In The Unchosen Ones, social historian Jannis Panagiotidis looks at legislation and implementation regarding co-ethnic migration in Germany and Israel. This study focuses on individual cases ranging from after the Second World War to after the fall of the Berlin Wall where migrants were not allowed to enter the country they sought to make their home. These rejections confound notions of an “open door” or a “return to the homeland” and present contrasting ideas of descent, culture, blood, and race. Questions of historical origins, immigrant selection and screening, and national belonging are deeply ambiguous, complicating migration even in nations that are purported to be ethnically homogenous. Through highly original and illuminating analysis, Panagiotidis shows that migration is never a simple matter of moving from place to place.