Introduces the cutting edge issues and current scholarship in the interdisciplinary field of Israel Studies.

This sixth volume in the Books on Israel series is an interdisciplinary compilation that encompasses contributions from both the social sciences and the humanities, and reflects the exciting integration of approaches that are on the cutting edge of Israel Studies. The contributors go beyond the review of recent books on Israel to offer original examinations of the state of scholarship about Israel within the various disciplines of anthropology, economics, history, literature, political science, and sociology. Recent trends in contemporary Israeli society, politics, economics, and culture are also explored.

While there are books that describe the history and traditions of the Druze as an ethnic and religious group, this is the first and only academic book of its kind. It gives voice to the Israeli Druze, through in-depth interviews with 120 people, 60 young adults and 60 of their parents’ generation. How is this traditional group, bound together through the centuries by their secret religion and strong value system, dealing with modernization? What contradictions and continuity come to light in the stories of this people during a time of transition? Can their religion, and their very identity, survive the meeting with the modern, technological world? What resources do the young and the not-so-young bring to the task of preserving their community and helping it to flourish as the world changes around them? The people in this text answer these questions through the telling of their stories, in which they express their values, opinions, beliefs and aspirations. The book draws out theoretical, practical, religious and sociological implications from this analysis, in order to shed light on the challenges faced by other traditional societies meeting modernity.

Comprehensive historical study of policy planning and implementation during the crucial formative years of the Israeli government system. Although Israel was not the only country that emerged during the postcolonial era following World War II, it was very different than others in the British Empire such as India, Iraq, Egypt, Kenya, and Nigeria. In A State is Born, Jonathan David Fine uses newly discovered archival materials to reveal the complex challenges Israeli decision makers faced during the transition from British colonial rule in Palestine to Israeli sovereignty in the newly founded State of Israel. Including discussions of topics such as the Va’adat HaMatzav (special Committee for the transition period) and the formation of the ministries of Interior and Labor, Fine focuses on the planning policy and implementation behind the establishment of the Israeli governmental system during its most crucial formative period, 1947–1951, a dramatic transitory phase for both Jews and Arabs that continues to reverberate to this day.

This book provides a general history of the rise of Israel since the early Zionist efforts at state building. In particular it seeks to show how unlikely Israel's creation was and that it should best be understood as a series of revolutions.

In Traditional Society in Transition: The Yemeni Jewish Experience Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman offers an account of the unique circumstances of Yemeni Jewish existence in the wake of major changes since the second half of the nineteenth century. It follows this community's transition from a traditional patriarchal society to a group adjusting to the challenges of a modern society. Unlike the perception of the Yemeni Jews as receptive to modernity only following immigration to Palestine and Israel, Eraqi Klorman convincingly shows that some modern ideas played a role in their lives while in Yemen. Once in Palestine, they appear here as adjusting to the new conditions by striving to participate in the Zionist enterprise, consenting to secular education, transforming family practices and the status of women. “The book is an important contribution to the study of Yemeni Jews in Yemen and abroad as well as for Jewish-Muslim relations, relations between Yemeni Jews and other Jews, and gender studies...Many of these issues have not been previously studied, and the use of private archives and interviews greatly increases the value of this study." -Rachel Simon, Princeton University. Princeton, NJ, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews, November/December 2014.

Introduces the cutting edge issues and current scholarship in the interdisciplinary field of Israel Studies.

Covering topical issues concerning the nature of the Israeli state, this engaging work presents essays that combine a variety of comparative schemes, both internal to Jewish civilization and extending throughout the world, such as: modern Jewish society, politics and culture historical consciousness in the twentieth century colonialism, anti-colonialism and postcolonial state-building. With its open-ended, comparative approach, Israel in History provides a useful means of correcting the biases found in so much scholarship on Israel, be it sympathetic or hostile. This book will appeal to scholars and students with research interests in many fields, including Israeli Studies, Middle East Studies, and Jewish Studies.

This History offers an unparalleled examination of all aspects of Jewish American literature. Jewish writing has played a central role in the formation of the national literature of the United States, from the Hebraic sources of the Puritan imagination to narratives of immigration and acculturation. This body of writing has also enriched global Jewish literature in its engagement with Jewish history and Jewish multilingual culture. Written by a host of leading scholars, The Cambridge History of Jewish American Literature offers an array of approaches that contribute to current debates about ethnic writing, minority discourse, transnational literature, gender studies, and multilingualism. This History takes a fresh look at celebrated authors, introduces new voices, locates Jewish American literature on the map of American ethnicity as well as the spaces of exile and diaspora, and stretches the boundaries of American literature beyond the Americas and the West.