Cohen takes an in-depth critical look at three novelists and two poets who stand at the forefront of contemporary Israeli literature, and whose works have been widely read, studied, and admired in the Western world. The critiques examine all English translations of these Israeli writers' major works from the beginning of their careers up to the present. Cohen demonstrates the vitality and virtuosity of the so-called New Wave Israeli writers whose sources and influences are as ancient as the stories of the Hebrew Bible and as modern as the interiorization of reality found in Proust, Faulkner, Woolf, and Joyce; and the literary adaptation of relativity found in Borges, Lowry, and Durrell. Complementing the critiques are interviews with the five Israeli writers. The issues discussed--the relation of politics and literature, the influence of literature on life, the role of the writer in society, the moral responsibility of the writer--combine with the essays to provide comprehensive insight into the contemporary Israeli psyche.

A diverse group of Israelis offers their views on Ariel Sharon's military invasions of the West Bank and Gaza and argue that his policies undermine the security, moral authority, democratic ideals, and liberal values of Israel. Reprint.

My name is Yakir Shlomo and I live in Jerusalem, Israel. If you spin a globe, it won't be easy to find the country where I live. Israel is barely the size of your thumbnail on most world maps. But I feel like I live in the center of the universe. Everyone's home is unique and my city and country are special to me. I know my home is a teeny, tiny dot if you think about the earth and the whole gigantic solar system. But it really can't be that small, since we have to make room for the 3.5 million people from all over the world who come to visit Israel during just one year.I am almost eight years old and I can understand why Israel has so many visitors. My country is an interesting place--and especially fun for children. I am glad my mother decided to help me write this book about Israel. My friends and I can't wait to tell you why we think it is so interesting to be Israeli. We hope that after you read this book, you might decide you'd like to come here and see for yourself.

"In this volume, a collection of strong Jewish voices come together to explore some of the most challenging issues facing diaspora Jews, notably in relation to the ongoing conflict in Israel-Palestine. Most of the contributors are signatories of the Independent Jewish Voices declaration which, when launched in 2007 in Britain, opened a floodgate of responses. This book bears witness to the urgency of that continuing debate. It provides powerful evidence of the vitality of independent Jewish opinion as well as demonstrating that criticism of Israel has a crucial role to play in the continuing history of a Jewish concern for social justice."--BOOK JACKET.

What is a homeland and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for such places throughout the twentieth century? What is the essence of the Promised Land? Following the acclaimed and controversial The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest-running national struggle of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Invention of the Land of Israel deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it. Sand’s account dissects the concept of “historical right” and tracks the creation of the modern concept of the “Land of Israel” by nineteenth-century Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of Israel; it is also threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.

Cohen takes an in-depth critical look at three novelists and two poets who stand at the forefront of contemporary Israeli literature, and whose works have been widely read, studied, and admired in the Western world. The critiques examine all English translations of these Israeli writers' major works from the beginning of their careers up to the present. Cohen demonstrates the vitality and virtuosity of the so-called New Wave Israeli writers whose sources and influences are as ancient as the stories of the Hebrew Bible and as modern as the interiorization of reality found in Proust, Faulkner, Woolf, and Joyce; and the literary adaptation of relativity found in Borges, Lowry, and Durrell. Complementing the critiques are interviews with the five Israeli writers. The issues discussed—the relation of politics and literature, the influence of literature on life, the role of the writer in society, the moral responsibility of the writer—combine with the essays to provide comprehensive insight into the contemporary Israeli psyche.

In the years following the founding of the State of Israel, close to a million Jews became refugees fleeing their ancestral homelands in the Middle East, North Africa, and Iran. State-sanctioned discrimination, violence, and political unrest brought an abrupt end to these once vibrant communities, scattering their members to the four corners of the earth. Their stories are mostly untold. Sephardi Voices: The Forgotten Exodus of the Arab Jews is a window into the experiences of these communities and their stories of survival. Through gripping first-hand accounts and stunning portrait and documentary photography, we hear on-the-ground stories of pogroms in Libya and Egypt, the burning of synagogues in Syria, the terrible Farhud in Iraq, families escaping via the great airlifts of the Magic Carpet and Operations Ezra and Nehemiah, husbands smuggled in carpets into Iran in search of wives. The authors also provide crucial historical background for these events, as well as updates on the lives of some of these Sephardi Jews who have gone on to rebuild fortunes in London and New York, write novels, and win Nobel Prizes. Sephardi Voices is at once a wide-ranging and intimate story of a large-scale catastrophe and a portrait of the vulnerability of the passage of time.

Voice of Israel is a collection of Abba Eban’s speeches before the United Nations’ Security Council and General Assembly, at universities and other venues between 1948 and 1968. Eban addresses Israel’s position on security in the Middle East, the Arab refugee problem, Jerusalem and the Holy Places, freedom of navigation through the Suez Canal and the Straights of Tiran, border clashes, American-Israel relations and the Six-Day War. “The Ambassador sounds a note of fierce and joyous pride in the achievements of Israel... The texts show Mr. Eban’s equal facility with the majestic phrase, the mild word and the blunt rejoinder... It need not be insisted that Mr. Eban is the oratorical equal of the incomparable Sir Winston [Churchill].” — Hal Lehrman, The New York Times “For almost two generations, Abba Eban was Israel's voice — its messenger to the high and mighty among the nations as well as to the Jewish people all over the world. Since he first appeared at the side of Dr. Chaim Weizmann in the late 1940’s during the struggle for Jewish statehood and sovereignty, few people could articulate the Zionist and later the Israeli case with comparable eloquence and conviction. With his Churchillian prose and almost Shakespearean cadences, his mellifluous phrases and sonorous voice carried for decades a message of hope from a people that could have lost all hope and trust in humanity after the horrors of World War II. As Ambassador to the United States and the UN, and later as Foreign Minister, he represented an Israel with which the world's liberal imagination could identify. Larger and more powerful nations were envious of so powerful a spokesman, and his speeches became textbook models for statesmen and diplomats in distant lands. His books — which he found time to write despite the hectic demands of diplomacy — were a unique combination of enormous erudition and crystalline clarity. His scholarly training and rhetorical gifts supplemented each other in a rare fashion. Rarely has a small country been represented by a statesman of such world stature: only Thomas Masaryk and Jan Smuts come to mind to compare with him. He was a true patriot, in the old-fashioned sense of the word: proud of his people, but never ethno-centric; a man of the world, but deeply embedded in Jewish cultural heritage; focused on the plights and tribulations of the Jewish people, but never losing the universal horizon of mankind. In short, he was a modern Jew in the best sense of the word.” — Shlomo Avineri

"A Land With A People began as a storytelling project of Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City and subsequently transformed into a theater project performed throughout the New York City area. A Land With A People elevates rarely heard Palestinian and Jewish voices and visions. It brings us the narratives of secular, Muslim, Christian, and LGBTQ Palestinians who endure the particular brand of settler colonialism known as Zionism. It relays the transformational journeys of Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Palestinian and LGBTQ Jews who have come to reject the received Zionist narrative. Unflinching in their confrontation of the power dynamics that underlie their transformation process, these writers find the courage to face what has happened to historic Palestine, and to their own families as a result. Stories touch hearts, open minds, and transform our understanding of the "other"-as well as comprehension of our own roles and responsibilities. A Land With a People emerges from this reckoning. Contextualized by a detailed historical introduction and timeline charting 150 years of Palestinian and Jewish resistance to Zionism, this collection will stir emotions, provoke fresh thinking, and point to a more hopeful, loving future-one in which Palestine/Israel is seen for what it is in its entirety, as well as for what it can be"--

A Handbook on the Jewish Roots of the Christian Faithis a comprehensive handbook that serves as an introduction to the Jewish roots of the Christian Faith. It includes Old Testament background, Second Temple Judaism, the life of Jesus, the New Testament, and the early Jewish followers of Jesus. It is intended as a resource for college and/or higher education. It is no longer a novelty to say that Jesus was a Jew. In fact, the term Jewish rootshas become something of a buzzword in books, articles, and especially on the internet. But what does the Jewishness of Jesus actually mean, and why is it important? This collection of articles aims to address those questions and serve as a comprehensive yet concise primer on the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. It consists of thirteen chapters, most of which are divided into four or five articles. It is in a "handbook" format, meaning that each article is brief but informative. The thirteen chapters are grouped into four major sections: (1) The Soil, (2) The Roots, (3) The Trunk, and (4) The Branches. Craig A. Evans, PhD, DHabil, is the John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins at Houston Baptist University in Texas. He is a frequent contributor to scholarly journals and the author or editor of over seventy books. Evans resides in Houston, TX. David Mishkin, PhD, serves on the faculty of Israel College of the Bible in Netanya, Israel. He is the author of The Wisdom of Alfred Edersheimand Jewish Scholarship on the Resurrection of Jesus.