Becoming Diaspora Jews

Becoming Diaspora Jews PDF Author: Karel van der Toorn
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300243510
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Based on a previously unexplored source, this book transforms the way we think about the formation of Jewish identity

Becoming Diaspora Jews

Becoming Diaspora Jews PDF Author: Karel van der Toorn
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300243510
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on a previously unexplored source, this book transforms the way we think about the formation of Jewish identity

Becoming Diaspora Jews

Becoming Diaspora Jews PDF Author: Karel van der Toorn
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300249497
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Based on a previously unexplored source, this book transforms the way we think about the formation of Jewish identity This book tells the story of the earliest Jewish diaspora in Egypt in a way it has never been told before. In the fifth century BCE there was a Jewish community on Elephantine Island. Why they spoke Aramaic, venerated Aramean gods besides Yaho, and identified as Arameans is a mystery, but a previously little explored papyrus from Egypt sheds new light on their history. The papyrus shows that the ancestors of the Elephantine Jews came originally from Samaria. Due to political circumstances, they left Israel and lived for a century in an Aramean environment. Around 600 BCE, they moved to Egypt. These migrants to Egypt did not claim a Jewish identity when they arrived, but after the destruction of their temple on the island they chose to deploy their Jewish identity to raise sympathy for their cause. Their story—a typical diaspora tale—is not about remaining Jews in the diaspora, but rather about becoming Jews through the diaspora.

The Invention of the Land of Israel

The Invention of the Land of Israel PDF Author: Shlomo Sand
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1844679462
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
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.

Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora

Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora PDF Author: Rebecca Kobrin
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253004284
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 770

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Book Description
The mass migration of East European Jews and their resettlement in cities throughout Europe, the United States, Argentina, the Middle East and Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries not only transformed the demographic and cultural centers of world Jewry, it also reshaped Jews' understanding and performance of their diasporic identities. Rebecca Kobrin's study of the dispersal of Jews from one city in Poland -- Bialystok -- demonstrates how the act of migration set in motion a wide range of transformations that led the migrants to imagine themselves as exiles not only from the mythic Land of Israel but most immediately from their east European homeland. Kobrin explores the organizations, institutions, newspapers, and philanthropies that the Bialystokers created around the world and that reshaped their perceptions of exile and diaspora.

At Home in Exile

At Home in Exile PDF Author: Alan Wolfe
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807086185
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
An eloquent, controversial argument that says, for the first time in their long history, Jews are free to live in a Jewish state—or lead secure and productive lives outside it Since the beginnings of Zionism in the twentieth century, many Jewish thinkers have considered it close to heresy to validate life in the Diaspora. Jews in Europe and America faced “a life of pointless struggle and futile suffering, of ambivalence, confusion, and eternal impotence,” as one early Zionist philosopher wrote, echoing a widespread and vehement disdain for Jews living outside Israel. This thinking, in a more understated but still pernicious form, continues to the present: the Holocaust tried to kill all of us, many Jews believe, and only statehood offers safety. But what if the Diaspora is a blessing in disguise? In At Home in Exile, renowned scholar and public intellectual Alan Wolfe, writing for the first time about his Jewish heritage, makes an impassioned, eloquent, and controversial argument that Jews should take pride in their Diasporic tradition. It is true that Jews have experienced more than their fair share of discrimination and destruction in exile, and there can be no doubt that anti-Semitism persists throughout the world and often rears its ugly head. Yet for the first time in history, Wolfe shows, it is possible for Jews to lead vibrant, successful, and, above all else, secure lives in states in which they are a minority. Drawing on centuries of Jewish thinking and writing, from Maimonides to Philip Roth, David Ben Gurion to Hannah Arendt, Wolfe makes a compelling case that life in the Diaspora can be good for the Jews no matter where they live, Israel very much included—as well as for the non-Jews with whom they live, Israel once again included. Not only can the Diaspora offer Jews the opportunity to reach a deep appreciation of pluralism and a commitment to fighting prejudice, but in an era of rising inequalities and global instability, the whole world can benefit from Jews’ passion for justice and human dignity. Wolfe moves beyond the usual polemical arguments and celebrates a universalistic Judaism that is desperately needed if Israel is to survive. Turning our attention away from the Jewish state, where half of world Jewry lives, toward the pluralistic and vibrant places the other half have made their home, At Home in Exile is an inspiring call for a Judaism that isn’t defensive and insecure but is instead open and inquiring.

Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora

Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora PDF Author: John M. G. Barclay
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520218437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description
"Barclay's study corrects the traditional oversight that would equate early Judaism with Palestinian Judaism. This highly readable introduction . . . brings together material that is otherwise available only in regional studies or highly technical works. Barclay strikes a rare balance between local conditions and broad issues, and between supporting detail and coherent argument. It is hard to imagine how the chronic need for a synthesis of the Mediterranean Diaspora might have been better satisfied."—Steve Mason, Pennsylvania State University "The book reflects the best of contemporary scholarship and is likely to become an indispensable source of information and reflection on the problems Jews encountered with living in a frequently hostile environment."—A. P. Hayman, Edinburgh University "This is a superb book which has lifted our discussion of Jews in the Diaspora to a new plane. Since understanding the Diaspora is vital to comprehending a good deal about early Christianity, Barclay has also made a significant contribution to this latter field of investigation."—Paul Trebilco, University of Otago

Israel, the Diaspora, and Jewish Identity

Israel, the Diaspora, and Jewish Identity PDF Author: Danny Ben-Moshe
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
This title investigates the significance, contribution, and role played by the State of Israel - ideologically and practically - and explores the extent and way Israel features in diaspora identity through a range of issues.

Religious Networks in the Roman Empire

Religious Networks in the Roman Empire PDF Author: Anna Collar
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107043441
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
Examines the relationship between social networks and religious transmission to reappraise how new religious ideas spread in the Roman Empire.

The Invention of the Jewish People

The Invention of the Jewish People PDF Author: Shlomo Sand
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 178168362X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
A historical tour de force, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a groundbreaking account of Jewish and Israeli history. Exploding the myth that there was a forced Jewish exile in the first century at the hands of the Romans, Israeli historian Shlomo Sand argues that most modern Jews descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In this iconoclastic work, which spent nineteen weeks on the Israeli bestseller list and won the coveted Aujourd'hui Award in France, Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel's future.

Tropical Diaspora

Tropical Diaspora PDF Author: Robert M. Levine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781558765214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
"This unique, well-documented social history invites the reader to explore Cuban Jewry as a fascinating chronicle and to 'capture the flavor of their lives.' This is made possible by Levine's ability to write a text composed of carefully collated data, excellent illustrations, and oral testimonies. Levine's book contributes to an understanding of Cuban Jewry's unique setting -- starting from colonial times, through its second American diaspora following the 1959 communist revolution. ... Levine traces several stages of Jewish immigration to Cuba, starting with American businessmen rapidly integrated ... in some cases, into the Cuban upper class; Sephardic emigrants from Turkey, who were more socially accepted by Creole and other ethnic groups; ... and thousands of East European Jews arriving after 1924, who perceived the island as a kind of 'immigration hotel' on their way to America. ... Levine devotes two fascinating chapters to Jewish refugees escaping to Cuba before and during World War II. The tragic journey of 973 refugees carried by the St. Louis, whose landing permit had been retroactively denied by the Cuban government, is told by Levine through both dramatic oral testimonies and archival documentation." --Florida Historical Quarterly