In Search of Jewish Community

In Search of Jewish Community PDF Author: Michael Brenner
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253000572
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
A collection of essays interrogates the nature of Jewish identity in the time between two world wars. The history of Jews in interwar Germany and Austria is often viewed either as the culmination of tremendous success in the economic and cultural realms and of individual assimilation and acculturation, or as the beginning of the road that led to Auschwitz. By contrast, this volume demonstrates a re-emerging sense of community within the German-speaking Jewish population of these two countries in the two decades after World War I. The fresh research presented here shows that while Jews may have experienced a deepening sense of impending crisis and economic decline, a renewal of Jewish communal life took place during these years, as new groupings sprang up, including organizations for youth, for rural Jews, and for political groups such as Zionists and Bundists. Several chapters consider the impact of economic and political crises on German-Jewish family life. Together, these essays form a complex mosaic of German Jewry on the eve of its demise. “An excellent collection . . . well written and cogently argued.” —David N. Myers

In Search of Jewish Community

In Search of Jewish Community PDF Author: Michael Brenner
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253000572
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book

Book Description
A collection of essays interrogates the nature of Jewish identity in the time between two world wars. The history of Jews in interwar Germany and Austria is often viewed either as the culmination of tremendous success in the economic and cultural realms and of individual assimilation and acculturation, or as the beginning of the road that led to Auschwitz. By contrast, this volume demonstrates a re-emerging sense of community within the German-speaking Jewish population of these two countries in the two decades after World War I. The fresh research presented here shows that while Jews may have experienced a deepening sense of impending crisis and economic decline, a renewal of Jewish communal life took place during these years, as new groupings sprang up, including organizations for youth, for rural Jews, and for political groups such as Zionists and Bundists. Several chapters consider the impact of economic and political crises on German-Jewish family life. Together, these essays form a complex mosaic of German Jewry on the eve of its demise. “An excellent collection . . . well written and cogently argued.” —David N. Myers

Jewish Communities in Exotic Places

Jewish Communities in Exotic Places PDF Author: Ken Blady
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0765761122
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
Jewish Communities in Exotic Places examines seventeen Jewish groups that are referred to in Hebrew as edot ha-mizrach, Eastern or Oriental Jewish communities. These groups, situated in remote places on the Asian and African Jewish geographical periphery, became isolated from the major centers of Jewish civilization over the centuries and embraced some interesting practices and aspects of the dominant cultures in which they were situated.

A History of Jews in Germany Since 1945

A History of Jews in Germany Since 1945 PDF Author: Michael Brenner
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253029295
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
A comprehensive account of Jewish life in a country that carries the legacy of being at the epicenter of the Holocaust. Originally published in German in 2012, this comprehensive history of Jewish life in postwar Germany provides a systematic account of Jews and Judaism from the Holocaust to the early 21st Century by leading experts of modern German-Jewish history. Beginning in the immediate postwar period with a large concentration of Eastern European Holocaust survivors stranded in Germany, the book follows Jews during the relative quiet period of the 50s and early 60s during which the foundations of new Jewish life were laid. Brenner’s volume goes on to address the rise of anti-Israel sentiments after the Six Day War as well as the beginnings of a critical confrontation with Germany’s Nazi past in the late 60s and early 70s, noting the relatively small numbers of Jews living in Germany up to the 90s. The contributors argue that these Jews were a powerful symbolic presence in German society and sent a meaningful signal to the rest of the world that Jewish life was possible again in Germany after the Holocaust. “This volume, which illuminates a multi-faceted panorama of Jewish life after 1945, will remain the authoritative reading on the subject for the time to come.” —Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “An eminently readable work of history that addresses an important gap in the scholarship and will appeal to specialists and interested lay readers alike.” —Reading Religion “Comprehensive, meticulously researched, and beautifully translated.” —CHOICE

Finding a Spiritual Home

Finding a Spiritual Home PDF Author: Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, PhD
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 158023657X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
The Jewish community has lost some of the most sensitive spiritual souls of this generation. They are Jews who were looking for God and found spiritual homes outside of Judaism. Their journeys traversed the Jewish community, but nothing there beckoned them. The creation of synagogue-communities in which the voices of seekers can be heard and their questions can be asked will challenge many loyalist Jews. It will upset and enrage them. But it would also enrich them. —from Chapter 18 In this fresh look at the spiritual possibilities of American Jewish life, Rabbi Sidney Schwarz presents the framework for a new synagogue model—the synagogue community—and its promise to transform our understanding of the synagogue and its potential for modern Judaism. Schwarz profiles four innovative synagogues—one from each of the major movements of Judaism—that have had extraordinary success with their approach to congregational life and presents practical ways to replicate their success. Includes a discussion guide for study groups and book clubs as well as a new afterword by the author describing developments in synagogue change projects since the book was first published.

We're Missing the Point

We're Missing the Point PDF Author: Gidon Rothstein
Publisher: Ktav Publishing House
ISBN: 9781602802025
Category : Orthodox Judaism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"We re Missing the Point: What s Wrong with the Orthodox Jewish Community and How to Fix It argues that many communities of Orthodox Jews today have lost sight of basic, indispensable aspects of what it means to be a Jew. Building from sources that should be unequivocal and unarguable, Rabbi Dr. Gidon Rothstein shows how a Judaism more focused on the core essentials would express itself differently from what we see today, in directing us more insistently toward a certain type of a God-centered focus, while also laying out many areas of autonomy and personal choice we similarly neglect. Working his way from sources to practical suggestions, Gidon Rothstein lays out a vision for how Jews can get back at least to making progress on the main road God wanted, instead of stumbling down side alleys"--front flap.

Far from Zion

Far from Zion PDF Author: Charles London
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061942839
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
A fascinating narrative of community and faith, Charles London’s Far From Zion explores the Jewish Diaspora in some of the most unexpected places—from Burma to Tehran to Cuba and even Bentonville, Arkansas. The award-winning author of the highly acclaimed One Day the Soldiers Came, London tells the stories of the Jews who stayed behind, choosing to remain in the countries of their birth rather than immigrating to the Holy Land of Israel. At once a riveting modern history of a scattered People of the Book and London’s moving story of his own personal odyssey of religious and cultural discovery, Far From Zion is an affecting and unforgettable study of diversity, tenacity, survival, and rebirth.

Far from Zion

Far from Zion PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Jewish Communities in Modern Asia

Jewish Communities in Modern Asia PDF Author: Rotem Kowner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009192868
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
Jewish settlement in Asia, beyond the Middle East, is largely a modern phenomenon. Imperial expansion and adventurism by Great Britain and Russia were the chief motors that initially drove Jewish settlers to move eastwards, in the nineteenth century, combined as this was with the rise of port cities and general development of the global economy. The new immigrants soon become centrally involved, in ways quite disproportionate to their numbers, in Asian commerce. Their role and centrality finished with the outbreak of World War II, the chaos that resulted from the fighting, and the consequent collapse of Western imperialism. This unique, ground-breaking book charts their rise and fall while pointing to signs of these communities' post-war resurgence and revival. Fourteen chapters by many of the most prominent authorities in the field, from a range of perspectives, explore questions of identity, society, and culture across several Asian locales. It is essential reading for scholars of Asian Studies and Jewish Studies.

In Search

In Search PDF Author: Meyer Levin
Publisher: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
ISBN: 1625670885
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 642

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Book Description
The acclaimed autobiography of the Chicago journalist and author hailed as “the most significant American Jewish writer” of the mid-twentieth century (Los Angeles Times). Raised in the notorious Bloody Nineteenth Ward in Chicago, Meyer Levin landed a job at the Chicago Daily News at eighteen. He pursued reporting as a means to support his fiction writing, yet it was as a war correspondent that Levin found his voice. One of the first Americans to enter the concentration camps during World War II and record the horrors there, Levin also helped smuggle Jews from Poland to Palestine, capturing the events in his now classic film The Illegals. In this vivid chronicle, Levin traverses America, France, Spain, Eastern Europe and Palestine, incisively documenting some of the most important events of the twentieth century. Yet In Search is equally the story of Levin’s quest to define his Jewishness to himself and to the world. Both personal and universal, it affords a glimpse into a singular life and career and is, as Levin puts it, “more than a book about the Jews; it seeks to touch the human spirit.”

Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt

Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt PDF Author: Mark R. Cohen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400826780
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
What was it like to be poor in the Middle Ages? In the past, the answer to this question came only from institutions and individuals who gave relief to the less fortunate. This book, by one of the top scholars in the field, is the first comprehensive book to study poverty in a premodern Jewish community--from the viewpoint of both the poor and those who provided for them. Mark Cohen mines the richest body of documents available on the matter: the papers of the Cairo Geniza. These documents, located in the Geniza, a hidden chamber for discarded papers situated in a medieval synagogue in Old Cairo, were preserved largely unharmed for more than nine centuries due to an ancient custom in Judaism that prohibited the destruction of pages of sacred writing. Based on these papers, the book provides abundant testimony about how one large and important medieval Jewish community dealt with the constant presence of poverty in its midst. Building on S. D. Goitein's Mediterranean Society and inspired also by research on poverty and charity in medieval and early modern Europe, it provides a clear window onto the daily lives of the poor. It also illuminates private charity, a subject that has long been elusive to the medieval historian. In addition, Cohen's work functions as a detailed case study of an important phenomenon in human history. Cohen concludes that the relatively narrow gap between the poor and rich, and the precariousness of wealth in general, combined to make charity "one of the major agglutinates of Jewish associational life" during the medieval period.