Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents

Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents PDF Author: Marta F. Topel
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761859187
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
In this book, Marta T. Topel utilizes anthropological research to analyze both macro and micro social processes among secular and Orthodox Jews in Israel. She covers such complex issues as the tensions between the two groups and the radicalization of Israeli Jewish Orthodoxy in the last thirty years. The book also delves into micro social processes such as the long and tortured journey of Israeli religious dissidents and the role of non-governmental organizations in helping these dissidents adapt to secular society. In addition, she discusses the symbolic and ritual paraphernalia that dissidents must become familiar with in order to be successful in their new lives as secular Jews. Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents approaches the phenomenon of religious dissidence within the Jewish Israeli Orthodoxy through the lens of the inverse phenomenon: religious conversion to Jewish Orthodoxy. This outlook is based on theoretical ground as both events constitute a radical change of the ideology of both the social actors and the social structures they have abandoned.

Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents

Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents PDF Author: Marta F. Topel
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761859187
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book, Marta T. Topel utilizes anthropological research to analyze both macro and micro social processes among secular and Orthodox Jews in Israel. She covers such complex issues as the tensions between the two groups and the radicalization of Israeli Jewish Orthodoxy in the last thirty years. The book also delves into micro social processes such as the long and tortured journey of Israeli religious dissidents and the role of non-governmental organizations in helping these dissidents adapt to secular society. In addition, she discusses the symbolic and ritual paraphernalia that dissidents must become familiar with in order to be successful in their new lives as secular Jews. Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents approaches the phenomenon of religious dissidence within the Jewish Israeli Orthodoxy through the lens of the inverse phenomenon: religious conversion to Jewish Orthodoxy. This outlook is based on theoretical ground as both events constitute a radical change of the ideology of both the social actors and the social structures they have abandoned.

Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents

Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents PDF Author: Marta F. Topel
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0761859179
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
In this book, Marta T. Topel utilizes anthropological research to analyze both macro and micro social processes among secular and Orthodox Jews in Israel. Topel approaches religious dissidence within the Jewish Israeli Orthodoxy through the lens of the inverse phenomenon: reli...

The Jewish Renaissance and Some of Its Discontents

The Jewish Renaissance and Some of Its Discontents PDF Author: Lionel Kochan
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719035357
Category : Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
On pp. 90-117, "The Task of the Historian, " objects to the tendency to turn the Holocaust into the central focal point of Jewish history and of the Jewish "civil religion." Speaks against attempts of historians and politicians to make the Holocaust a paradigm of pre-Israeli Jewish history and to connect the establishment of the State of Israel with the Holocaust.

Christendom and Its Discontents

Christendom and Its Discontents PDF Author: Scott L. Waugh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521525091
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
From the eleventh century onward, Latin Christendom was torn by discontent and controversy. As the Church and secular rulers defined more clearly than ever before the laws and institutions on which they based their power, they demanded greater uniformity and obedience to their authority. The essays in this book cast new light on the dynamics of repression, highlighting the controversies and discontent that troubled medieval society. Looking especially at the mechanisms underlying the dissemination of heterodoxy and its repression, the religious aspirations of women, the fate of non-Christian minorities in Europe, and changing boundaries between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the authors provide a new understanding of the Church's response to the diversity of belief and practice by which it was confronted.

Postmodern Love in the Contemporary Jewish Imagination

Postmodern Love in the Contemporary Jewish Imagination PDF Author: Efraim Sicher
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000539091
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Offering a radical critique of contemporary Israeli and diaspora fiction by major writers of the generation after Amos Oz and Philip Roth, this book asks searching questions about identity formation in Jewish spaces in the twenty-first century and posits global, transnational identities instead of the bipolar Israel/diaspora model. The chapters put into conversation major authors such as Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Michael Chabon, and Nathan Englander with their Israeli counterparts Zeruya Shalev, Eshkol Nevo, and Etgar Keret and shows that they share common themes and concerns. Read through a postmodern lens, their preoccupation with failed marriage and failed ideals brings to the fore the crises of home, nation, historical destiny, and collective memory in contemporary secular Jewish culture. At times provocative, at others iconoclastic, this innovative study must be read by anyone concerned with Jewish culture and identity today, whether scholars, students, or the general reader.

Illuminating the Path to Vibrant American Jewish Communities

Illuminating the Path to Vibrant American Jewish Communities PDF Author: Jacob B. Ukeles
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031076427
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
This book argues that the way to ensure that American Jewish life flourishes is to create vibrant local communities and that the ability to thrive will be won or lost in the trenches of each locality. For every generalization about the Jews of America, one can say, “maybe, but it depends where.” In the United States, Jewish life is up close and personal where local variations on national themes make a huge difference. The author presents case studies using in-depth analysis of data from nine Jewish community studies to illuminate eleven critical American Jewish policy issues. The analysis is used to formulate a range of policy options for different types of communities. This book is for anyone who cares about the future of American Jewry. It should be of particular interest to the lay leaders and professionals who play a role in Jewish nonprofits. It is also of great interest to researchers and students of Jewish studies and Jewish communal service.

The Sacred and the Impure in Judaism

The Sacred and the Impure in Judaism PDF Author: Marta F. Topel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197677673
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
The Sacred and the Impure in Judaism examines the radicalization of certain Orthodox Jewish groups through the lens of kashrut, or Jewish dietary laws. Mata F. Topel begins with a historical look at chumratization--the tendency among rabbis toward more rigorous interpretations of Jewish law--beginning in Hungary in the late 19th century and on through the nascent radicalization of Israeli Orthodox Jews in the 1950s. Then, drawing on Orthodox kashrut manuals and interviews with kashrut supervisors, ritual butchers, and a diverse group of Orthodox men and women, Topel shows how changes to dietary laws have had a profound effect on the ritual density of everyday life in these communities. Detailed descriptions of the difficulties that Orthodox housewives have in carrying out preparations for the Jewish Passover reveal a certain obsession with following the commandments and customs mandated by authorities. Contrasting medieval practices with current ones, Topel shows that the number of rules for celebrating Passover has increased exponentially in recent decades, an important indication of the chumratization process that effects significant segments of this population. However, she also finds exceptions: While many Orthodox rabbis demand that kashrut supervisors and housewives take great pains to avoid ingesting insects that may be found in vegetables and fruit, they have also become significantly more lenient when it comes to consuming non-kosher meat--so much so that most meat consumed by Orthodox communities today is not kosher. The Sacred and the Impure in Judaism reveals considerable changes in the content and function of kashrut for Orthodox Jews in Israel and its diaspora, which contradicts ideas of purity within this community and the notion that their beliefs and practices are identical to European Judaism of the 18th and 19th centuries, while highlighting the multiple and intricate relationships that exist between a community's religion, food, and identity.

Queer Judaism

Queer Judaism PDF Author: Orit Avishai
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479810037
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Offers a compelling look at how Orthodox Jewish LGBT persons in Israel became more accepted in their communities. Until fairly recently, Orthodox people in Israel could not imagine embracing their LGBT sexual or gender identity and staying within the Orthodox fold. But within the span of about a decade and a half, Orthodox LGBT people have forged social circles and communities and become much more visible. This has been a remarkable shift in a relatively short time span. Queer Judaism offers the compelling story of how Jewish LGBT persons in Israel created an effective social movement. Drawing on more than 120 interviews, Orit Avishai illustrates how LGBT Jews accomplished this radical change. She makes the case that it has taken multiple approaches to achieve recognition within the community, ranging from political activism to more personal interactions with religious leaders and community members, to simply creating spaces to go about their everyday lives. Orthodox LGBT Jews have drawn from their lived experiences as well as Jewish traditions, symbols, and mythologies to build this movement, motivated to embrace their sexual identity not in spite of, but rather because of, their commitment to Jewish scripture, tradition, and way of life. Unique and timely, Queer Judaism challenges popular conceptions of how LGBT people interact and identify with conservative communities of faith.

Expanding the Palace of Torah

Expanding the Palace of Torah PDF Author: Tamar Ross
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9781584653905
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Expanding the Palace of Torah offers a broad philosophical overview of the challenges the women's revolution poses to Orthodox Judaism, and Orthodox Judaism's response to those challenges. Writing as an insider (herself an Orthodox Jew), Ross seeks to develop a theological response that fully acknowledges the male bias of Judaism's sanctified texts, yet nevertheless provides a rationale for transforming that bias in today's world without undermining their authority. She proposes an approach to divine revelation -- the theological heart of traditional Judaism -- which she calls "cumulativism." This approach is based on a conflating of strict boundaries between text and its interpretation, or divine intent and the evolution of human understanding. Book jacket.

Politics and Government in Israel

Politics and Government in Israel PDF Author: Gregory S. Mahler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 144226537X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
This balanced and comprehensive text explores Israeli government and politics from both institutional and behavioral perspectives. After briefly discussing Israel’s history and the early development of the state, Gregory Mahler then examines the social, religious, economic, cultural, and military contexts within which Israeli politics takes place. He makes special note of Israel’s geopolitical situation of sharing borders with, and being proximate to, several hostile Arab nations. The book explains the operation of political institutions and behavior in Israeli domestic politics, including the constitutional system and ideology, parliamentary government, the prime minister and the Knesset, political parties and interest groups, the electoral process and voting behavior, and the machinery of government. Mahler also considers Israel’s foreign policy setting and apparatus, the Palestinians and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the particularly sensitive questions of Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement movement, and the Middle East peace process overall. This clear and concise text provides an invaluable starting point for all readers needing a cogent introduction to Israel today.