Jewish Secularity

Jewish Secularity PDF Author: Zachary I. Heller
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761857958
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
A growing number of Jews identify themselves as secular or “somewhat secular.” Is this expansive definition of Jewishness a new phenomenon? What are its roots? What are its implications for the Jewish community, its institutions, and its future? In reflecting on secular forms of Jewishness, the contributors to this book explore the sources of Jewish secularism and its articulation in Jewish thought, belief, literature, and culture. Included in this book are several personal accounts of Jewish journeys, as well as analyses of the extent of the division between secular Jews and others in the Jewish community. In sum, Jewish Secularity: The Search for Roots and the Challenges of Relevant Meaning provides an overview of a profound development in the evolving history of Jewish life in America.

Jewish Secularity

Jewish Secularity PDF Author: Zachary I. Heller
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761857958
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 137

Get Book Here

Book Description
A growing number of Jews identify themselves as secular or “somewhat secular.” Is this expansive definition of Jewishness a new phenomenon? What are its roots? What are its implications for the Jewish community, its institutions, and its future? In reflecting on secular forms of Jewishness, the contributors to this book explore the sources of Jewish secularism and its articulation in Jewish thought, belief, literature, and culture. Included in this book are several personal accounts of Jewish journeys, as well as analyses of the extent of the division between secular Jews and others in the Jewish community. In sum, Jewish Secularity: The Search for Roots and the Challenges of Relevant Meaning provides an overview of a profound development in the evolving history of Jewish life in America.

Not in the Heavens

Not in the Heavens PDF Author: David Biale
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691168040
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Not in the Heavens traces the rise of Jewish secularism through the visionary writers and thinkers who led its development. Spanning the rich history of Judaism from the Bible to today, David Biale shows how the secular tradition these visionaries created is a uniquely Jewish one, and how the emergence of Jewish secularism was not merely a response to modernity but arose from forces long at play within Judaism itself. Biale explores how ancient Hebrew books like Job, Song of Songs, and Esther downplay or even exclude God altogether, and how Spinoza, inspired by medieval Jewish philosophy, recast the biblical God in the role of nature and stripped the Torah of its revelatory status to instead read scripture as a historical and cultural text. Biale examines the influential Jewish thinkers who followed in Spinoza's secularizing footsteps, such as Salomon Maimon, Heinrich Heine, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein. He tells the stories of those who also took their cues from medieval Jewish mysticism in their revolts against tradition, including Hayim Nahman Bialik, Gershom Scholem, and Franz Kafka. And he looks at Zionists like David Ben-Gurion and other secular political thinkers who recast Israel and the Bible in modern terms of race, nationalism, and the state. Not in the Heavens demonstrates how these many Jewish paths to secularism were dependent, in complex and paradoxical ways, on the very religious traditions they were rejecting, and examines the legacy and meaning of Jewish secularism today.

Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity

Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity PDF Author: Asher Cohen
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801863455
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
The role of religion in a democratic society Best Book award given by the Israel Political Science Association Since the 1980s, relationships between secular and religious Israelis have gone from bad to worse. What was formerly a politics of accommodation, one whose main objective was the avoidance of strife through "arrangements" and compromises, has become a winner-take-all, zero-sum game. The conflict is not over who gets what. Rather, it is a conflict over the very character of the polity, a struggle to define Israel's collective character. In Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity Asher Cohen and Bernard Susser show how this transformation has been caused by structural changes in Israel's public sphere. Surveying many different levels of public life, they explore the change of Israel's politics from a dominant-party system to a balanced two-camp system. They trace the rise of the Haredi parties and the growing consonance of religiosity with right-wing politics. Other topics include the new Basic Laws on Freedom, Dignity, and Occupation; the effects of massive immigration of secular Jews from the former Soviet Union; the greater emphasis on liberal "good government"; and the rise of an aggressive investigative press and electronic media.

Jewish Philosophy in a Secular Age

Jewish Philosophy in a Secular Age PDF Author: Kenneth Seeskin
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438419333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Clearly written, historically sophisticated, Jewish Philosophy in a Secular Age presents a running dialogue between a rationalist understanding of religion and its many critics, ranging from Descartes and Hume to Kierkegaard, Buber, and Fackenheim. The author confronts such classical problems as divine attributes, creation, revelation, suspension of the ethical, ethics and secular philosophy, the problem of evil, and the importance of the Holocaust. On each issue, the author sets the terms of the debate and works toward a constructive resolution.

Jewish Secularity

Jewish Secularity PDF Author: David M. Gordis
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761857931
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
A growing number of Jews identify themselves as secular or "somewhat secular." Is this expansive definition of Jewishness a new phenomenon? What are its roots? This insightful book provides an overview of a profound development in the evolving history of Jewish life in America.

American Judaism in Transition

American Judaism in Transition PDF Author: Gerhard Falk
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780761800163
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
The American Jewish community is in transition. This book describes in detail how American Jews changed from living in a religion-oriented community to living a secular life. Falk discusses how Jewish Americans were greatly influenced by the secularization of Western civilization in general and by the Christian community in Europe and America specifically. The secularization of American Jewish institutions is analyzed by discussing changes in the Jewish religion, Jewish education and Jewish organizations during this century. Special consideration is given to the issue of Jewish survival in America with specific emphasis on the Jewish-Christian intermarriage rate. Contents: Part One: The Present Condition of Judaism in America; The American Jewish at the End of the 20th Century; Part Two: The Development of Secularization in the Western World; The Influence of Jewish Philosophers on the Secularization of Judaism; The Influence of Christians and Other Philosophers on the Secularization of the Western World; The Secularization of the U.S. before 1900; The Influence of Scientific Thinking on the Secularization Process; The Influence of Some European and American Writers on the Secularization Process; The Secularization of the United States in the 20th Century; Part Three: American Jewish Institutions at the End of the Century; The Secularization of the Jewish Religion in America; The Secularization of the American Jewish Family; The Secularization of American Jewish Education; Organized American Jewishness at the End of the 20th Century; Part Four: Jewish Continuity in a Secular Society; The Secular Life in America; Jewish Survival in America.

Secularism in Question

Secularism in Question PDF Author: Ethan B. Katz
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812247272
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Secularism in Question examines how twentieth-century revivals of religion prompt a reconsideration of many issues concerning Jews and Judaism in the modern era. Scholars of Jewish history, religion, philosophy, and literature illustrate how the categories of "religious" and "secular" have frequently proven far more permeable than fixed.

Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics

Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics PDF Author: Yaacov Yadgar
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113693992X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 607

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Book Description
Common discourse on Jewish identity in Israel is dominated by the view that Jewish Israelis can, and should, be either religious or secular. Moving away from this conventional framework, this book examines the role of secularism and religion in Jewish society and politics. With a focus on the ‘traditionists’ (masortim) who comprise over a third of the Jewish-Israeli population, the author examines issues of religion, tradition and secularism in Israel, giving a fresh approach to the widening theoretical discussion regarding the thesis of secularisation and modernity and exploring the wider implications of this identity. Yadgar’s conclusions have significant social, cultural and political implications, serving not only as a new contribution to the academic discourse on Jewish-Israeli identity, but as a platform upon which traditionist positions on central issues of Israeli politics can be heard. Offering a detailed investigation into a central and important Jewish-Israeli identity construct, the book is relevant not only to the study of Jewish identity in Israel but also within the wider social-theoretical issues of religion, tradition, modernity and secularization. The book will be of great interest to students of Israeli society and to anyone looking into the issues of Jewish identity, Israeli nationalism and ethnicity, religion and politics in Israel, and the sociology of religion.

Real Jews

Real Jews PDF Author: Noah Efron
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
An explosive book that documents in savage detail the war that is tearing Jewish Israel apart from the inside.

A Provocative People

A Provocative People PDF Author: Sherwin T. Wine
Publisher: IISHJ-NA
ISBN: 0985151609
Category : Jews
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description