On Jews and Judaism in Crisis

On Jews and Judaism in Crisis PDF Author: Gershom Scholem
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
ISBN: 1589880749
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Essays, letters, and articles written by the distinguished Jewish scholar over a fifty-year period. Includes three essays on Walter Benjamin.

On Jews and Judaism in Crisis

On Jews and Judaism in Crisis PDF Author: Gershom Scholem
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
ISBN: 1589880749
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Essays, letters, and articles written by the distinguished Jewish scholar over a fifty-year period. Includes three essays on Walter Benjamin.

Jewish Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity

Jewish Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity PDF Author: Leo Strauss
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438421443
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 526

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Book Description
This is the first book to bring together the major essays and lectures of Leo Strauss in the field of modern Jewish thought. It contains some of his most famous published writings, as well as significant writings which were previously unpublished. Spanning almost 30 years of continuously deepening reflection, the book presents the full range of Strauss's contributions as a modern Jewish thinker. These essays and lectures also offer Strauss's mature considerations of some of the great figures in modern Jewish thought, such as Baruch Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Theodor Herzl, and Sigmund Freud. They also encompass his incisive analyses and original explorations of modern Judaism (which he viewed as caught in the grip of the "theological-political crisis"): from German Jewry, anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust to Zionism and the State of Israel; from the question of assimilation to the meaning and value of Jewish history. In addition Strauss's two sustained interpretations of the Hebrew Bible are also reprinted. These essays and lectures cumulatively point toward the "postcritical" reconstruction of Judaism which Strauss envisioned, suggesting it rebuild along Maimonidean lines. Thus, the book lends credence to the view that Strauss was able to uncover and probe the crisis at the heart of modern Jewish thought and history, perhaps with greater profundity than any other contemporary Jewish thinker.

Crisis and Covenant

Crisis and Covenant PDF Author: Jonathan Sacks
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719042034
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Discusses various issues in contemporary Jewish theology. Ch. 2 (p. 25-53), "The Valley of the Shadow", is dedicated to the theological interpretation of the Holocaust. The Holocaust poses several problems to Jewish thought: Is God present in the post-Auschwitz world? Did the Holocaust renew the Covenant or did it survive intact? May the Holocaust be interpreted in terms of punishment, or is its meaning different, maybe inexplicable, in the extant categories of human ethics? May the Holocaust be regarded as a necessary transitional point on the way to the Jewish state? What lessons may be extracted from the Holocaust? Presents various solutions of modern-day Jewish theologians. Argues that the only lesson of the Holocaust is the reality of a common Jewish fate.

The Crisis of Zionism

The Crisis of Zionism PDF Author: Peter Beinart
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
ISBN: 0522861768
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
A dramatic shift is taking place in Israel and America. In Israel, the deepening occupation of the West Bank is putting Israeli democracy at risk. In the United States, the refusal of major Jewish organisations to defend democracy in the Jewish state is alienating many young liberal Jews from Zionism itself. In the next generation, the liberal Zionist dream, the dream of a state that safeguards the Jewish people and cherishes democratic ideals, may die. In The Crisis of Zionism, Peter Beinart lays out in chilling detail the looming danger to Israeli democracy and the American Jewish establishment's refusal to confront it. And he offers a fascinating, groundbreaking portrait of the two leaders at the centre of the crisis: Barack Obama, America's first 'Jewish president', a man steeped in the liberalism he learned from his many Jewish friends and mentors in Chicago; and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who considers liberalism the Jewish people's special curse. These two men embody fundamentally different visions, not just of American and Israeli national interests, but of the mission of the Jewish people itself. Beinart concludes with provocative proposals for how the relationship between American Jews and Israel must change, and with an eloquent and moving appeal for American Jews to defend the dream of a democratic Jewish state before it is too late.

Torn at the Roots

Torn at the Roots PDF Author: Michael E. Staub
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231123747
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
In this fascinating history of the genesis of the backlash against Jewish liberalism, Staub recounts the history American Jews who advocated Palestinian statehood, showing how ideology has split the Jewish community.

The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex

The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex PDF Author: Lila Corwin Berman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691242119
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
The first comprehensive history of American Jewish philanthropy and its influence on democracy and capitalism For years, American Jewish philanthropy has been celebrated as the proudest product of Jewish endeavors in the United States, its virtues extending from the local to the global, the Jewish to the non-Jewish, and modest donations to vast endowments. Yet, as Lila Corwin Berman illuminates in The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex, the history of American Jewish philanthropy reveals the far more complicated reality of changing and uneasy relationships among philanthropy, democracy, and capitalism. With a fresh eye and lucid prose, and relying on previously untapped sources, Berman shows that from its nineteenth-century roots to its apex in the late twentieth century, the American Jewish philanthropic complex tied Jewish institutions to the American state. The government’s regulatory efforts—most importantly, tax policies—situated philanthropy at the core of its experiments to maintain the public good without trammeling on the private freedoms of individuals. Jewish philanthropic institutions and leaders gained financial strength, political influence, and state protections within this framework. However, over time, the vast inequalities in resource distribution that marked American state policy became inseparable from philanthropic practice. By the turn of the millennium, Jewish philanthropic institutions reflected the state’s growing investment in capitalism against democratic interests. But well before that, Jewish philanthropy had already entered into a tight relationship with the governing forces of American life, reinforcing and even transforming the nation’s laws and policies. The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex uncovers how capitalism and private interests came to command authority over the public good, in Jewish life and beyond.

Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis

Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis PDF Author: Yaacov Yadgar
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108488943
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
An innovative and provocative study tackling the main assumptions surrounding Israel's claim to Jewish identity.

Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World, 1391-1648

Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World, 1391-1648 PDF Author: Benjamin R. Gampel
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231109237
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Leading scholars reflect on the 1492 expulsions of the Jews from Spain.

Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine

Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine PDF Author: Jacob Neusner
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226576527
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
With the conversion of Constantine in 312, Christianity began a period of political and cultural dominance that it would enjoy until the twentieth century. Jacob Neusner contradicts the prevailing view that following Christianity's ascendancy, Judaism continued to evolve in isolation. He argues that because of the political need to defend its claims to religious authenticity, Judaism was forced to review itself in the context of a triumphant Christianity. The definition of issues long discussed in Judaism—the meaning of history, the coming of the Messiah, and the political identity of Israel—became of immediate and urgent concern to both parties. What emerged was a polemical dialogue between Christian and Jewish teachers that was unprecedented. In a close analysis of texts by the Christian theologians Eusebius, Aphrahat, and Chrysostom on one hand, and of the central Jewish works the Talmud of the Land of Israel, the Genesis Rabbah, and the Leviticus Rabbah on the other, Neusner finds that both religious groups turned to the same corpus of Hebrew scripture to examine the same fundamental issues. Eusebius and Genesis Rabbah both address the issue of history, Chrysostom and the Talmud the issue of the Messiah, and Aphrahat and Leviticus Rabbah the issue of Israel. As Neusner demonstrates, the conclusions drawn shaped the dialogue between the two religions for the rest of their shared history in the West.

Judaism on Trial

Judaism on Trial PDF Author: Nathan T. Lopes Cardozo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Arguing that science & anti-religious philosophy are not responsible for the decline of Judaism, Rabbi Cardozo says it is those who teach it that make Judaism appear irrelevant to the needs & problems of modern man. Jewish law & custom are taught as a dogmatic creed & no longer contains the exciting spontaneity of worship, while remaining formalistic, replacing love with habit. Instead, the author believes that Judaism must reflect deep compassion to recapture the flowing fountain of a glorious tradition - if not, all becomes meaningless.