Menorah Review (No. 52, Spring/Summer, 2001)

Zionism and Postzionism: Recent Re-Evaluations of Ideology and Historiography -- Mirror Images? -- Righteous Memorial -- Funny, You Don\u27t Look One Hundred -- Morality After the Holocaust -- A Legend for John Keats -- New Directions in Jewish Ethics -- Jewish Rights: What is Normative ? -- Noteworthy Book

Marking a new holy community: God’s neighbors and the ascendancy of a new religious hegemony in Israel

Meni Ya'ish's 2012 film God's Neighbors marks a significant cultural moment in the legitimation of Jewish religiosity in Israel and records an important moment in the country's metamorphosis in recent years, marking a change from a secular, liberal society to a more fundamentalist religious one. The film demonstrates this change in three interrelated ways. First, by combining Jewish religiosity with a powerful and aggressive Israeli Mizrahi masculine identity, the film re-legitimizes Jewish religiosity, presents it as attractive and sexy, and declares it as the new Israeli hegemony. Second, by abstaining from killing members of a rival Arab gang, the film symbolically minimizes the conflict between Jews and Arabs and advances the importance of mythical Jewish time over Zionist historical time. Finally, by ending happily with a union between Avi and his girl Miri, the film provides a neat closure that offers an alluringly simple hasidic-like tale to Jewish life in Israel today. As such, the film marks the decline of Israeli Statism and the rise of alternative redemptive narratives in Israel that are primarily religious

Beyond Suspicion

For more than four decades, socially disadvantaged Israeli Mizrahim—descendants of Jews from Middle Eastern and North African communities—have continuously supported right-wing political parties. Scholars, left-wing politicians, and activists tend to view Mizrahim as reacting against their structural exclusion, or more crudely as acting against their own interests, but Nissim Mizrachi locates the source of their “paradoxical behavior” within the limitations of the liberal grammar by which their outlook and behavior are read. In Beyond Suspicion, Mizrachi turns the direction of inquiry back on itself, contrasting liberal grammar—which values autonomy, equality, and universal reason and morality as the only authentic human choice—with the grammar of rootedness, in which the self is experienced through a web of relational commitments, temporal ties, and codes of collective identity. Recognizing rootedness as a fundamental need and desire for belonging is necessary to understand both scholarly and political rifts in Israel and throughout the world. “With profound lessons for us all, this book excavates the rootedness at the heart of right-populist politics in Israel. In seeing his subjects fully, Nissim Mizrachi turns the mirror on ourselves to show us how our constricted vision limits the appeal of our ideas to the very people whose rights we claim to fight for. This book powerfully redefines our understanding of the illiberal world we increasingly inhabit.” — Ann Swidler, Professor of the Graduate School, Sociology, University of California, Berkeley “In challenging sociological orthodoxy, Mizrachi dares us to conceptualize the social actor beyond our own dominant liberal paradigms. His extensive research among Mizrahi Jews calls into question prevalent ideas of individual autonomy, forcing us to recognize the role of rootedness and belonging in the self-conception of millions in Israel—and beyond.” — Adam Seligman, Professor of Religion, Boston Universit

Mizrahim in Israel

&nbsp; This paper argues that the role of Mizrahim in Israel has drastically changed since the founding of the state in 1948. Mizrahim were racially discriminated against during Israel&rsquo;s foundation due to their racial and cultural proximity to Arab Palestinians. As generations passed, Mizrahim have become more accepted into Israeli society.&nbsp; Their political affiliation has allowed them a higher status amongst other ethnic subgroups and greater confidence in their Arab-Jewish identity. Using interviews with Mizrahim of various ages and backgrounds, historical context and statistical data, this research addresses Mizrahi marginalization, the socioeconomic gap present within Israeli society between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim and how it has impacted the identity of the Mizrahi community over time. </p

Hospitality, ethics of care and the traditionist feminism of Beit Midrash Arevot: An experiential essay

This is an exploration of women’s tradition of hospitality, the epistemic and moral contribution of their practices of welcoming the other and their historical experience as providers of care. The essay claims that female hospitality has largely consisted of care for others, which challenges a social model based on individualism and self-sufficiency. The argument is rooted in ethnography and Jewish thought and reclaims the home as an ethical space. This text analyses two disturbing and painful stories from the Tanakh that are both examples of the consequences of extreme or absolute hospitality and violence against women. The famous works of Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Lévinas on hospitality as ethics and hospitality as the feminine are discussed vis-à-vis anthropological and feminist approaches to the connection between the female welcoming of the other and the ethics of care. Finally, the reflections of the members of Beit Midrash Arevot (Jerusalem) shed light on a traditionist feminism that develops an ethics and practice of hospitality as welcoming otherness

Experiencing the Hebrew Bible

Leading scholars from diverse fields explore the importance of the Hebrew Bible for Jewish history, culture, and identity. The Hebrew Bible has been and continues to be at the heart of Judaism. As this volume explores its significance throughout the ages, it focuses both on the textual history and on its lived experience. The articles deal with aspects of textual criticism, translation, the history of reception, and modern references to the Hebrew Bible. They span a historical period from antiquity to the present day. Leading scholars from various disciplines use diverse approaches to highlight the Hebrew Bible’s multifacetedness and its continuous importance for Jews around the world

New Trends in the Study of Haredi Culture and Society

Who are Haredim? And why are they the source of both increasing attention and continuing misunderstanding? New Trends in the Study of Haredi Culture and Society draws on the innovative research of leading scholars from a variety of disciplines—including history, religious studies, demography, linguistics, and geography—to trace the growing prominence of Haredi (often called ultra-Orthodox) Jews in Jewish life. Haredi Jews are committed to preserving a measure of segregation from the rest of society consistent with the guiding principles of their forebears; yet increasingly, they are appearing more visibly and assertively in public spaces. Demographic analysis suggests that they will constitute a much larger share—nearly one-quarter—of the world Jewish population over the next twenty years. By examining the evolution of political, cultural, and social trends in Haredi communities across the globe, this interdisciplinary and transnational volume sheds important light both on Haredi communities and on the societies of which they are part.https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/casden/1015/thumbnail.jp

Auto-Emancipation: Decolonial Perspectives on Autonomous Political Mizrahi and Sephardic Organizations in Israel, 1948-1967

326 p.This research is based on the contemporary theoretical premise developed especially among Latin-American social scientists, named by some as "the decolonial turn". The research uses the decolonial perspective and terminology in order to examine the historical political activity of Mizrahi and Sephardic autonomous organizations in Israel. The study is based on historical documents and newspapers of different organizations. It examines a broad range of organizations, but focuses primarily on the activity of the Council of the Sephardic Community of Jerusalem, under the leadership of Eliahu Eliachar. The research outlines an autonomous Mizrahi sub-political sphere that had a unique dynamic of its own, which sometimes diverged from the Ashkenazi one in its interpretations of the social reality and in its reaction to Middle Eastern political developments. Within this sphere, the dissertation analyzes the discourse and practices of independent political organizations, focusing on the way they related to Middle Eastern politics and to Israeli Palestinian Arabs, as well as on their constructions of a Mizrahi and Sephardic collective identity. The research also examines the multifaceted ways in which the colonial power structure of the Zionist regime weakened the activity of these organizations and restricted their decolonial potential. The dissertation aims to contribute to the development of the decolonial theoretical perspective in the context of the Middle East, and to the construction of a legacy of such thinking in Israel today

Auto-Emancipation: Decolonial Perspectives on Autonomous Political Mizrahi and Sephardic Organizations in Israel, 1948-1967

326 p.This research is based on the contemporary theoretical premise developed especially among Latin-American social scientists, named by some as "the decolonial turn". The research uses the decolonial perspective and terminology in order to examine the historical political activity of Mizrahi and Sephardic autonomous organizations in Israel. The study is based on historical documents and newspapers of different organizations. It examines a broad range of organizations, but focuses primarily on the activity of the Council of the Sephardic Community of Jerusalem, under the leadership of Eliahu Eliachar. The research outlines an autonomous Mizrahi sub-political sphere that had a unique dynamic of its own, which sometimes diverged from the Ashkenazi one in its interpretations of the social reality and in its reaction to Middle Eastern political developments. Within this sphere, the dissertation analyzes the discourse and practices of independent political organizations, focusing on the way they related to Middle Eastern politics and to Israeli Palestinian Arabs, as well as on their constructions of a Mizrahi and Sephardic collective identity. The research also examines the multifaceted ways in which the colonial power structure of the Zionist regime weakened the activity of these organizations and restricted their decolonial potential. The dissertation aims to contribute to the development of the decolonial theoretical perspective in the context of the Middle East, and to the construction of a legacy of such thinking in Israel today