From catastrophe to power: Holocaust survivors and the emergence of Israel

In a book certain to generate controversy and debate, Idith Zertal boldly interprets a much revered chapter in contemporary Jewish and Zionist history: the clandestine immigration to Palestine of Jewish refugees, most of them Holocaust survivors, that was organized by Palestinian Zionists just after World War II. Events that captured the attention of the world, such as the Exodus affair in the summer 1947, are seen here in a strikingly new light.At the center of Zertal's book is the Mossad, a small, unorthodox Zionist organization whose mission beginning in 1938 was to bring Jews to Palestine in order to subvert the British quotas on Jewish immigration. From Catastrophe to Power scrutinizes the Mossad's mode of operation, its ideology and politics, its structure and history, and its collective human profile as never before.Zertal's moving story sweeps across four continents and encompasses a range of political cultures and international forces. But underneath this story another darker and more complex plot unfolds: the special encounter between the Zionist revolutionary collective and the mass of Jewish remnant after the Holocaust. According to Zertal, this psychologically painful yet politically powerful encounter was the Zionists' most effective weapon in their struggle for a sovereign Jewish state. Drawing on primary archival documents and new readings of canonical texts of the period, she analyzes this encounter from all angles - political, social, cultural, and psychological. The outcome is a gripping and troubling human story of a crucial period in Jewish and Israeli history, one that also provides a key to understanding the fundamental tensions between Israel and the Jewish communities and Israel and the world today

Connaissance et culpabilité : les Juifs de Palestine face à l'extermination des Juifs en Europe

Awareness and Guilt : The Jews in Palestine and the Extermination of the European Jews. This study raises the questions of what the Jews living in Palestine knew about the extermination taking place in Europe what they understood, and how little they helped the persecuted European Jews.Zertal Idith. Connaissance et culpabilité : les Juifs de Palestine face à l'extermination des Juifs en Europe. In: Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations. 48ᵉ année, N. 3, 1993. pp. 679-690

Introduction: Thinking Jewish Modernity

Makers of Jewish Modernity features entries on political figures such as Walther Rathenau, Rosa Luxemburg, and David Ben-Gurion; philosophers and critics such as Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, Jacques Derrida, and Judith Butler; and artists such as Mark Rothko and Arnold Schönberg. The book provides fresh insights into the lives and careers of novelists like Franz Kafka, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth; the filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen; social scientists such as Sigmund Freud and anthropologist Emil Durkheim; scientists like Albert Einstein; religious leaders and thinkers such as Avraham Kook and Martin Buber; Law theorist René Cassin; and many others. Written by a diverse group of leading contemporary scholars from around the world,  these vibrant and frequently  portraits offer a global perspective that highlights the multiplicity of Jewish experience and  thought. A reference book like no other, Makers of Jewish Modernity includes an informative general introduction that situates its subjects within the broader context of Jewish modernity as well as a rich selection of photos. The project with its 43 contributors worldwide had been coordinated by Jacques Picard and Idith Zertal at the University of Basel, Switzerland, as a safe haven  for its administration

Creative Responses to Separation: Israeli and Palestinian Joint Activism in Bil\u27in

This article examines creative ways in which Israeli and Palestinian activists engage with each other and the powers seeking to separate them in their nonviolent struggles for a just and lasting peace. Using the geopolitical theory of territoriality, the article briefly examines a number of administrative, physical, and psychological barriers facing joint activism and the strategies activists use to counteract them. Drawing on nonviolent theory and practice, the article analyzes how activists exert power through the creative use of symbols and practices that undermine the legitimacy of occupation policies. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2004-05 and July 2006, the article explores the implications of this activism on conceptions of identity, and strategies for restarting a moribund peace process. The relative \u27success\u27 of sustained joint action in Bil\u27in can provide scholars and policymakers with innovative approaches for addressing some of the outstanding issues needing to be addressed by official negotiators. Although government bodies are more constrained than activists, the imaginative means of engaging with the system- and the reframing of issues through the redeployment of \u27commonplaces\u27-can perhaps provide inspiration, if not leverage, for thinking outside of the box