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Set in the Polish-Jewish shtetl of Wolbrom in the 1930s where Josef Erlich spent his youth, his account of how the character Feivel and his family observe the Sabbath has the flavor of a documentary narrative rather than a novel in the strictest sense. The author describes in intricate detail the religious observance and folkways of this holiest of days from the order of communal prayer to the preparation of the meals. A rich archive for readers unfamiliar with the Orthodox religious tradition as it was practiced in Europe for centuries and continues to be practiced by pious descendants today-this book, writes Erlich, is for a generation wishing to know something of this enduring folk culture.
In Jewish-Muslim Relations and Migration from Yemen to Palestine in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Ari Ariel analyzes the impact of local, regional and international events on ethnic and religious relations in Yemen and Yemeni Jewish migration patterns. Previous research has dealt with single episodes of Yemenite migration during limited spans of time. Ariel, instead, provides a broad sweep of the migratory flows over the 70 year time span during which most of Yemen’s Jews moved to Palestine and then Israel. He successfully avoids the polemic nature of much of the literature on Middle Eastern Jewry by focusing on the social, economic and political transformations that provoked and then sustained this migration.
"Defender of the Faithful is an intellectual and religious biography of Levi Yitshak of Berdychiv (1740-1809), one of the most fascinating and colorful Hasidic leaders of his time. Featuring examples of Levi Yitshak's extraordinary texts alongside insightful analysis, Arthur Green examines both Levi Yitshak's theology and broader philosophy"--
On June 8, 1967, Egypt's most famous radio broadcaster, Ahmed Said, reported that Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian forces had defeated the Israeli army in the Sinai, had hobbled their British and US allies, and were liberating Palestine. It was a lie. For the rest of his life, populations in the Middle East vilified Said for his duplicity. However, the truth was that, by 1967, all the world's major broadcasters to the Middle East were dissimulating on the air. For two decades, British, Soviet, American, and Egyptian radio voices created an audio world characterized by deceit and betrayal. In this important and timely book, Margaret Peacock traces the history of deception and propaganda in Middle Eastern international radio. Peacock makes the compelling argument that this betrayal contributed to the loss of faith in Western and secular state-led political solutions for many in the Arab world, laying the groundwork for the rise of political Islam.
The central issue in this book is the federal ideas in the Zionist political thought during seventy years, from the early 1920s to the late 1990s. These ideas and plans had a double meaning and purpose: to find a suitable political bi-national structure for the Jews and Arabs in Palestine, which will enable both of them to fulfill their national goals, and to enable the Jewish people in the world to make Palestine their homeland by free immigration. The Zionist federative ideas were carried by different and even rival political parties and leaders, ranging from right-wing nationalists to Social-Democrats and liberal humanists. But despite this diversity all of them were based on the liberal and democratic political tradition in Europe before World War I. These ideas were renewed in the State of Israel at the end of the last century.
In the Bible, Pardes suggests, history and literature go hand in hand more explicitly than in modern historiography, which is why the Bible serves as a paradigmatic case for examining the narrative base of national constructions." "This portrayal of the history of ancient Israel will be of interest to anyone interested in the Bible, in the interrelations of literature and history, in nationhood, in feminist thought, and in psychoanalysis."--BOOK JACKET.
In this, his most eloquent and far-reaching book, James Douglass explores the haunting parallels between the situation of Jesus and our situation today. Jesus, who lived in anticipation of the impending destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and suffered from this vision, called urgently for a radical conversion to avert the tragedy. The choice then -- as now -- was between nonviolence and nonexistence. This choice is even more stark in the nuclear age. Whether describing the visions of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Archbishop Romero, or the witness of his own community against the White Train carrying warheads across the country, Douglass can discern the sights of a second coming, a nonviolent coming of God. The possibility for a different future depends on a different kind of humanity, renewed and transformed by the nonviolent cross of Christ.
An illustrated A to Z reference containing over 800 entries providing information on the theology, people, historical events, institutions and movements related to the religion of Judaism.
This collection of essays from various topics in Jewish history and traditional religious literature demonstrates the diverse aspects of Jewish tradition that can still speak with familiarity to modern 'western' culture. Though the essays are on topics such as religious custom and scholarship, community, liturgy, and interfaith relationships, they are designed for a non-academic audience, using humour and insight to stress themes that speak to contemporary situations.
This is the first English-language book ever to apply psychoanalytic knowledge to the understanding of the most intractable international struggle in our world today—the Arab-Israeli conflict. Two ethnic groups fight over a single territory that both consider to be theirs by historical right—essentially a rational matter. But close historical examination shows that the two parties to this tragic conflict have missed innumerable opportunities for a rational partition of the territory between them and for a permanent state of peace and prosperity rather than perennial bloodshed and misery. Falk suggests that a way to understand and explain such irrational matters is to examine the unconscious aspects of the conflict. He examines large-group psychology, nationalism, group narcissism, psychogeography, the Arab and Israeli minds, and suicidal terrorism, and he offers psychobiographical studies of Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat, two key players in this tragic conflict today.