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The world's longest-lasting and most successful communal society, the Hutterites have a model of governance that has served them well for almost five hundred years. In the past the colony was an "ark," isolated from both the secular world and the host society. But today colonies face new challenges because of globalization and digital technologies and are losing much of their ability to exclude these influences from their lives. Based on extensive fieldwork with the Schmiedeleut branch of the Hutterites, the book includes the Conference Letters and Regulations, published for the first time in English translation, that provide invaluable insights into strategies for managing change.
Judaism is a religion and a way of life that combines beliefs as well as practical commandments and traditions, encompassing all spheres of life. Some of the numerous precepts emerge directly from the Torah (the Law of Moses). Others are commanded by Oral Law, rulings of illustrious Jewish legal scholars throughout the generations, and rabbinic responsa composed over hundreds of years and still being written today. Like other religions, Judaism has also developed unique symbols that have become virtually exclusive to it, such as the Star of David and the menorah. This book argues that Judaism impacts human geography in significant ways: it shapes the environment and space of its believers, thus creating a unique “Jewish geography.”
The author presents biographical sketches of Jewish men and women he considers heroes, looking at their contributions to the Zionist cause.
In 1901, the Zionist Organization founded the Jewish National Fund to purchase lands in the Land of Israel and transfer them to the ownership of the Jewish people. The book before us examines and summarizes the JNFs land purchasing policies and endeavors, from the establishment of the Fund to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. A major part of this essay centers on the period from 1936 to 1948, which were the most important years of the JNFs activities and during which it became almost the sole Jewish entity promoting this aspect of the building of the land of Israel. During these years, the JNF purchased about 600,000 dunams, which constitute more than 60% of its acquisitions ...
Israel's 2003 election took place against the background of a deteriorating security situation (due to Palestinian violence and the impending US War in Iraq) and severe disillusionment with the Oslo peace process. The election, which brought about a decisive victory of the Likud Party and Ariel Sharon, took place amidst strong accusations of corruption and the virtual collapse of the Israeli left. The election also featured the rise of the anti-clerical Shinui party, which resulted in the exclusion of the ultra-Orthodox parties from the new coalition. In this volume, leading Israeli political scientists explore the main actors and processes that shaped the election and its outcome. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Israel Affairs.
A major new history of the century-long debate over what a Jewish state should be Many Zionists who advocated for the creation of a Jewish state envisioned a nation like any other. Yet for Israel's founders, the nation that emerged against all odds in 1948 was anything but ordinary. Born from the ashes of genocide and a long history of suffering, Israel was conceived to be unique, a model society and the heart of a prosperous new Middle East. It is this paradox, says historian Michael Brenner—the Jewish people's wish for a homeland both normal and exceptional—that shapes Israel's ongoing struggle to define itself and secure a place among nations. In Search of Israel is a major new history of this struggle from the late nineteenth century to our time.
divdivThis timely book tells the fascinating story of how Zionists colonizers planned and established nearly 700 agricultural settlements, towns, and cities from the 1880s to the present. This extraordinary activity of planners, architects, social scientists, military personnel, politicians, and settlers is inextricably linked to multiple contexts: Jewish and Zionist history, the Arab/Jewish conflict, and the diffusion of European ideas to non-European worlds. S. Ilan Troen demonstrates how professionals and settlers continually innovated plans for both rural and urban frontiers in response to the competing demands of social and political ideologies and the need to achieve productivity, econ...
From New Zion to Old Zion analyzes the migration of American Jews to Palestine between the two World Wars and explores the contribution of these settlers to the building of Palestine. American Aliyah (immigration to Palestine) began in the mid-nineteenth century fueled by the desire of American Jews to study Torah and by their wish to live and be buried in the Holy Land. His movement of people-men and women-increased between World War I and II, in direct contrast to European Jewry’s desire to immigrate to the United States. Why would American Jews want to leave America, and what characterized their resettlement? From New Zion to Old Zion analyzes the migration of American Jews to Palestine between the two world wars and explores the contribution of these settlers to the building of Palestine. From New Zion to Old Zion draws upon international archival correspondence, newspapers, maps, photographs, interviews, and fieldwork to provide students and scholars of immigration and settlement processes, the Yishuv (Jewish community in Palestine), and America-Holy Land studies a well-researched portrait of Aliyah.
Irit Amit-Cohen explores the riddle behind disappearing citrus orchards and plantations from Israel’s coastal scenery. The book reveals the biographies of entrepreneurs who came to Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s. Exposing the uniqueness of the plantation companies, describing the figures involved in them and analyzing their contribution to forming Palestine’s settlement landscape in the British Mandate period, this book relates the intimate narrative of settlements which were built as temporary structures, but still leave lasting imprints on the landscape.
In this ground-breaking authoritative study, a highly documented and incisive analysis is made of the galvanising changes wrought to the people and landscape of British Mandated Palestine (1929-1948). Using a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, the book’s award-winning author examines how the British imposed their rule, dominated by the clashing dualities of their Mandate obligations towards the Arabs and the Jews, and their own interests. The rulers’ Empire-wide conceptions of the ‘White man’s burden’ and preconceptions of the Holy Land were potent forces of change, influencing their policies. Lucidly written, Mandated Landscape is also a rich source of information suppo...