|
Showing 1 - 5 of
5 matches in All Departments
Who Are the Jews—And Who Can We Become? tackles perhaps the most
urgent question facing the Jewish people today: Given unprecedented
denominational tribalism, how can we Jews speak of ourselves in
collective terms? Crucially, the way each of us tells our
“shared” story is putting our collective identity at risk,
Donniel Hartman argues. We need a new story, built on Judaism’s
foundations and poised to inspire a majority of Jews to listen,
discuss, and retell it. This book is that story.
             Â
Since our beginnings, Hartman explains, the Jewish identity
meta-narrative has been a living synthesis of two competing
religious covenants: Genesis Judaism, which defines Jewishness in
terms of who one is and the group to which one belongs, independent
of what one does or believes; and Exodus Judaism, which grounds
identity in terms of one’s relationship with an aspirational
system of values, ideals, beliefs, commandments, and behaviors.
When one narrative becomes too dominant, Jewish collective identity
becomes distorted. Conversely, when Genesis and Exodus interplay,
the sparks of a rich, compelling identity are found.
             Â
Hartman deftly applies this Genesis-Exodus meta-narrative as a
roadmap to addressing contemporary challenges, including Diaspora
Jewry’s eroding relationship with Israel, the “othering” of
Israeli Palestinians, interfaith marriage, the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, and—collectively—who we Jews can become.
The factionalism and denominationalism of modern Jewry makes it
supremely difficult to create a definition of the Jewish people.
Instead of serving as a uniting force around which community is
formed, Judaism has itself become a source of divisions.
Consequently, attempts to identify beliefs or practices essential
for membership in the Jewish people are almost doomed to
failure.Aiming to take readers beyond the divisions that
characterize modern Jewry, this book explores the ever contentious
question of who is a Jew. Through a historical survey of the
shifting boundaries of Jewish identity and deviance over time, the
book provides new insights into how Jewish law over the centuries
has erected boundaries to govern and maintain the collective
identity of the Jewish people. Drawing on these historical
strategies the book identifies the causes and reasons that underlie
them, and employs these in order to help construct a guide for
creating a structure of boundaries relevant for contemporary Jewish
existence.
Much more than a particular period in world history, modernity has
fundamentally transformed how we think and live, and especially how
we understand and relate to religious traditions. As the 'ghetto
walls' have fallen, both empirically and metaphorically, Judaism is
compelled to compete in an open marketplace of ideas. Jews can no
longer count on an assumedly necessary Jewish identity or
commitment, nor on the rallying force of anti-Semitism to ensure an
individual and collective sense of belonging. Rather Jewish moral,
spiritual and historical values and ideas must be read with new
eyes and challenged to address modernity's proliferating array of
questions and realities. The pertinent questions modern Jewry faces
are how to embrace modernity as Jews and what such an embrace means
for the meaning and future of Jewish life. This collection of
essays, authored by scholars of the Shalom Hartman Institute,
addresses three critical challenges posed to Judaism by modernity:
the challenge of ideas, the challenge of diversity, and the
challenge of statehood, and provides insights and ideas for the
future direction of Judaism. Providing readers with new insights
into Judaism and the Jewish people in contemporary times, the
collection explores a wide range of issues that includes: the
significance of Israel for the future of Judaism; the Jewish people
as a people; the relationship between monotheism and violence;
revelation and ethics; Judaism and the feminist challenge; and
Judaism and homosexuality.
Much more than a particular period in world history, modernity has
fundamentally transformed how we think and live, and especially how
we understand and relate to religious traditions. As the 'ghetto
walls' have fallen, both empirically and metaphorically, Judaism is
compelled to compete in an open marketplace of ideas. Jews can no
longer count on an assumedly necessary Jewish identity or
commitment, nor on the rallying force of anti-Semitism to ensure an
individual and collective sense of belonging. Rather Jewish moral,
spiritual and historical values and ideas must be read with new
eyes and challenged to address modernity's proliferating array of
questions and realities. The pertinent questions modern Jewry faces
are how to embrace modernity as Jews and what such an embrace means
for the meaning and future of Jewish life. This collection of
essays, authored by scholars of the Shalom Hartman Institute,
addresses three critical challenges posed to Judaism by modernity:
the challenge of ideas, the challenge of diversity, and the
challenge of statehood, and provides insights and ideas for the
future direction of Judaism. Providing readers with new insights
into Judaism and the Jewish people in contemporary times, the
collection explores a wide range of issues that includes: the
significance of Israel for the future of Judaism; the Jewish people
as a people; the relationship between monotheism and violence;
revelation and ethics; Judaism and the feminist challenge; and
Judaism and homosexuality.
The factionalism and denominationalism of modern Jewry makes it
supremely difficult to create a definition of the Jewish people.
Instead of serving as a uniting force around which community is
formed, Judaism has itself become a source of divisions.
Consequently, attempts to identify beliefs or practices essential
for membership in the Jewish people are almost doomed to failure.
Aiming to take readers beyond the divisions that characterize
modern Jewry, this book explores the ever contentious question of
"who is a Jew." Through a historical survey of the shifting
boundaries of Jewish identity and deviance over time, the book
provides new insights into how Jewish law over the centuries has
erected boundaries to govern and maintain the collective identity
of the Jewish people. Drawing on these historical strategies the
book identifies the causes and reasons that underlie them, and
employs these in order to help construct a guide for creating a
structure of boundaries relevant for contemporary Jewish existence.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|