Addresses major issues of concern about Israel, the Middle East, the United States, and world Jewry during the year 1986, such as the vulnerability and successes of the National Unity Government, the peace process, the Arab League, American Middle East policy, the Waldheim issue, and world Jewish fundamentalism. Contains a chronology of major events of 1985 and 1986.
Louis Jacobs has made a formidable contribution to Jewish scholarship over the last 40 years. In addition he has inspired a generation of students of Judaica as well as members of his own congregation at the New London Synagogue. The contributors to this volume in his honour include a wide range of distinguished scholars. Beginning with Jacob Neusner's essay on the transformation of the Dual Torah in the first four centuries CE, the volume ranges over a variety of topics in the field of Bible, Talmud, history and theology, mirroring the wide range of Louis Jacobs' own interests. In addition, a full bibliography of Louis Jacobs' publications is included.
The relationship between Israel, American Jews, and the peace process has been a subject of passionate debate among scholars, political activists, and lay observers alike. This book is the first rigorous attempt to chart the impact of the peace process on the American Jewish community and its relationship with Israel, as mediated by the changing identity needs of American Jews. Overall, the trajectory of this relationship has been from a wide consensus of support for Israeli foreign policy, toward increasing polarization. On one side is the peace camp composed mainly of those whose Jewish-American identity is based on a religious-universalistic definition of Judaism; on the other, those who identify as nationalistic, or orthodox in religious terms, and support a hard-line vision of Greater Israel. The acrimony between the two, combined with demographic change, has undermined Israel as a symbol of Jewish identity in America, and impeded effective lobbying for Israel.
This brilliant collection of essays examines the dialogue between Jewish history and historiography in terms of changing national and popular myths, folk memory, and historical consciousness of Jews in modern times. From essays dealing with the origins of Jewish historiography in the nineteenth century, to its contemporary perspectives and methodologies, this book provides a great overview and varied insights into the field.
Elie Kedourie was one of the twentieth century’s most important and controversial historians of the Middle East. He redefined the landscape of the field by challenging the notion that the West’s imperial domination of the region spawned nationalism in Arab countries. In a long career lecturing in politics at the London School of Economics, Kedourie inspired a generation of political scientists and politicians. A dedicated scholar and meticulous teacher, he founded Middle Eastern Studies, a journal which, forty years after its launch, remains one of the leading publications in the field and a monument to his work. Bringing together some of the most distinguished figures in Middle Eastern studies, this collection evaluates Kedourie’s contribution to Middle Eastern history and political thought and assesses the impact of his scholarly legacy. The volume contains a complete bibliography of his writing and was previously published as a special issue of Middle Eastern Studies.