Abstract: Are Jews today still the carriers of a single and identical collective identity and do they still constitute a single people? This two-fold question arises when one compares a Hassidi Habad from Brooklyn, a Jewish professor at a secular university in Brussels, a traditional Yemeni Jew still living in Sana’a, a Galilee kibbutznik, or a Russian Jew in Novossibirsk. Is there still today a significant relationship between these individuals who all subscribe to Judaism? The analysis shows that the Jewish identity is multiple and can be explained by considering all variants as “surface structures” of the three universal “deep structures” central to the notion of collective identity, namely, collective commitment, perceptions of the collective’s singularity, and positioning vis-à-vis “others.”
Contents:
Preface
Judaism and the culture of memory /Thomas Gergely
Introduction
European Jewry and Klal Yisrael /Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Thomas Gergely, and Yosef Gorny
Is the French model in decline? /Pierre Birnbaum
Case of Belgium /Jean-Philippe Schreiber
Identity of Dutch Jews /Ludo Abicht
Russian-Jewish immigration to Germany /Julius H. Schoeps, Willi Jasper, and Olaf Glöckner
Religiosity, praxis, and tradition in contemporary Hungarian Jewry /András Kovács
Being Jewish in Romania after the second world war /Carol Iangu
Jewish identity, memory, and anti-Semitism /Maurice Konopnicki
Siamese twins: religion and secularism in Jewish national thought /Yosef Gorny
Israeli identity and mission in Buber's thought /Shalom Ratzabi
Sovereignty, voluntarism, and Jewish identity: Nathan Rotenstreich /Avi Bareli
On religious-secular tensions /Avi Sagi
Religious-secular cleavage in contemprary Israel /Yochanan Peres
On European Jewish Orthodoxy, Sephardic tradition, and the Shas movement /Zvi Zohar
Ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox, and secular women in college /Lior Ben-Chaim Rafael
Challenge of secularism to Jewish survival in Abba Hillel Silver's thinking /Ofer Shiff
Identities of Jewish American women /Suzanne Vromen
Jews and secularization: a challenge or a prospect? /Guy Haarscher
Submission and subversion before the law /Rivon Krygier
Tradition of diaspora and political reality of the state of Israel /David Meyer
Diaspora museum and Israeli-Jewish identity /Dina Porat
Jewish transnational community and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem /Uri Cohen
Contemporary dilemmas of identity: Israel and the diaspora /Eliezer Ben-Rafael
Was the Shoah the "sanctification of God"? /Thomas Gergely.
Abstract: Europe is in the midst of a rapid political and economic unification. What does this mean for the Jewish minority – numbering less than 2 million people and still suffering from the aftermath of the Shoah? Will the Jewish communities participate in Europe’s bold venture without risking total assimilation? Are they vibrant enough to form a new Jewish center alongside Israel and the American Jewish community, or are they hopelessly divided and on a “Road to Nowhere”?
Different perspectives are predicted, relating to demographical, cultural and sociological aspects. This volume provides exciting, thorough and controversial answers by renowned scholars from Europe, Israel, North- and Latin America – many of them also committed to local Jewish community building.
Table of contents
Contents
Part I: The Jewish World Context
Jews in Europe: Demographic Trends, Contexts and Outlooks Sergio DellaPergola
The European Jewish Diaspora: The Third Pillar of World Jewry? Gabriel Sheffer
Cultural Pluralism as an American Zionist Option for Solidarity and its Relevance for Today's European Jewry Ofer Schiff
Part II: European Jewish Experiences
Between Eurasia and Europe: Jewish Community and Identities in Contemporary Russia and Ukraine Vladimir Ze'ev Khanin
A Dual, Divided Modernization. Reflections on 200 Years of the Jewish Reform Movement in Germany Micha Brumlik
Ghosts of the Past, Challenges of the Present: New and Old "Others" in Contemporary Spain Raanan Rein/ Martina Weisz
The Dialectics of the Diaspora. On the Art of Being Jewish in the Swedish Minority Lars Dencik
Does European Jewry need a New Ethnic Spiritual Umbrella? Reflections Yosef Gorny
Farewell to Europe? On French Jewish Skepticism about the New Universalism Pierre Birnbaum
The Return of the European Jewish Diaspora. New Ethno-National Constellations since 1989 Michal Y. Bodeman
Reading Between the Lines. Assertion and Reassertion in European Jewish Life Antony Lerman
Part III: Anti Semitism, Israel and Jewish Politics
Hate Against the Others. About the Fatal Chain Creating Xenophobia and Anti-Semitism Thomas Gergely
"Anti-Semites of the Continent Unite!" Is the East Still Different? Raphael Vago
Anti-Semitism or Judeophobia? The intellectual Debate in France 2000-2005 Denis Charbit
From Anti-Jewish Prejudice to Political Anti-Semitism? On Dynamics of Anti-Semitism in Post-Communist Hungary
A Mediterranean Bridge over Troubled Water. Cultural Ideas on How to Reconcile Israel with Its Neighbors and with Europe David Ohana
The Future of European Jewry - A Changing Condition in a Changing Context? Shmuel Trigano
Abstract: Since their recent dispersion from the former Soviet Union, Russian-speaking Jews (RSJ) have become the vast majority of Germany’s longstanding Jewry. An entity marked by permeable boundaries, they show a solidarity and commitment to world Jewry, including Israel, but feeble identification with their hosts. The identification with the larger Jewish community leads to a wide consensus concerning the importance of offering Jewish education to the young. The study presented here explores the influence of the RSJ community, their relationship with German speaking Jews, and the ways in which the RSJ identification with world Jewry influences Jewish education opportunities for the young. Utilizing surveys of the largest Jewish communities in Germany, interviews of leading public figures, and a comprehensive overview of the Jewish educational framework available in Germany, this book seeks to present a description and analysis of the Jewish population in Germany including its attitudes, activities, expectations, and identify formulations.
Abstract: This is a book about Klal Yisrael, the worldwide commonwealth of the Jewish people. The main question asked, is whether one can still speak of 'one' Jewish people, encompassing all Jews in the world.
The Jewish collective identity stands at new crossroads of multicultural ideologies and transnational diasporism. Jewry is experiencing an existential problem in today's changing society, shifting between convergence and unity on the one hand and divergence and division on the other hand. Quo vadis, O Jewish people? Rather than fully answering this question, researchers from Israel, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine, Russia, France and Belgium try to open up the discussion in this book.
