God Jews And The Media

In order to understand contemporary Jewish identity in the twenty-first century, one needs to look beyond the Synagogue, the holy days and Jewish customs and law to explore such modern phenomena as mass media and their impact upon Jewish existence. Covering the Diaspora populations of the US and UK as well as Israel itself, this book delves into the complex relationship between Judaism and the mass media to provide a comprehensive examination of modern Jewish identity.

Discusses how media technology impacts the Jewish experience. This title explores mid-twentieth-century ecumenical radio and television broadcasting, video documentation of life cycle rituals, and museum displays and tourist practices as means for engaging the Holocaust as a moral touchstone

In order to understand contemporary Jewish identity in the twenty-first century, one needs to look beyond the Synagogue, the holy days and Jewish customs and law to explore such modern phenomena as mass media and their impact upon Jewish existence. This book delves into the complex relationship between Judaism and the mass media to provide a comprehensive examination of modern Jewish identity in the information age. Covering Israel as well as the Diaspora populations of the US and UK, the author looks at journalism, broadcasting, advertising and the internet to give a wide-ranging analysis of how the Jewish religion and Jewish people have been influenced by the media age. He tackles questions such as: What is the impact of Judaism on mass media? How is the religion covered in the secular Israeli media? Does the coverage strengthen religious identity? What impact does the media have upon secular-religious tensions? Chapters explore how the impact of Judaism is to be found particularly in the religious media in Israel – haredi and modern Orthodox – and looks at the evolution of new patterns of religious advertising, the growth and impact of the internet on Jewish identity, and the very legitimacy of certain media in the eyes of religious leaders. Also examined are such themes as the marketing of rabbis, the `Holyland’ dimension in foreign media reporting from Israel, and the media’s role in the Jewish Diaspora. An important addition to the existing literature on the nature of Jewish identity in the modern world, this book will be of great interest to scholars of media studies, media and religion, sociology, Jewish studies, religion and politics, as well as to the broader Jewish and Israeli communities.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The first signs of civilization, with all the classical symptoms, appeared around 4500 B. C. In the third millennium B. , a great Semitic king named Sargon I conquered the Sumerians and formed the Sumerian-Akkadian kingdom. #2 The first people to be called Hebrews were the descendants of Terah, who emigrated from the cosmopolitan city of Ur in Babylonia to the land of Haran in southern Turkey. God promised Abraham that He would make him a separate and distinct people if he followed the commandments of God. #3 The idea of a covenant between the Jews and God is still alive today. It was Abraham who projected this experience onto an imaginary Jehovah, but the fact remains that after four thousand years, the idea of a covenant between the Jews and God is still alive. #4 The Jews, after they had been exiled from Egypt, were forced to live as nomads. They were given the Ten Commandments by Moses, and they began to behave differently than the surrounding pagans. They developed a ritual that was different from that of the surrounding pagans.

In this provocative look at the many faces of God, Jamie Korngold examines how our concept of God has changed over the centuries, and how these changes have shaped every aspect of Judaism.

How do we articulate a religious vision that embraces evolution and human authorship of Scripture? Drawing on the Jewish mystical traditions of Kabbalah and Hasidism, path-breaking Jewish scholar Arthur Green argues that a neomystical perspective can help us to reframe these realities, so they may yet be viewed as dwelling places of the sacred. In doing so, he rethinks such concepts as God, the origins and meaning of existence, human nature, and revelation to construct a new Judaism for the twenty-first century.

Acclaimed writer and thinker Douglas Rushkoff, author of Ecstasy Club and Coercion, has written perhaps the most important—and controversial—book on Judaism in a generation. As the religion stands on the brink of becoming irrelevant to the very people who look to it for answers, Nothing Sacred takes aim at its problems and offers startling and clearheaded solutions based on Judaism’s core values and teachings. Disaffected by their synagogues’ emphasis on self-preservation and obsession with intermarriage, most Jews looking for an intelligent inquiry into the nature of spirituality have turned elsewhere, or nowhere. Meanwhile, faced with the chaos of modern life, returnees run back to Judaism with a blind and desperate faith and are quickly absorbed by outreach organizations that—in return for money—offer compelling evidence that God exists, that the Jews are, indeed, the Lord’s “chosen people,” and that those who adhere to this righteous path will never have to ask themselves another difficult question again. Ironically, the texts and practices making up Judaism were designed to avoid just such a scenario. Jewish tradition stresses transparency, open-ended inquiry, assimilation of the foreign, and a commitment to conscious living. Judaism invites inquiry and change. It is an “open source” tradition—one born out of revolution, committed to evolution, and willing to undergo renaissance at a moment’s notice. But, unfortunately, some of the very institutions created to protect the religion and its people are now suffocating them. If the Jewish tradition is actually one of participation in the greater culture, a willingness to wrestle with sacred beliefs, and a refusal to submit blindly to icons that just don’t make sense to us, then the “lapsed” Jews may truly be our most promising members. Why won’t they engage with the synagogue, and how can they be made to feel more welcome? Nothing Sacred is a bold and brilliant book, attempting to do nothing less than tear down our often false preconceptions about Judaism and build in their place a religion made relevant for the future. From the Hardcover edition.

For people who don't believe that God can intervene in our lives, and why Judaism is still important. "Judaism has so much to teach us about how we treat ourselves, each other, and our planet.... Of course, you can learn these values elsewhere. But as a people, Jews have thousands of years of experience turning this kind of stuff over and over. [We’ve] had millions of users working to debug the system. Rather than look to other sources for guidance, let us turn to our own people’s past to discover what it has to say about our present and our future." —from the Introduction For some people, the biggest stumbling block in religion is God—even for an ordained rabbi who admits her rational mind “can’t buy into a God in the sky who writes down our deeds and rewards and punishes us accordingly.” But not being sold on an intervening God shouldn’t bar you from living a vibrant and fulfilling Jewish life. The God concept has seen many upgrades over the centuries and it is these reinterpretations that have kept Judaism relevant. In this provocative look at the ways in which God concepts have evolved and been upgraded through the centuries, Adventure Rabbi Jamie Korngold examines how our changing ideas of God have shaped every aspect of Judaism. With enthusiasm and humor, she shows that by aligning our understanding of God with modern sensibilities, Judaism can be made more meaningful, accessible and fully compatible with twenty-first-century life.