Sovereign Jews

Offers a novel exploration of the relationship between religion and the state in Israel. The question of Jewish sovereignty shapes Jewish identity in Israel, the status of non-Jews, and relations between Israeli and Diaspora Jews, yet its consequences remain enigmatic. In Sovereign Jews, Yaacov Yadgar highlights the shortcomings of mainstream discourse and offers a novel explanation of Zionist ideology and the Israeli polity. Yadgar argues that secularism’s presumed binary pitting religion against politics is illusory. He shows that the key to understanding this alleged dichotomy is Israel’s interest in maintaining its sovereignty as the nation-state of Jews. This creates a need to mark a majority of the population as Jews and to distinguish them from non-Jews. Coupled with the failure to formulate a viable alternative national identity (either “Hebrew” or “Israeli”), it leads the ostensibly secular state to apply a narrow interpretation of Jewish religion as a political tool for maintaining a Jewish majority. Yaacov Yadgar is Stanley Lewis Professor of Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and the author of Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics: Traditionists and Modernity.

Offers a novel exploration of the relationship between religion and the state in Israel. The question of Jewish sovereignty shapes Jewish identity in Israel, the status of non-Jews, and relations between Israeli and Diaspora Jews, yet its consequences remain enigmatic. In Sovereign Jews, Yaacov Yadgar highlights the shortcomings of mainstream discourse and offers a novel explanation of Zionist ideology and the Israeli polity. Yadgar argues that secularism’s presumed binary pitting religion against politics is illusory. He shows that the key to understanding this alleged dichotomy is Israel’s interest in maintaining its sovereignty as the nation-state of Jews. This creates a need to mark a majority of the population as Jews and to distinguish them from non-Jews. Coupled with the failure to formulate a viable alternative national identity (either “Hebrew” or “Israeli”), it leads the ostensibly secular state to apply a narrow interpretation of Jewish religion as a political tool for maintaining a Jewish majority. “This book makes an important contribution to the study of Zionist ideology and the relationship between state and religion in Israel. As the author shows rather convincingly, Zionism and the State of Israel needed the Jewish tradition to supply meaning to their political-theological project. This is a fascinating argument that expands our critical understanding of the ideological foundations of the Jewish national movement.” — Eran Kaplan, author of Beyond Post-Zionism

By departing from accounts of a universalist component in Israel's early foreign policy, Rotem Giladi challenges prevalent assumptions on the cosmopolitan outlook of Jewish international law scholars and practitioners, offers new vantage points on modern Jewish history, and critiques orthodox interpretations of the Jewish aspect of Israel's foreign policy. Drawing on archival sources, the book reveals the patent ambivalence of two jurist-diplomats-Jacob Robinson and Shabtai Rosenne-towards three international law reform projects: the right of petition in the draft Human Rights Covenant, the 1948 Genocide Convention, and the 1951 Refugee Convention. In all cases, Rosenne and Robinson approached international law with disinterest, aversion, and hostility while, nonetheless, investing much time and toil in these post-war reforms. The book demonstrates that, rather than the Middle East conflict, Rosenne and Robinson's ambivalence towards international law was driven by ideological sensibilities predating Israel's establishment. In so doing, Jews, Sovereignty, and International Law disaggregates and reframes the perspectives offered by the growing scholarship on Jewish international lawyers, providing new insights concerning the origins of human rights, the remaking of postwar international law, and the early years of the UN.

By departing from accounts of a universalist component in Israel's early foreign policy, Rotem Giladi challenges prevalent assumptions on the cosmopolitan outlook of Jewish international law scholars and practitioners, offers new vantage points on modern Jewish history, and critiques orthodox interpretations of the Jewish aspect of Israel's foreign policy. Drawing on archival sources, the book reveals the patent ambivalence of two jurist-diplomats-Jacob Robinson and Shabtai Rosenne-towards three international law reform projects: the right of petition in the draft Human Rights Covenant, the 1948 Genocide Convention, and the 1951 Refugee Convention. In all cases, Rosenne and Robinson approached international law with disinterest, aversion, and hostility while, nonetheless, investing much time and toil in these post-war reforms. The book demonstrates that, rather than the Middle East conflict, Rosenne and Robinson's ambivalence towards international law was driven by ideological sensibilities predating Israel's establishment. In so doing, Jews, Sovereignty, and International Law disaggregates and reframes the perspectives offered by the growing scholarship on Jewish international lawyers, providing new insights concerning the origins of human rights, the remaking of postwar international law, and the early years of the UN.

An innovative and provocative study tackling the main assumptions surrounding Israel's claim to Jewish identity.

“The Israeli Century is one of the most important books of our generation, emphasizing how Israel is becoming the center of the Jewish People’s existence and is laying the solid foundations for its future.” —Isaac Herzog, President of Israel In this important breakthrough work, Yossi Shain takes us on a sweeping and surprising journey through the history of the Jewish people, from the destruction of the First Temple in the sixth century B.C.E. up to the modern era. Over the course of this long history, Jews have moved from a life of Diaspora, which ultimately led to destruction, to a prosperous existence in a thriving, independent nation state. The new power of Jewish sovereignty has echoed around the world and gives Israelis a new and significant role as influential global players. In the Israeli Century, the Jew is reborn, feeling a deep responsibility for his tradition and a natural connection to his homeland. A sense of having a home to return to allows him to travel the wider world and act with ease and confidence. In the Israeli Century, the Israeli Jew can fully express the strengths developed over many generations in the long period of wandering and exile. As a result, Shain argues, the burden of preserving the continuity of the Jewish people and defining its character is no longer the responsibility of Diaspora communities. Instead it now falls squarely on the shoulders of Israelis themselves. The challenges of Israeli sovereignty in turn require farsighted leaders with a clear-eyed understanding of the dangers that confront the Jewish future, as well as the incredible opportunities it offers.

Though the seemingly impossible dream of a sovereign Jewish state became a reality more than sixty years ago, the question of Jewish identity remains as much an enigma as ever. That enigma is at the heart of Dr. Ruth Shamir's book as it explores the history - at times tragic, at times triumphant - of the evolution of Jewish identity in the modern era. Dr. Shamir skillfully guides the reader through a myriad of issues that are today at the center of a passionate debate both in Israel itself as well as in the Diaspora, where half of the world's Jews still live. The debate - and hence the main themes of the book - revolves around such questions as: - Are we a nation or just a religious community? - How do Israelis and Jews around the world conceptualize their loyalties? - How acceptable is Jewish fundamentalism and how does Israel deal with the Arab population within its borders? - How do Diaspora Jews view Israeli identity and how do Israelis define the identity of Diaspora Jews? - Above all, who is a Jew? However difficult it may be to accomodate the many complex and continually changing Jewish identities under the single roof of Judaism, Dr. Shamir contends that we have no alternative - neither for Israelis nor for the Jews of the Diaspora. But if that overarching identity is to be preserved, Jews must internalize the core ideas of multiculturalism to create a multifaceted Jewish identity that positively reflects the freedoms of today's world.

Halakha and the Challenge of Israeli Sovereignty examines the issues surrounding national, political, and religious sovereignty from the vantage point of halakha and its evolution. The work analyzes the efforts of the interpretative communities who adhered to halakha—the rabbinical authorities—as well as other groups who endeavored to help or to change it: the Jewish jurists in Eretz Israel who sought to integrate sections of halakha into the Jewish collective; and the religious academics who wanted more meaningful recognition of halakha in non-halakhic values. The assessment extends from the beginning of the Jewish national movement in the last two decades of the 19th century to the first two decades of the State of Israel, when weighty problems arose that required a halakhic response to the challenge of sovereignty. In this, the volume sheds light on the pliable nature of the concept of halakha, particularly in conjunction with its application to the notion of sovereignty.