Spatial Behavior In Haredi Jewish Communities In Great Britain

This book focuses on the strict orthodox Jewish (Haredi) community, which comprises many sects whose communal identity plays a central role in everyday life and spatial organization. The research reveals and analyses powerful mechanisms of residential segregation acting at the apartment-, building- and near-neighbourhood levels. Identifying the main engines of spontaneous and organised neighbourhood change and evaluating the difficulties of liberalism dealing with non-autonomous individuals in the housing market sheds light on similar processes occurring in other city centres with diverse population groups. Highlighting the impact of various organisational levels on the spatial structure of the urban enclave, the book focuses on the internal dynamics of ethno-religious enclaves that emerge from three levels of action: (1) individuals' relationships with their own and other groups; (2) the community leadership's powers within the group and in respect of other groups; and (3) government directives and tools (e.g planning). The study examines how different levels of communal organisation are reflected in the residential patterns of four British communities: the Litvish communities of Golders Green and Gateshead, and the Hassidic communities of Stamford Hill and Canvey Island.

Beginning with the informal establishment of Jewish Orthodoxy by a Hungarian rabbi in the early nineteenth century, this book traces the history and legacy of Jewish Hungarian Orthodoxy over the course of the last 200 years. To date, no single book has provided a comprehensive overview of the history of Hungarian Orthodoxy, a singularly zealous, fundamental, and separatist faction within Jewish circles. This book describes and explains the impact of this strand of Jewish Orthodoxy – developed in Hungary in the second half of the nineteenth century – across the Jewish world. The author traces the development of Hungarian Orthodoxy in the “new” Jewish territories created in the wake of Hungary’s dismantlement following its defeat in World War I. The book also focuses on Hungarian Orthodoxy in the two spheres where it continued to develop after the Holocaust, namely Israel and the United States. The book concludes with a review of Hungarian Orthodoxy’s legacy in contemporary communities worldwide, most of which are known for their radical anti-Zionist and anti-modernistic strands. The book will prove vital reading for students and academics interested in religious fundamentalism, Hungarian history, and Jewish studies generally.

Counting Religion in Britain, 1970-2020, the fourth volume in the author's chronological history of British secularization, sheds significant new light on the nature, scale, and timing of religious change in Britain during the past half-century, with particular reference to quantitative sources. Adopting a key performance indicators approach, twenty-one facets of personal religious belonging, behaving, and believing are examined, offering a much wider range of lenses through which the health of religion can be viewed and appraised than most contemporary scholarship. Summative analysis of these indicators, by means of a secularization dashboard, leads to a reaffirmation of the validity of secularization (in its descriptive sense) as the dominant narrative and direction of travel since 1970, while acknowledging that it is an incomplete process and without endorsing all aspects of the paradigmatic expression of secularization as a by-product of modernization.

This research aims to uncover new insights into minority housing strategies and their impact on densely populated urban areas. The study assumes that as space becomes scarce, inter and intra groups interactions in the urban space motivate people to maximize the utility of the resources at their disposal. This ‘stretch’ of the built environment provides them with critical selective advantages and a sense of security and belonging. Based on two neighbourhoods in London, it contributes to our understanding of housing decisions in the context of illegality and shows the capacity of a given urban form for adaptation: It creates a new semi-private/public space, partly segregated yet deeply integrated; a sphere that, on the one hand, enables traditional ‘nested’ places and, on the other, a fertile environment for integration. This manuscript contributes two new ideas to the knowledge base of residential selections and the geography of opportunities. The first is a detailed analysis of a hyper-segregation/integration pattern resulting from complementary residential strategies operating at the individual unit level. The second is multidimensional stretching, a bottom-up initiation that allows individuals to maximize resources through territorial and spatial practices.

This book focuses on the development of bilateral Jewish-Muslim relations in London and Amsterdam since the late-1980s. It offers a comparative analysis that considers both similarities and differences, drawing on historical, social scientific, and religious studies perspectives. The authors address how Jewish-Muslim relations are related to the historical and contemporary context in which they are embedded, the social identity strategies Jews and Muslims and their institutions employ, and their perceived mutual positions in terms of identity and power. The first section reflects on the history and current profile of Jewish and Muslim communities in London and Amsterdam and the development of relations between Jews andMuslims in both cities. The second section engages with sources of conflict and cooperation. Four specific areas that cause tension are explored: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; antisemitism and Islamophobia; attacks by extremists; and the commemoration of wars and genocides. In addition to ‘trigger events’, what stands out is the influence of historical factors, public opinion, the ‘mainstream’ Christian churches and the media, along with the role of government. The volume will be of interest to scholars from fields including religious studies, interfaith studies, Jewish studies, Islamic studies, urban studies, European studies, and social sciences as well as members of the communities concerned, other religious communities, journalists, politicians, and teachers who are interested in Jewish-Muslim relations. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)4.0 license. Funded by University of Amsterdam

"An account of the design of West Bank settlements from 1967, when housing settlements were still an abstract idea, to the present, when they have become hotly contested. It addresses the complicated relationship between politics and the built environment and questions assumptions about politics and the built environment. The author looks closely at five settlements-Hebron, Ofra, Nofim, Beitar Illit, and Pnei Kedem-to analyze the settlement movement, the country Israel has become since 1967, and, more broadly, "the production of space in sites of political conflict." For Shoked, the role of contingency is key: government policy shaped the design of settlements, but so too did other actors. As Shoked writes, "the analytic categories of expert and user, above and below, frequently dissolve in the unfolding process of design, construction, and inhabitation.""--

This innovative study combines readings of contemporary literature, art, and performance to explore the diverse and complex directions of contemporary Jewish culture in Israel and the diaspora.