"Historical Atlas of Hasidism is the very first cartographic reference book on one of the modern era's most vibrant and important mystical movements. Featuring sixty-one large-format maps and a wealth of illustrations, charts, and tables, this one-of-a-kind atlas charts Hasidism's emergence and expansion; its dynasties, courts, and prayer houses; its spread to the New World; the crisis of the two world wars and the Holocaust; and Hasidism's remarkable postwar rebirth. Historical Atlas of Hasidism demonstrates how geography has influenced not only the social organization of Hasidism but also its spiritual life, types of religious leadership, and cultural articulation. It focuses not only on Hasidic leaders but also on their thousands of followers living far from Hasidic centers. It examines Hasidism in its historical entirety, from its beginnings in the eighteenth century until today, and draws on extensive GIS-processed databases of historical and contemporary records to present the most complete picture yet of this thriving and diverse religious movement. Historical Atlas of Hasidism is visually stunning and easy to use, a magnificent resource for anyone seeking to understand Hasidism's spatial and spiritual dimensions, or indeed anybody interested in geographies of religious movements past and present."--Dust jacket.

They struggled to clear a new path for women; these are the stories of modern spiritual pioneers. "I imagine this book as a dinner party where women have eagerly gathered for a conversation about being a woman, a person of faith, and a leader. While some know each other, many do not, but it doesn't matter. Listening to them in ensemble reveals that all their differences are less important than how much they share as women of faith. Since community and interconnection tend to be feminine traits, sisterhood is important, and I hope that upon finishing the book, the reader may feel that she or he has found a teacher that offers a new way to see women and the Divine." --from the Introduction There is an ancient mystical legend that the Bible was written with black fire on white fire. Now, we can only read the black fire (the letters), but someday we might be able to see the white fire. Today, with their voices and their presence growing ever stronger, women spiritual leaders in America are like white fire, and we can see the previously untapped power of female leadership. This remarkable book gives voice and image to the too often invisible, ignored, or overlooked narrative of women's spiritual leadership in America today. Revealed through insightful interviews and compelling photographic portraits, the women represent both diversity and sisterhood. They offer us new ways of relating to each other, and the Divine.

The Ukrainian Cossacks were a complex and tenacious group, influential far beyond their numbers. This book offers an admiring, critical, and close examination of the unique cossack phenomenon. It reveals the sources of their surprising power by looking at them in action, in their sixteenth-century uprisings. The interpretation is organized around three themes, offering resolutions of three apparent contradictions in cossack activity: first, how the cossacks could act simultaneously as individualist mercenaries and yet also lead a collective, class-conscious social rebellion; second, how they could be simultaneously traditionalist and yet also provide leadership for the developing modern Ukrainian nationalism; and third, how the cossacks could be simultaneously unique, quintessentially Ukrainian, and yet form a part of a worldwide response to economic transformations that drew Eastern Europe into a position as exploited agricultural provider for Western Europe.

Virtually every analysis of Chinese politics views the Politburo as the nerve center of the system, but questions abound as to how this center governs itself and how it interacts with the system around it. Specifically, how much consultation occurs during the drafting of major Politburo documents, and who is brought into this process? How is information channeled up to this body, and what are the rules that govern the access of the Politburo members themselves to data generated by the bureaucracies? How are the political strategies of individual leaders and political factions attuned to this system of information channeling? What types of decisions are reached by the Politburo? To whom are they communicated? How rigidly must they be followed? How institutionalized is this entire decision making system, and has it become more—or less—institutionalized over the years? How has the factional legacy of the Cultural Revolution affected its mode of operations? Indeed, in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, how much in control of the system has the Politburo itself been? Central Documents in Politburo Politics in China seeks to better understand these questions by analyzing a particular stream of largely bureaucratic communications in the Chinese system: the so-called “Central Documents” (CDs). This is a series of documents through which the top Party leadership directly communicates with the rest of the political system. [1]

Sun Tzu, author of 'The Art of War', believed that the acme of leadership consists in figuring out how to subdue the enemy with the least amount of fighting--a fact that America's Founders also understood, and practiced with astonishing success. For it to work, however, a people must possess both the ability and the willingness to use all available instruments of power in peace as much as in war. US foreign policy has increasingly neglected the instruments of civilian power and become overly dependent on lethal solutions to conflict. The steep rise in unconventional conflict has increased the need for diplomatic and other non-hard power tools of statecraft. The United States can no longer afford to sit on the proverbial three-legged national security stool ("military, diplomacy, development"), where one leg is a lot longer than either of the other two, almost forgetting altogether the fourth leg--information, especially strategic communication and public diplomacy. The United States isn't so much becoming militarized as DE civilianized. According to Sun Tzu, self-knowledge is as important as knowledge of one's enemy: "if you know neither yourself nor the enemy, you will succumb in every battle." Alarmingly, the United States is deficient on both counts. And though we can stand to lose a few battles, the stakes of losing the war itself in this age of nuclear proliferation are too high to contemplate.

Study of the historical background and evolution of communist ideology and the resulting cultural changes in China - examines traditional Chinese philosophy, the role of intellectuals in revolutionary social movements, leadership and the ideology of the Chinese communist political party, present-day social change, political aspects of Chinese foreign policy, etc. Bibliography pp. 343 to 354.

This book examines Palestinian politics in Jerusalem since 1967, and in particular since the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000, focusing on the cityâe(tm)s decline as an Arab city and the identity crisis among the Jerusalemite Palestinians. Principally concerned with Palestinian politics and how they have evolved over time from the grass roots upwards, it covers issues such as the separation wall, military activity and terror, planning regulations, the joint Jewish-Arab struggle against the occupation, and efforts to remove Palestinians from the city. Drawing upon conversations with hundreds of Palestinians âe" Islamists, nationalists, collaborationists, and a-political people âe" as well as upon military courts files and Palestinian writings, Hillel Cohen tells the story of the failure of the Palestinian struggle in Jerusalem in both its political and military dimensions. He points at the lack of leadership and at the identity crisis among Palestinian Jerusalemites which were created by Israeli policies (the separation wall, the closure of Palestinian institutions) and Palestinian faults (the exclusion of Jerusalem from the Palestinian Authority in Oslo Agreements, or the suicide attacks in the second Intifada). Providing a broad overview of the contemporary situation and political relations both inside the Palestinian community and with the Israeli authorities, the book gives a unique insight into Palestinians' views, political behaviour, and daily life in Israel's capital. As such, it is an important addition to the literature on Palestinian politics, Jewish and Israeli studies, and Middle Eastern politics.

Presents an unfinished Boas manuscript and selected publications in which the renowned anthropologist records his observations of such aspects of Kwakiutl culture as social and economic organization, religion, and art. Franz Boas, a German-born American anthropologist, became the most influential anthropologist of his time. He left Germany because of its antiliberal and anti-Semitic climate. As a Columbia University professor for 37 years (1899-1936), he created both the field of anthropology and the modern concept of culture. Boas played a key role in organizing the American Anthropological Association (AAA) as an umbrella organization for the emerging field. At both Columbia and the AAA, Boas encouraged the "four field" concept of anthropology; he personally contributed to physical anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, as well as cultural anthropology. His work in these fields was pioneering. Both directly and through the influence of such students as Ruth Benedict, Melville J. Herskovits, Alfred L. Kroeber, and Margaret Mead, he set the agenda for all subsequent American cultural anthropology. In His lifetime Boas had many leadership roles Assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History; editor of The Journal of American Folklore; president of the New York Academy of Sciences, and founder of the International Journal of American Linguistics. Boas is the author of hundreds of scientific monographs and articles. He died in 1942.

The Jews of northern France, Germany, and England, known collectively as Ashkenazic Jewry, have commanded the attention of scholars since the beginnings of modern Jewish historiography. Kanarfogel examines the educational process in Ashkenaz, exploring whether there was a developed system of education, whether compensation for Torah study was permitted and what the social status of those who taught Torah was; in the first comprehensive study of the relationship between the educational institutions, leadership, and the communities in medieval Ashkenaz.

This book focuses on the Middle East arms control process as it unfolded during the years 1992–1995, as part of the multilateral track of the Arab–Israeli peace process initiated in Madrid, October 1991. This was the story of a regional process in the making: from the very concept of arms control as applied to the region, through the innovative regional forum and format for discussion that was devised for the talks, to the dynamics of the talks and the question of Egypt’s position within this novel regional setting. The result was that what seemed at the outset to be a most likely unpromising forum became the setting of unprecedented regional dynamics. The in-depth examination of ACRS – Arms Control Regional Security working group – engenders important insights into a number of concepts that lie at the heart of international relations studies: the notion of the strategic game, the meaning of power, the definition of security threats, the notions of hegemony and leadership, state identity, the conduct of regional politics, and the significance of cooperative processes in international relations.

"Invisible Stars was the first book to recognize that women have always played an important part in American electronic media. The emphasis is on social history, as the author skillfully explains how the changing role of women in different eras influenced their participation in broadcasting. This is not just the story of radio stars or broadcast journalists, but a social history of women both on and off the air. Beginning in the early 1920s with the emergence of radio, the book chronicles the ambivalence toward women in broadcasting during the 1930s and 1940s, the gradual change in status of women in the 1950s and 1960s, the increased presence of women in broadcasting in the 1970s, and the successes of women in broadcasting in the 1980s and 1990s. The second edition is expanded to include the social and political changes that occurred in the 2000s, such as the growing number of women talk show hosts; changing attitudes about women in leadership roles in business; more about minority women in media; and women in sports and women sports announcers. The author addresses the question of whether women are in fact no longer invisible in electronic media. She provides an assessment of where progress for women (in society as well as broadcasting) can be seen, and where progress appears totally stalled." -- Publisher's website.

"What has changed for the better or worse during fourteen years of Conservative government? Anthony Seldon and his team explore the 'Conservative Effect', analysing the ultimate impact of their leadership on the UK. This intriguing read offers powerful insights and fresh perspectives on the full scope of the Conservative government's influence"--

"In this long-awaited follow-up to his 2003 book on Genesis, humanist scholar Leon Kass explores how Exodus raises and then answers the central political questions of what defines a nation and how a nation should govern itself. Considered by some the most important book in the Hebrew Bible, Exodus tells the story of the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt, through their liberation under Moses's leadership, to the covenantal founding at Sinai and the building of the Tabernacle. In Kass's analysis, these events began the slow process of learning how to stop thinking like slaves and become an independent people. The Israelites ultimately founded their nation on three elements: a shared narrative that instills empathy for the poor and the suffering, the uplifting rule of a moral law, and devotion to a higher common purpose. These elements, Kass argues, remain the essential principles for any freedom-loving nation today." --

An examination of the rise and transformation of Jewish communal leadership in Central Europe in the nineteenth century

This book is the first Comprehensive study of the relationship between the eductional institutions and leadership and the communities in medieval Ashkenaz.

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1896 edition by the University Press, Cambridge.

A new translation by Sergio E. Serrano of this inspirational book containing sound advice on the art of living by the late historian, biographer, and philosopher, Andre Maurois. ?Our lives are works of art, expressions of inner beauty, conceived and created by our inner selves, tested by the circumstances and experiences of life, perfected and modified by the learning and growth resulting from these experiences. Few authors have expressed these timeless principles with more eloquence than Andr Maurois (1885-1967), one of the most celebrated and prolific French writers of the 20th century. An Art of Living was first published in France in 1939. It is divided into five sections: The Art of Thinking, The Art of Loving, The Art of Working, The Art of Leadership, and The Art of Growing Old. Each section contains very profound, timeless, wisdom about the most important aspects we face in life. Maurois was an erudite, an acclaimed scholar, a historian, and a deep observer of human nature and psyche. The real value of An Art of Living, is that the sentences are not merely a collection of words to convey a practical thought, but a communication to the spirit of the reader. Maurois speaks to the soul of the reader. The principles he conveys remain as valid and as useful in the 21st century as they were in the 20th. There is so much insight in this book! Maurois accurately predicts the ultimate failure of all social revolutions; the necessity of slow change in human customs and attitudes as a key to lasting changes; the technological development and implementation of robots in large assembly lines; the characteristics of a reasonable and effective government; the inner virtues to cultivate in order to successfully overcome the adversities of life; the qualities to seek in order to maintain stable, loving, relationships; the attributes to encourage as an effective manager; the essentials by which to plan a long and enjoyable retirement; and the principles behind an effective educational system. The book speaks to young and old alike. An Art of Living remained out of print for several decades. This new translation intends to resurrect this little treasure of a book for the English readers of today; it remains faithful to the original French edition and to the style of the author.

In this striking book, Yehezkel Dror bravely goes where few authors dare, offering a big-picture view of the fateful choices facing the human species. He urges humankind to adopt unconventional survival and thriving strategies, including elevating the future of humanity above state interests, limiting the production and spread of dangerous knowledge and tools, and strengthening humanity's collective deliberative capacity. The author confronts the evolutionary trap of science and technology ensnaring unprepared humankind by providing it with awesome future-shaping power, which contemporary values and institutions are unable to handle. Dror warns that tribal and nationalist values, the inability to learn from history, and mediocre leadership will catastrophically endanger the future of human life, making radical, even painful, innovations essential. According to Dror, the prevailing form of politics is obsolete. Instead, he argues urgently for a new type of political leader - "Homo Sapiens Governors" - willing and able to fulfill the daunting mission to save humanity from itself. Recognizing that the tyrannical status quo will try to prevent essential transformations, Dror predicts new crises making what is still unthinkable clearly compelling - and that humankind will have to choose: learn rapidly to survive and thrive, or perish. YEHEZKEL DROR is professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Recognized as a founder of modern policy studies, he integrates multi-disciplinary scholarship with extensive personal experience as a global advisor into a novel paradigm on alternative evolutionary futures of humanity - as shaped by fateful choices humanity has never before faced.

Americans today recognize and celebrate leadership genius in the management of private companies. At the same time, the American public remains deeply skeptical of government's ability to address real economic and social challenges. The contributors to this timely and important volume increase our understanding of the potential incentives for and barriers to creative problem-solving in the public sector. Drawing on case studies of state and local government, as well as theoretical literature on private sector management, these scholars reveal both the problems and the possibilities in governmental decision-making.

This volume, first published in 1973, brings together a wide range of Professor Landau's work on recent Middle Eastern history and politics, reflecting the breadth of the author's concern and research. The first section deals with aspects of political organisation in the Middle East, largely Egypt, towards the end of the nineteenth century. A little-known plan of the Islamic reformer al-Afghani is discussed, showing him in a rather more political light than the religious haze which normally surrounds this pan-Islamic campaigner. The role of the influential secret societies in modern Egypt is outlined, and the politics behind the fluctuations in the degree of responsibility allowed to Egyptian ministers is examined. This section is concluded by a chapter on two proposals for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Sudan in the early days of Zionism, throwing interesting light on the differing aims of early Zionists and alternative historical paths that might have been taken. The second section of the book contains studies on the Jewish situation in nineteenth-century Egypt, focusing on their position within the larger Muslim society and on socio-economic factors, as well as on the career of James Sanua ('Abu Naddara'), an Egyptian Jew who played a prominent part in nationalist agitation. The two final parts of the book turn to recent and contemporary electoral politics in the Middle East, with special attention being paid to the political leadership and voting behaviour of the Arabs in Israel. Other studies deal with elections in Lebanon and Turkey, and the final chapter analyses the militant right-wing elements in the Turkish political spectrum.