2328 results for "Jewish History"

The Jewish chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841-1991

Cesarani, David
Founded in 1841, The Jewish Chronicle is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world. A force for change, a forum for debate and a shaper of Jewish identity, it has played a central part in the development of modern Anglo-Jewry. More than just a mirror of Anglo-Jewish mores, registering waves of immigration and social change, The Jewish Chronicle has been an active player in historical events. Its editors have intervened decisively in communal history and debated with British statesmen. No historian can understand the inner life of British Jews without looking at the social reports, the sports column, the arts and cultural coverage and the advertising that the paper has carried. This book, written by a noted historian of Jewish social affairs, gives an insight into the working of a newspaper, the struggles between editors and directors, and the boardroom politics. It is the story of a publishing adventure that became an institution and helped to shape the destiny of an entire community.
Cambridge University Press 2005-09-08 329 pages

For solo violin: a Jewish childhood in fascist Italy : a memoir

Zargani, Aldo
" For Solo Violin is a gracefully written, elegiac memoir of childhood."— The Los Angeles Times "An eloquent tribute to [and] a moving account of those who, despite the cruelty of so many around them, found ways to rejoice and trust in the kindness of a few. One is instantly reminded of Life Is Beautiful ."—André Aciman, author of Out of Egypt In an extraordinary literary debut, Aldo Zargani reconstructs the lost world of his Jewish childhood during the perilous years 1938–45 when he and his family fled from Fascists and Nazis in northern Italy. His haunting memoir acquires a cinematic intensity as he crosscuts from the blood-red stone spires of Basel, where his father failed to find refuge for his family in 1939, to fiery scenes of the Allied bombing of Turin in 1942, to the freezing winter of 1943–44, which Zargani and his brother spent hidden in a Catholic boarding school deep in the countryside. For Solo Violin is filled with colorful portraits of Italian aristocrats and peasants, priests and soldiers, teachers and students, informers and partisans. At its heart is Zargani's vivid depiction of his father, a concert violinist forced to give up his career when the Fascists came to power. In this time of persecution, the Zargani family survived through their own resourcefulness and through the efforts of the many Italians who came to their aid, from the young doctor who helped them escape from Turin to the shepherd who supplied them with milk during the last year of the war, when they lived among the partisans in a remote Piedmont valley. Looking back over a distance of fifty years, Zargani rediscovers the enchantment of childhood shining in "fable-like constellations" even amidst the inferno of war. Lullabies and school games, fairy tales and family jokes are interwoven with the events of terror and oppression. Lyrical, humorous, tender, and wise, For Solo Violin is a testament to resilience and hope during the darkest period in human history. "A broad panorama of Italian-Jewish history in [the last] century. Elegant in its style and, however tragic, also rich with understatement, irony, and wit, For Solo Violin counts among the great, enduring works of art."— Focus Magazine , Germany "A tragic, deeply engaging, delicious book—yes delicious, too. (Reading it makes you smile.) It's a miracle…It makes one think of the wit of Kafka!"— L'Espresso , Italy "Zargani depicts a wealth of sad, despairing, but often also incredibly funny episodes…But vibrating along with the humor is always the sense of threat, and behind it opens the abyss of terror."— Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Switzerland
Paul Dry Books 2002 326 pages

The image of the non-Jew in Judaism: the idea of Noahide law

Novak, David
Throughout history the image of the non-Jew in Judaism has profoundly influenced the way in which Jews interact with non-Jews. It has also shaped the understanding that Jews have of their own identity, as it determines just what distinguishes them from the non-Jews around them. A crucial element in this is the concept of Noahide law, understood by the ancient rabbis and subsequent Jewish thinkers as incumbent upon all humankind, unlike the full 613 divine commandments of the Torah, which are incumbent on Jews alone. The approach adopted in this now classic study is to consider the history of the idea of Noahide law, and to show how the concept is relevant to practical discussions of the halakhah pertaining to non-Jews and to relations between Jews and non-Jews. The seven chapters that make up the first part of the study examine each of the Noahide laws in turn, with a view to showing their halakhic development in the rabbinic sources, in the codes, and in the responsa literature. The discussion draws primarily on classical texts by traditional commentators as they attempt to deal with living issues from the rabbinic world as equally vital concerns in their own time.The second part deals with the theory of Noahide law, concluding with a consideration of why it is an appropriate starting point for Jewish philosophy today.
The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization 2011 325 pages

No enchanted palace: the end of empire and the ideological origins of the United Nations

Mazower, Mark
A groundbreaking interpretation of the intellectual origins of the United Nations No Enchanted Palace traces the origins and early development of the United Nations, one of the most influential yet perhaps least understood organizations active in the world today. Acclaimed historian Mark Mazower forces us to set aside the popular myth that the UN miraculously rose from the ashes of World War II as the guardian of a new and peaceful global order, offering instead a strikingly original interpretation of the UN's ideological roots, early history, and changing role in world affairs. Mazower brings the founding of the UN brilliantly to life. He shows how the UN's creators envisioned a world organization that would protect the interests of empire, yet how this imperial vision was decisively reshaped by the postwar reaffirmation of national sovereignty and the unanticipated rise of India and other former colonial powers. This is a story told through the clash of personalities, such as South African statesman Jan Smuts, who saw in the UN a means to protect the old imperial and racial order; Raphael Lemkin and Joseph Schechtman, Jewish intellectuals at odds over how the UN should combat genocide and other atrocities; and Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, who helped transform the UN from an instrument of empire into a forum for ending it. A much-needed historical reappraisal of the early development of this vital world institution, No Enchanted Palace reveals how the UN outgrew its origins and has exhibited an extraordinary flexibility that has enabled it to endure to the present day.
Princeton University Press 2013-02-24 236 pages

The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia: facing the Holocaust

Rothkirchen, Livia
Published by the University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, and Yad Vashem, Jerusalem "We were both small nations whose existence could never be taken for granted," Václav Havel said of the Czechs and the Jews of Israel in 1990, and indeed, the complex and intimate link between the fortunes of these two peoples is unique in European history. This book by one of the world's leading authorities on the history of Czech and Slovak Jewry during the Nazi period is the first to thoroughly document this singular relationship and to trace its impact on the fate of the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia during the Holocaust. Livia Rothkirchen provides a detailed and comprehensive history of how Nazi rule in the Czech lands was shaped as much by local culture and circumstances as by military policy. The extraordinary nature of the Czech Jews' experience emerges in chapters on the role of the Jewish minority in Czech life; the crises of the Munich agreement and the German occupation; the reaction of the local population to the persecution of the Jews; the policies of the London-based government in exile; the question of Jewish resistance; and the Theresienstadt ghetto. The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia is based on a wealth of primary documents, many uncovered only after the 1989 November revolution, and includes an epilogue on the post-1945 period.
University of Nebraska Press 2012-05 464 pages

Hebron Jews: memory and conflict in the land of Israel

Auerbach, Jerold S.
In this first comprehensive history in English of the Jews of Hebron, Jerold S. Auerbach explores one of the oldest and most vilified Jewish communities in the world. Spanning three thousand years, from the biblical narrative of Abraham's purchase of a burial cave for Sarah to the violent present, it offers a controversial analysis of a community located at the crossroads of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle over national boundaries and the internal Israeli struggle over the meaning of Jewish statehood.Hebron Jews sharply challenges conventional Zionist historiography and current media understa
Rowman & Littlefield 2009-07-15 223 pages

The making of the Arab-Israeli conflict, 1947-1951

Pappé, Ilan
"This seminal text by renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, discusses one of the most significant periods in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Based on archival material, it presents the reader with a comprehensive and general history of the origins and consequences of the 1948 war. While among Arabs, and especially Palestinians, the events of that year are known as the nakba - the catastrophe, the trauma, the disaster - for Jews, and in particular for Israelis, their victory in the war of 1948 is a veritable miracle. For them, against tremendous odds and through heroic military effort, the Jewish community succeeded in thwarting attempts by the Arab states to destroy it. Pappe shows here that in sharp contrast to the recollections and myths of both sides, the military events of 1948 were not decisive. The victory of the Zionist organization and the fate of the Palestinians was determined by politicians on both sides - in the discussions and decisions of the United Nations in 1947-8 and in the Arab League - long before a shot had been fired. He argues that Israel's failure to take advantage of the genuine opportunity for peace with the Arabs at the UN-sponsored Lausanne Conference in 1949 resulted in the prolonged and tragic conflict between Israel and the Arab states still very much alive today. Complete with a new foreword by the author, the book remains the authority on the subject for a new generation of readers."--
I.B. Tauris 2025-02-20 324 pages

Religion of reason out of the sources of Judaism

Cohen, Hermann
Hermann Cohen's Religion of Reason, Out of the Sources of Judaism (first pub. 1919) is widely taken to be the greatest work in Jewish philosophy and religious thought since Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed. It is at once a Jewish book and a philosophical one: Jewish because it takes its material from the literary tradition that extends from the Bible to the rabbis to the great medieval philosophers; philosophical, because it studies that material in order to construct a worldview that is rational in the broadest sense of the term. This edition is designed for classroom use. It reprints a 1972 introduction by Leo Strauss and includes an essay on the work by Steven Schwarzschild. A new introduction by Kenneth R. Seeskin situates Cohen's masterwork in the history of modern philosophical and religious thought.
Scholars Press 1995 489 pages

Hegel and the state

Rosenzweig, Franz,Bienenstock, Myriam,Honneth, Axel
"Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) is one of the most significant German Jewish philosophers of the twentieth century. Published in German in 1920 and now finally available in English for the first time, Hegel and the State is a major contribution to the understanding of Hegel's political and social thought and a profound analysis of the intellectual currents that shaped the German state in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through careful readings of Hegel's early handwritten manuscripts, Rosenzweig shows that Hegel was wrestling with the problem of how to reconcile the subjectivity and freedom of the individual within a community and ultimately the political state. According to Rosenzweig, the route out of this conundrum chosen by Hegel shaped his mature political philosophy, where he saw the relationship between the individual and the state as reciprocal. At a deeper level, the significance of Hegel and the State lies in the way that Rosenzweig explains the failure of Hegel's quasi-communitarian view of the state to emerge, due to the authoritarian direction of the newly-unified German state under Bismarck. Anticipating the political and moral disaster that was to follow, Rosenzweig concludes by questioning the very viability of any theory of the state that relies on the pillars of bureaucratic militarism and a government-supported capitalist business culture. With the inclusion of a Foreword by Myriam Bienenstock and a substantial Afterword by Axel Honneth, Hegel and the State is a ground-breaking work of early twentieth-century philosophical and political thought. It is essential reading for students of Hegel, German Idealism, Jewish philosophy, and the origins of critical theory. It will also be of interest to those in related subjects such as the history of sociology, and German and intellectual history"--
Routledge 2024 579 pages

Israel through my lens: sixty years as a photojournalist

Rubinger, Daṿid
The compelling autobiography of Israel's preeminent photojournalist, illustrated with his most memorable images. Today, photojournalist David Rubinger stands at the peak of his profession: a winner of the Israel Prize for services to the media and a fixture on the masthead of Time, he is the only photographer whose work is on permanent display at the Knesset, Israel’s legislature. In this fascinating volume, he reports his own story, which in many ways reflects the history of Israel that he has recorded so faithfully with his camera. Born in Vienna in 1924, he emigrated to British Palestine in 1939 and developed a passion for photography while serving in the British army’s Jewish Brigade. After fighting in Israel’s War of Independence, he became a professional news photographer, reporting on each of his young nation’s subsequent wars from the front lines, at first for the Israeli media and later as a correspondent for Time-Life. He photographed all of Israel’s leaders, many of whom have allowed him a remarkable degree of access to their lives; Ariel Sharon said, “I trust Rubinger even though I know he doesn’t vote for me.” But Rubinger has not confined his reporting to war and politics; by photographing the successive waves of Jewish immigrants from Europe, the Arab world, Russia, and Ethiopia, he has also created a valuable record of Israel’s transformation from a country of six hundred thousand to one of seven million. In recounting his eventful career, Rubinger proves himself a gifted raconteur, sharing anecdotes of the many leading personalities he has photographed and telling the stories behind his most famous pictures, many of which are reproduced here at full-page size. Also illustrated are a selection of Rubinger’s never-before-published personal photographs, which provide vivid behind-the-scenes glimpses into the fast-paced and sometimes daring work of a photojournalist. Both a personal account of one man’s life with the camera and a visual document of the birth of a nation, Israel through My Lens is an essential book for anyone with an interest in Israeli history or the art of photojournalism.
Abbeville Press Publishers 2007 336 pages

Growing your olive tree marriage: a guide for couples from two traditions

Rudolph, David J.
One partner is Jewish, the other is a Christian. Do they celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, or both? Do they worship in a church or a synagogue? How will the children be raised? This essential resource addresses the concerns of interfaith couples, and includes interviews with intermarried couples, a discussion of intermarriage in history, and more.
Lederer Books 2003 210 pages

Jar Jar Binks Must Die... and Other Observations about Science Fiction Movies

Daniel M. Kimmel
As the title Jar Jar Binks Must Die indicates, Daniel M. Kimmel is not only a film critic with strong opinions, he's also a fan. In this collection of essays, he covers movies from Metropolis (1927), answering the absurd claim that the restoration of this silent classic negated its status as a science fiction film, to how Star Trek, Avatar, Moon, and District 9 may have made 2009 a "miracle year" for the genre. Along the way he looks at neglected works like Things to Come (1936), explains why remakes aren't always bad, and how seeing E.T. in an empty screening room changed his mind about Steven Spielberg. Whether to rediscover old favorites or add new titles to your Netflix queue, this is a must-have for lovers of SF movies. Author Bio Daniel M. Kimmel is a past president of the Boston Society of Film Critics. When it was discovered he is also a science fiction fan he started getting invitations to participate at a number of SF conventions, which he continues to do. He reviewed for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette and now writes for Northshoremovies.net. He is a correspondent for Variety, the "Movie Maven" for the Jewish Advocate and teaches film--including a course on SF and horror--at Suffolk University. His essays on classic science films have appeared in several publications including Clarkesworld, Space and Time, and the Internet Review of Science Fiction. He is the author of a history of FOX TV, The Fourth Network (2004) which received the Cable Center Book Award. His other books include a history of DreamWorks, The Dream Team (2006) and I'll Have What She's Having: Behind the Scenes of the Great Romantic Comedies (2008). He is also the author of three novels: Shh! It's a Secret: a novel about Aliens, Hollywood, and the Bartender's Guide (2013) Time On My Hands: My Misadventures In Time Travel (2017), and Father of the Bride of Frankenstein (2019).
Fantastic Books 2018-08-21 224 pages

The bear boy

Ozick, Cynthia
The Bear Boy is a story specific to time and place, and about the dislocation of time and place too. It is set in 1935 at the only moment in history when the idea of socialism flickered to life in the United States, when Jewish intellectuals were fleeing out of the country where they were once respected writers and professors, and when a great many people were equal to each other in that the most had little material wealth. The oversize Mitwisser clan are German refugees who survive at the whim of their vagabond benefactor, James Albair. James is heir to the fortune amassed by his father, the author of a wildly popular series of children's books called The Bear Boy. Wayward, feckless and with money to burn, James has taken up the eccentric Mitwissers - scholarly patriach, invalid wife, and five scrappy children - as his latest caprice. Into this chaotic household comes Rose Meadows, orphaned at the age of eighteen. Rose quickly becomes indispensable as assistant to Professor Mitwisser in his research on an arcane sect and then, inevitably, as general nursemaid, nanny and companion to the entire family. Her sole inheritance is a book: the first title in the Bear Boy series. When the actual Bear Boy appears on the Mitwisser doorstep, Rose must resist the pull of his reckless orbit as she pursues her own desires. The Bear Boy evokes Depression-era New York from the perspective of perpetual outsiders. Brought together by coincidence and fate, the hard times they inherit still hold glimmers of past wonders and future dreams.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2005 310 pages

Branching Out German-Jewish Immigration to the United States, 1820-1914

Avraham Barkai
The many thousands of Jews from German-speaking lands who came to the United States throughout the nineteenth century played a major part in laying the foundations of the Jewish community in America. The author considers these immigrants a branch of German Jewry, compelled to seek overseas the political and civil rights denied them at home. In this volume of the Ellis Island Series, the fascinating story of this mass immigration of mostly poor, enterprising, young people is told in vivid detail. Drawing on rare letters, diaries, memoirs, period newspapers, journals, and other firsthand accounts, Barkai traces the process of family-oriented chain migration, resettlement, and acculturation, exploring as well the group's relations with the Jewish community in Germany and with German and Jewish immigrants in the New World. Often starting out as peddlers and storekeepers, the immigrants moved back and forth from East Coast towns and cities to settlements in the South, Midwest, and Far West, helping to expand the American frontier and to develop cities such as Cincinnati St. Louis, Milwaukee, and San Francisco. The narrative chronicles their experiences in the goldfields of California, on Indian reservations, and during the Civil War, in which German-Jewish soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies struggled against bigotry to assert their civil rights. These engaging personal narratives are woven into an account of the formative role played by German-Jewish immigrants in establishing the institutional framework of the American-Jewish community. Their influential network of mutual aid and philanthropic organizations would be challenged, at the turn of the century, by the great mass migration of Jews from Eastern Europe. The author's presentation of the dramatic encounter between these two groups sheds new light not only on this critical period in American-Jewish history but also on the dynamics of cultural change in a pluralist society.
Holmes & Meier 2001 269 pages

Arnold Daghani's memories of Mikhailowka: the illustrated diary of a slave labour camp survivor

Daghani, Arnold
Arnold Daghani (1909-85) came from a German-speaking Jewish family in Suczawa, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Romania. His understated narrative of his experiences in the slave labour camp at Mikhailowka, south west Ukraine (1942-43), presented here in its first English book edition, provides a day-by-day account of the chilling experiences of Jewish slave labourers. It is written in a compelling style and illustrated by watercolours and drawings that Daghani made secretly in captivity and smuggled out of the camp and a Romanian ghetto. It includes an extraordinary account of the couple's escape and the shooting of over three hundred prisoners. The uniqueness of Daghani's Holocaust testimony lies in his role as an artist which led to his (and his wife's) escape from the camp and their survival. The camps in Ukraine have been under-investigated and the diary provides significant material. It was used as the basis of investigations in the 1960s into war crimes in the slave labour camps in Ukraine, helping to bring attention to the region and providing some form of recognition for those who suffered there. This richly illustrated and scrupulously edited book is distinguished from more conventional Holocaust memoirs by focusing on fundamental questions of historical testimony and the problems of representation in both words and images. Daghani's diary is contextualized on the basis of wide-ranging new historical, archival and art historical research in essays that document the artist's attempts to achieve justice and reconciliation. They locate the diary in relation to contemporary issues on migration and statelessness, genocide and trauma, self-reflection and memory. The diary is both art and document, addressing how we understand and construct history. It enables readers to engage with the Holocaust via the viewpoint of an individual, making statistics more meaningful and history less distant.
Vallentine Mitchell 2009 243 pages

Jerusalem on Earth: People, Passions, and Politics in the Holy City

Rabinovich, Abraham
As the guns in Jerusalem fell silent in 1967 nothing could be heard across the hushed city except the faint flutter of history. Then it started again — the rumble of heavy vehicles, the unforgiving crump of explosives. This time the sounds were of bulldozers plowing through border barriers and the demise of minefields. Jewish and Arab Jerusalem were separated briefly only by a strip of neutered no-man’s-land so narrow that a boy could throw a stone across it, so filled with shadows that it was impossible to probe its depth. What would emerge from those shadows? Jerusalem on Earth is an anecdotal overview of the turbulent post-Six Day War decades. This revised edition expands on the first, published in 1988, and includes a close-up view of Mayor Teddy Kollek shaping the city during his 28-year tenure. Confident that the city's unification could work, Kollek would be jolted after two decades by the Palestinian intifada. The author covered City Hall for the Jerusalem Post during much of this period and encountered a world-class collection of visionaries and eccentrics. - An Australian sheepshearer who wants to be recognized as king of Judah sets fire to al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, third holiest site in Islam. Riots in the Moslem world reportedly kill thousands and Arab armies are ordered to prepare for holy war. Israeli police quickly track down the arsonist, heading off further deterioration. - An ultra-orthodox Jewish eccentric crossed into Jordan as a young man to obtain weapons for a revolt against the secular Zionist state. He is returned and tried. Thirty years later he invites his former prosecutor to join him in a learned debate before a packed hall on the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche who wrote that god is dead. - Arab and Jewish underworlds in Jerusalem are the first economic sectors to join forces after the Six Day War. The police are not far behind, forming Arab-Jewish patrols. - A rare look into the inner sanctums of the Hassidic world when street conflicts break out among feuding factions. Yeshiva students “take to the mattresses” mafia-style as tensions mount. - The Vatican sues one of its own religious orders for selling property to a Jewish institution. Jewish lawyers expert in church law represent each side. In the end, the government aborts the sale in order to demonstrate that Israel is not out to Judaize Jerusalem. Not long afterwards, the Vatican establishes diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. - Danish-born Sister Abraham, who speaks 15 languages and navigates the city on a bicycle, is the first white woman to serve as a nun in the Ethiopian church. - Israeli army reserve units maintained an enclave behind Jordanian lines on Mount Scopus under UN auspices for 19 years. Years later, intelligence officers would reveal its secrets. - In what psychologists call "the Jerusalem syndrome" several tourists are briefly hospitalized each year when they assume the persona of biblical figures on Jerusalem’s streets. - The murder of two nuns, a mother and daughter, in a convent temporarily suspends hostilities between the "White Russian" church in East Jerusalem and the "Red Russian" church in West Jerusalem. - A Jewish family and an Arab family, both with numerous children, find themselves neighbors when the border barriers are removed. They would become virtually one family.
Independently published 2024-04-03 282 pages

Herod: A Biography

Minkin, Jacob S.
Herod: A Biography is a book written by Jacob S. Minkin that explores the life and legacy of one of the most notorious figures in biblical history, Herod the Great. The book provides a detailed and comprehensive account of Herod's life, from his rise to power in Judea to his death and the aftermath of his reign. Minkin draws on a wide range of historical sources, including ancient texts, archaeological evidence, and modern scholarship, to paint a vivid portrait of this complex and often controversial figure. The book covers Herod's many accomplishments, including his impressive building projects and his efforts to modernize Judea, as well as his many personal flaws and failures. Minkin also explores the political and religious context of Herod's reign, including the tensions between the Jewish people and their Roman rulers, and the various factions and power struggles that shaped the region during this time. Overall, Herod: A Biography is a fascinating and insightful look at one of the most intriguing figures in ancient history, and a must-read for anyone interested in biblical history, ancient politics, or the complexities of human nature.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
Kessinger Publishing, LLC 2010-09-10 290 pages

The fate of "culture": Geertz and beyond

Sherry B. Ortner
Clifford Geertz is one of the foremost figures in the reconfiguration of the boundary between the social sciences and the humanities in the second half of the twentieth century. Expanding the power and complexity of the anthropological concept of culture, his work is both foundational to, and in critical counterpoint with, that vast interdisciplinary spectrum of scholarship known today as "cultural studies." This book brings together seven leading scholars from four disciplines to take a fresh look at Geertz's work, and to consider the continuing implications of his work in the contemporary context. Framed by an important introduction by anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner, the articles cover such topics as seventeenth-century English ghosts, Jewish merchants in early capitalism, Egyptian women in the age of television, and the role of Sherpas in Himalayan mountaineering, as well as such methodological issues as the place of emotional empathy and "complicity" in ethnographic fieldwork, and the mutual illumination of culture and history. Clifford Geertz is one of the foremost figures in the reconfiguration of the boundary between the social sciences and the humanities in the second half of the twentieth century. Expanding the power and complexity of the anthropological concept of culture, his work is both foundational to, and in critical counterpoint with, that vast interdisciplinary spectrum of scholarship known today as "cultural studies." This book brings together seven leading scholars from four disciplines to take a fresh look at Geertz's work, and to consider the continuing implications of his work in the contemporary context. Framed by an important introduction by anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner, the articles cover such topics as seventeenth-century English ghosts, Jewish merchants in early capitalism, Egyptian women in the age of television, and the role of Sherpas in Himalayan mountaineering, as well as such methodological issues as the place of emotional empathy and "complicity" in ethnographic fieldwork, and the mutual illumination of culture and history.
University of California Press 1999 169 pages

Socrates: fictions of a philosopher

Kofman, Sarah
Socrates is an elusive figure, Sarah Kofman asserts, and he is necessarily so since he did not write or directly state his beliefs. "With Socrates," she writes in her introduction, "we will never leave fiction behind." Kofman suggests that Socrates's avowal of ignorance was meant to be ironic. Later philosophers who interpreted his text invariably resisted the profoundly ironic character of his way of life and diverged widely in their interpretations of him. Kofman focuses especially on the views of Plato, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. The information that is available about Socrates's life is paradoxical. He was famously ugly, but he was also a notorious seducer of youth. His sexuality is ambiguous, according to Kofman, for his allure is stereotypically feminine. His death is also subject to varied interpretation. Some commentators regard him as a redemptive, proto-Christ figure, more Jewish than Greek, and others see him as an archetypal Stoic hero. Despite radically different interpretations, Plato, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche all found Socrates to be a dominant figure of immense importance in the history of philosophy. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche try to retain the idea of irony as essential to the Socratic way of life. Hegel, in contrast, insists that Socrates be assigned one particular place in the historical development of Absolute Spirit. While Kierkegaard considered Socratic irony as an intellectual position, Nietzsche recognized and resisted Socrates's irony as a predisposition. In examining each philospher's response to Socratic irony, Kofman draws specifically on the history of philosophy and psychoanalytic theory.
Cornell University Press 1998 296 pages

De Gaulle, Israel and the Jews

Aron, Raymond
The lives of Raymond Aron and Charles de Gaulle intersected at significant moments in twentieth-century history, though they differed on many issues during World War II and over the subsequent decades. Aron, for example, distinguished between the attitude and responsibility of the Vichy government and the French Nazi collaborators in Paris, unlike de Gaulle, who regarded anyone who obeyed Marshal Petain as a traitor. In the postwar period, Aron differed from de Gaulle on a number of issues, including Algeria. But the strongest direct criticism by Aron of de Gaulle's language and policy resulted after a 1967 press conference, where he referred to Jews as "an elite people, self-assured and domineering." This comment led Aron to write DeGaulle, Israel and the Jews. Aron saw de Gaulle conflating the issues of Israel and that of French Jews, and the question of Israeli policy in 1967 and other times. He stressed the right of individuals to be, at the same time, French and Jewish, and raised the question of whether de Gaulle intended to deliver a message to the Jews in the Diaspora or simply wanted to attack those in Israel. While Aron did not accuse de Gaulle of anti-Semitism, he felt that for the first time in postwar Europe, a leader had used language that lent respectability to anti-Semitism and made it legitimate. De Gaulle, Israel and the Jews, translated from the French by John Sturrock and graced with a new introductory essay by Michael Curtis, allows us the opportunity to raise questions about de Gaulle and his policy in the Middle East. Was he anti-Semitic? What were his real attitudes and policies toward Israel, and how did they relate to his policies on the Middle East and on international affairs? This is a volume of contemporary relevance for students of political science, Middle East affairs, and international policy.
[distributor] Taylor & Francis, c/o Bookpoint 2017-08-02 160 pages