Outsider in the promised land : an Iraqi Jew in Israel / Nissim Rejwan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rejwan, Nissim.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rejwan, Nissim.

Jews, Iraqi--Israel--Biography.

Jews, Iraqi.

Intellectual life.

Israel.

Journalists--Israel--Biography.

Journalists.

Israel--Social conditions--20th century.

Social conditions.

Israel--Ethnic relations.

Ethnic relations.

Israel--Intellectual life--20th century.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

247 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin TX : University of Texas Press, 2006.

Summary:

In 1951, Israel was a young nation surrounded by hostile neighbors. Its tenuous grip on nationhood was made shakier still by internal tensions among the various communities that had immigrated to the new Jewish state, particularly those between the politically and socially dominant Jewish leadership hailing from Eastern Europe and the more numerous Oriental Jews from the Middle East and North Africa. Into this volatile mix came Nissim Rejwan, a young Iraqi Jewish intellectual who was to become one of the country's leading public intellectuals and authors.

Beginning with Rejwan's arrival in 1951 and climaxing with the tensions preceding Israel's victory in the Six-Day War of 1967, this book colorfully chronicles Israel's internal and external struggles to become a nation, as well as the author's integration into a complex culture. Rejwan documents how the powerful East European leadership, acting as advocates of Western norms and ideals, failed to integrate Israel into the region and let the country take its place as a part of the Middle East. Rejwan's essays and occasional articles are an illuminating example of how minority groups use journalism to gain influence in a society. Finally, the letters and diary entries reproduced in Outsider in the Promised Land are full of lively, witty meditations on history, literature, philosophy, education, and art, as well as one man's personal struggle to find his place in a new nation.

Contents:

Chapter 1 First Impressions 1

Chapter 2 Probings 20

Chapter 3 Arab Affairs Analyst of Sorts 37

Chapter 4 Rachel 49

Chapter 5 The Levantinism Scare 68

Chapter 6 The Three Divides 91

Chapter 7 Barbarians at the Gate 111

Chapter 8 Gentlefolk and Upstarts 137

Chapter 9 Israel's Communal Problem 157

Chapter 10 Freedom of Speech, Israel Style 173

Chapter 11 The Mystery of Education 190

Chapter 12 The Debate Intensifies 202

Chapter 13 Stepping on "Very Delicate Ground" 219

Afterword: Pride or Self-Effacement: On Refusing to Save Skin 239.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

029271288X

OCLC:

62393115

Publisher Number:

9780292712881

Online:

Publisher description