Religion or ethnicity? : Jewish identities in evolution / edited by Zvi Gitelman.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gitelman, Zvi Y.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Identity.

Jews.

Jews--Civilization.

Humanistic Judaism.

Judaism and secularism.

Jews--Israel--Identity.

Israel.

Identity (Philosophical concept).

Secularism--Israel.

Secularism.

Physical Description:

viii, 328 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, [2009]

Summary:

Can someone be considered Jewish if he or she never goes to synagogue, doesn't keep kosher, and for whom the only connection to his or her ancestral past is attending an annual Passover seder?

In Religion or Ethnicity? leading scholars trace the evolution of Jewish identity and examine Judaism from the Greco-Roman age, through medieval times, modern western and eastern Europe, to today. Jewish identity has been defined as an ethnicity, a nation, a culture, and even a race. Religion or Ethnicity? questions what it means to be Jewish. The contributors show how the Jewish people have evolved over time in different ethnic, religious, and political movements.

In his closing essay, Zvi Gitelman questions the viability of secular Jewishness outside Israel but suggests that the continued interest in exploring the relationship between Judaism's secular and religious forms will keep the heritage alive for generations to come.

Contents:

Introduction: Jewish religion, Jewish ethnicity : the evolution of Jewish identities / Zvi Gitelman

Secularism, hellenism, and rabbis in antiquity / Yaron Z. Eliav

What is a Judaism? : perspectives from Second Temple Jewish studies / Gabriele Boccaccini

Crypto-Jewish criticism of tradition and its echoes in Jewish communities / Miriam Bodian

Spinoza and the origins of Jewish secularism / Steven Nadler

Yiddish schools in America and the problem of secular Jewish identity / David E. Fishman

Beyond assimilation : introducing subjectivity to German-Jewish history / Scott Spector

Jewish self-identification and West European categories of belonging from the Enlightenment to World War II / Todd Endelman

People of the (secular) book : literary anthologies and the making of Jewish identity in postwar America / Julian Levinson

Secular-Jewish identity and the condition of secular Judaism in Israel / Charles S. Liebman and Yaacov Yadgar

Beyond the religious-secular dichotomy : masortim in Israel / Yaacov Yadgar and Charles S. Liebman

What kind of Jewish state do Israelis want? : Israeli and Arab attitudes toward religion and politics / Mark Tessler

The construction of secular and religious in modern Hebrew literature / Shachar Pinsker

Jewish identity and secularism in post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine / Zvi Gitelman

Judaism, community, and Jewish culture in American life : continuities and transformations / Calvin Goldscheider

Beyond apikorsut : a Judaism for secular Jews / Adam Chalom

The nature and viability of Jewish religious and secular identities / Zvi Gitelman.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780813544502

0813544505

9780813544519

0813544513

OCLC:

223108144