Eliezer Ben-rafael

Reconsidering Israel-diaspora Relations Eliezer Ben-rafael

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; In this era of globalization, Jewish diversity is marked more than ever by transnational expansion of competing movements and local influences on specific conditions. One factor that still makes Jewish communities one is the common reference to Israel. Today, however, differentiations and discrepancies in identification and behavior generate plurality and ambiguities about Israel-Diaspora relationships. Moreover the Judeophobia now rife in Europe and beyond as well as the spread of the Palestinian cause as a civil religion make Israel the worlds Jew among nations. This weighs heavily on community relations - despite Israels active presence in the diaspora. In this context, the contributions to this volume focus on Jewish peoplehood, religiosity and ethnicity, gender and generation, Israelophobia and world Jewry, and debate the perspectives that are most pertinent to confront the question: how far is the Jewish Commonwealth (Klal Yisrael) still an important code of Jewry today?. Biographical Note: Eliezer Ben-Rafael is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Tel-Aviv University. His areas of research are cleavages in Israel, identities and linguistic landscape. A Landau Prize winner, he was President of the International Institute of Sociology. He is on the board of several journals and co-founder of the Klal Yisrael Project. Judit Bokser Liwerant is Full Professor of Political Science at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and Distinguished Visiting Professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a Member of the Mexican Academy of Science, and National Research Fellow. She is also Director and Editor of the "Mexican Journal of Political and Social Science." Yosef Gorny is Professor Emeritus of Jewish history at Tel-Aviv University. His main fields of interest and research are the history of the Jewish modern national and ethnic movement; Zionism in the diaspora and in Eretz Israel (Palestine); the Labor Movement; the Jewish-Arab conflict; the Bund in Eastern Europe; American Jewry and the State of Israel. His recent research deals with the Jewish press during World War II in Palestine, the USA, England, and Soviet Russia. Yosef Gorny is also a co-founder of the Klal Yisrael Project."Table of Contents: Introduction PART I. JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD: CHANGING PATTERNS OF ISRAEL-DIASPORA RELATIONS 1. Sergio Della Pergola: Jewish Peoplehood: Hard, Soft, and Interactive Markers 2. Jonathan D. Sarna: From World-Wide People to First-World People: The Consolidation (fn. concentration) of World Jewry 3. Shulamit Reinharz: The Jewish Peoplehood Concept: Complications and Suggestions 4. Yosef Gorny: Ethnicity and State Policy: The State of Israel in the Intellectual and Political Discourse of the US Jewish Press 5. Ephraim Yuchtman-Ya ar and Steven M. Cohen: Close and Distant: The Relations between Israel and the Diaspora PART II. RELIGIOSITY AND ETHNICITY 6. Yael Israel-Cohen: The Reform and Conservative Movements in Israel: Strategies of Peripheral Movements in a Monopolized Religious Market 7. Shlomo Fischer: Two Orthodox Cultures: Centrist Orthodoxy and Religious Zionism 8. Margalit Bejarano: Ethnicity and Transnationalism: Latino Jews in Miami 9. Nissim Leon: Strong Ethnicity: The Case of US-born Jews in Israel PART III. GENDER AND GENERATION 10. Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz: Orthodox Jewish Women as a Bridge Between Israel and the Diaspora 11. Florinda Goldberg: Gender, Religion, and the Search for a Modern Jewish Identity in "La Rabina" by Silvia Plager 12. Erik H. Cohen: Global Jewish Youth Studies - Towards a Theory 13. Sylvia Barack Fishman: Generational and Cultural Constructions of Jewish Peoplehood PART IV. ISRAELOPHOBIA, ANTI-ZIONISM AND NEO -ANTISEMITISM 14. Shmuel Trigano: Debasing Praise: Hatred of the Jews in a Global Age 15. Chantal Bordes-Benayoun: Integration and Antisemitism: The Case of French Jewry 16. Julius H. Schoeps: How Antisemitism, Obsessive Criticism of Israel, and Do-Gooders Complicate Jewish Life in Germany 17. Leonardo Senkman: Anti-Zionist Discourse of the Left in Latin America: An Assessment. 18. Uzi Rebhun, Chaim I. Waxman, Nadia Beider: American Jews and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: A Study of Diaspora in International Affairs PART V. CONFIGURATIONS OF WORLD JEWRY AND THE STATE OF ISRAEL 19. Judit Bokser-Liwerant: Jewish Diaspora and Transnationalism: Awkward (Dance) Partners? 20. Lars Dencik: The Dialectics of Diaspora in Contemporary Modernity 21. Gabi Sheffer: Reflections on Israel and Jerusalem as the Centers of World Jewry 22. Eliezer Ben-Rafael: Israel-Diaspora Relations: "Transmission Driving-belts" of Transnationalism Epilogue: One - After All....for the time being"Publisher Marketing: Jewry today is marked by transnational competing movements and local influences, meanwhile worldwide Judeophobia and sympathy for the Palestinian cause make Israel the Jew among nations. This volume asks: how much is the Jewish Commonwealth still pertinent to Jewry? Contributor Bio:  Ben-Rafael, Eliezer Eliezer Ben-Rafael is Weinberg Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel-Aviv University. He is a former president of the Israel Sociological Society. His books include Crisis and Transformation and Language, Identity and Social Division. Contributor Bio:  Gorny, Yosef Yosef Gorny is Professor of History at Tel Aviv University in Israel.