Remaking Israeli Judaism
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$85.00 (06)Description
This is the first comprehensive account of Shas, which is the most significant religious and cultural movement to have emerged in Israel since the rise of Likud in 1977. Shas represents an explosive mixture of the religious and ethnic tensions that continue to simmer beneath the surface of Israeli Jewish society and politics. This Sephardi religious revival movement is also giving birth to the first truly Israeli form of Orthodox Judaism, distinct from the still-dominant Ashkenazi Yiddish-speaking version. Shas appeals especially to underprivileged Israelis, among whom a significant minority adopts ultra-orthodox Judaism. As a social phenomenon, Lehman and Siebzehner argue, Shas exemplifies how a fundamentalist movement invents and reinvents ethnic and quasi-ethnic frontiers, even to the point of acquiring the markers of those it denounces, and how it draws on popular religion and culture. This groundbreaking book will be the primary source of information on this fascinating, important, and troubling movement, as well as representing a rare example of the application to the study of Judaism of the same perspective that has been used to study fundamentalist and charismatic movements in other religious traditions.Reviews
"A very interesting study of one of the most important developments in Israeli society. This book benefits greatly from the authors' comparisons with other religious movements, especially those in Latin America." --S. N. Eisenstadt, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Van Leer Institute
"Describes the movement of revival as a religious, social, ethnic and political mechanism reproducing Shas as a bulwark against modern secular Israel, throwing light on the basic political and social problems of Israel as a state and as a society of enclaves."-- Menachem Friedman, Bar-Ilan University
"A very interesting study of one of the most important developments in Israeli society. This book benefits greatly from the authors' comparisons with other religious movements, especially those in Latin America." --S. N. Eisenstadt, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Van Leer Institute
"Laced with insights of brilliance. It is to be recommended to scholars of Judaism seeking good ideas worth exploring, and to scholars of religion in general."--Shofar
"The first book-length study of Israel's Shas party in English. It should interest all scholars interested in the political role of religion in Israel as well as all those interested in the comparative study of politicized religious conservatism. ...An important book about Israel's powerful religious party." --Religion
About the Author(s)
David Lehmann, Reader in Social Sciences, Cambridge University , and Batia Siebzehner, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
