Bisk and Dror assert that the 21st Century can be the Jewish Century, that no other people is better prepared to face its challenges. However, to do so, a stress on the Jewish Future must replace a preoccupation with the Jewish Past. They offer a neo-Zionist ideological analysis of modern Jewish life as an alternative to both classical Zionism and post-Zionism. They conceptualize a Jewish Grand Strategy by clearly defining and delineating between ideology, policy, grand strategy, strategy and tactics, with compelling proposals for what such a revised Grand Straegy might entail. They suggest a concept of reinvigorated Israel-Diaspora relations based on this new Grand Strategy and the potential of the Information Technology Revolution. They also offer a conception of Jewish spirituality that could be as appealing to secular as to religious Jews. They reject the concept of a Nation that Dwells Alone. Throughout the ages, Jews have affected and been affected by the world more than any other People they assert. They also reject the view that suffering is the dominant feature of Jewish history as this lachrymose perception cannot inspire needed Jewish ambitions in the young. They stress the needs of the Jewish person and insist that there can be no real significance to the continued existence of the Jewish People unless the real life, concrete needs of the individual are addressed. As former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations and former Cabinent Minister Gad Yaacobi asserts in his foreword, The book is original, iconoclastic and in some ways revolutionary ... it challenges inherited assumptions and calls for positive action. I believe we have before us a book that must become a reference point for Jewish policy makers as quickly as possible.

In The Future of Art in a Postdigital Age, artist and educator Mel Alexenberg offers a vision of a postdigital future that reveals a paradigm shift from the Hellenistic to the Hebraic roots of Western culture. He ventures beyond the digital to explore postdigital perspectives rising from creative encounters among art, science, technology and human consciousness. The interrelationships between these perspectives demonstrate the confluence between postdigital art and the dynamic, Jewish structure of consciousness. Alexenberg’s pioneering artwork – a fusion of spiritual and technological realms – exemplifies the theoretical thesis of this investigation into interactive and collaborative forms that imaginatively envisages the vast potential of art in a postdigital future.

This volume comprises three main parts: The first includes five broad overviews of the current status of Jewish affairs. The second part includes six chapters, each of which reviews the main recent trends and policy issues relevant to Jewish life in six world regions which articulate contemporary Jewish life: North America; Latin America; Europe and the European Union; the Former Soviet Union; Asia, Africa, and the Pacific; and Israel. The third part introduces an overview of the goals and tasks accomplished by the main Jewish institutions and organizations worldwide in the definition and defense of Jewish interests.

A significant number of Sephardic Jews, tracing their remote origins to Spain and Portugal, immigrated to the United States from Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans from 1880 through the 1920s, joined by a smaller number of Mizrahi Jews arriving from Arab lands. Most Sephardim settled in New York, establishing the leading Judeo-Spanish community outside the Ottoman Empire. With their distinct languages, cultures, and rituals, Sephardim and Arab-speaking Mizrahim were not readily recognized as Jews by their Ashkenazic coreligionists. At the same time, they forged alliances outside Jewish circles with Hispanics and Arabs, with whom they shared significant cultural and linguistic ties. The failure among Ashkenazic Jews to recognize Sephardim and Mizrahim as fellow Jews continues today. More often than not, these Jewish communities are simply absent from portrayals of American Jewry. Drawing on primary sources such as the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) press, archival documents, and oral histories, Sephardic Jews in America offers the first book-length academic treatment of their history in the United States, from 1654 to the present, focusing on the age of mass immigration.

This comprehensive handbook provides a Christian perspective on religion and its many manifestations around the world. Written by top religion scholars from a broad spectrum of Christianity, it introduces world religions, indigenous religious traditions, and new religious movements. Articles explore the relationship of other religions to Christianity, providing historical perspective on past encounters and highlighting current issues. The book also contains articles by adherents of non-Christian religions, offering readers an insider's perspective on various religions and their encounters with Christianity. Maps, timelines, and sidebars are included.

King of Israel? Poor Jesus. Had he remained in Nazareth working in Joseph's carpentry shop, he would have been offered a share of the business. He could have settled down, married a nice Jewish girl and enjoyed a happy home life with his wife and children. He would not have gone to Jerusalem, and he would not have been crucified by the Romans. Instead, he got carried away by his success as a faith healer and imagined himself to be the King of Israel. The Pharisees had serious doubts regarding his candidacy to the throne of David. Miracles in themselves prove nothing; multiplying loaves of bread and walking on water did not bring the kingdom of heaven any nearer. So they warned Jesus not to go to Jerusalem. But he disregarded their advice and undertook to make the long journey on foot, performing miracle cures along the way. Jesus received a rapturous welcome on his arrival, as the people lining his route shouted, "Hosanna to the son of David!" Five days later, he was dead. What happened in the interval, and why did his popular following vanish almost completely? For one thing, his fellow Jews reasoned that anyone who recommends paying taxes to Rome cannot possibly be their liberator. But there were other, more profound reasons for this disaffection. Much of Jesus' teaching runs counter to Judaism and its approach to life. Loving one's enemies and hating one's parents simply will not do. The present essay offers an explanation of the Jewish world-view so as to disentangle fact from fiction in the New Testament.

This book shows that widespread resacralisation has been taking place, which is producing new ways of perceiving God and the divine. The last century has seen unmistakable changes in religious practices and the concept of spirituality right across the world. There was a broad expectation for much of the twentieth century that religious worldviews would eventually succumb to the challenge of secularist materialism, but this process of secularisation has yet to occur as predicted. The book begins by contrasting theories of secularisation and resacralisation. Throughout the book, conceptual threads, or ‘new religious themes’, related to this resacralisation are discussed in terms of three main categories: reimagining God’s nature, substance and location; reimagining human value and purpose; and reimagining modes of redemption. Finally, the book considers how these threads are moving in various different directions, and what the religious future might hold. This is a bold examination of contemporary spirituality that will appeal to academics and scholars of religious studies, new religious movements and the sociology of religion.