The Emergence of Modern Jewish Politics examines the political, social, and cultural dimensions of Zionism and Bundism, the two major political movements among East European Jews during the first half of the twentieth century.While Zionism achieved its primary aim—the founding of a Jewish state—the Jewish Labor Bund has not only practically disappeared, but its ideals of socialism and secular Jewishness based in the diaspora seem to have failed. Yet, as Zvi Gitelman and the various contributors to this volume argue, it was the Bund that more profoundly changed the structure of Jewish society, politics, and culture.In thirteen essays, prominent historians, political scientists, and professors of literature discuss the cultural and political contexts of these movements, their impact on Jewish life, and the reasons for the Bund's demise, and they question whether ethnic minorities are best served by highly ideological or solidly pragmatic movements.

The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature argues that the institution of the yeshiva and its ideals of Jewish textual study played a seminal role in the resurgence of Hebrew literature in modern times. Departing from the conventional interpretation of the origins of Hebrew literature in secular culture, Marina Zilbergerts points to the practices and metaphysics of Talmud study as its essential animating forces. Focusing on the early works and personal histories of founding figures of Hebrew literature, from Moshe Leib Lilienblum to Chaim Nachman Bialik, The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature reveals the lasting engagement of modern Jewish letters with the hallowed tradition of rabbinic learning.

The path toward modern Jewish politics, a process that required a dramatic reconstruction of Jewish life, may have emerged during a far earlier time frame and in a different geographic and cultural context than has previously been thought. Drawing upon current sociological understanding of social movements, this book places the 1827 organized protest in London as an integral part of a transnational social movement continuum—similar to the abolitionist and women’s rights movements—that waxed and waned throughout the 19th century. From its early origins in London in 1827, to Montefiore’s gallant style of leadership in the Middle East, to the rise of the "Mourning March" and street processions of the early twentieth-century, and then on to the civil disobedience of the 1980s, the movement evolved, shifted its contentious center from England to the United States, and adapted to a dramatically altered post-Holocaust environment. This multifaceted and often fractious campaign was never monolithic by nature and was often rife with internal disputes. It ran the gamut between stirring accomplishments and mobilizations that fell far short of expectations. Any attempt to view the lengthy series of international protests as a steady progression of liberality and advancement would be at odds with a far more ambiguous reality. The Rise of Modern Jewish Politics argues that the numerous protest insurgences strengthened Jewish participation in the public sphere and further defined a public political culture. While the movement certainly evolved through the decades, the core values that first arose in London were retained during the course of several contentious cycles that later surfaced both in Britain and the United States. This book utilizes an innovative interpretive framework to formulate a new paradigm of how Jews entered the modern world. The struggle for Jewish rights remains one of the most enduring social movements in modern history.

It was not until the emergence of the ideologies of Zionism and Socialism at the end of the last century that the Jewish communities of the Diaspora were perceived by historians as having a genuine political life. In the case of the Jews of Russia, the pogroms of 1881 have been regarded as the watershed event which triggered the political awakening of Jewish intellectuals. Here Lederhendler explores previously neglected antecedents to this turning point in the history of the Jewish people in the first scholarly work to examine concretely the transition of a Jewish community from traditional to post-traditional politics.

The first anthology of modern Middle Eastern Jewish thought

According to a commonplace narrative, the rise of modern political thought in the West resulted from secularization—the exclusion of religious arguments from political discourse. But in this pathbreaking work, Eric Nelson argues that this familiar story is wrong. Instead, he contends, political thought in early-modern Europe became less, not more, secular with time, and it was the Christian encounter with Hebrew sources that provoked this radical transformation. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Christian scholars began to regard the Hebrew Bible as a political constitution designed by God for the children of Israel. Newly available rabbinic materials became authoritative guides to the institutions and practices of the perfect republic. This thinking resulted in a sweeping reorientation of political commitments. In the book’s central chapters, Nelson identifies three transformative claims introduced into European political theory by the Hebrew revival: the argument that republics are the only legitimate regimes; the idea that the state should coercively maintain an egalitarian distribution of property; and the belief that a godly republic would tolerate religious diversity. One major consequence of Nelson’s work is that the revolutionary politics of John Milton, James Harrington, and Thomas Hobbes appear in a brand-new light. Nelson demonstrates that central features of modern political thought emerged from an attempt to emulate a constitution designed by God. This paradox, a reminder that while we may live in a secular age, we owe our politics to an age of religious fervor, in turn illuminates fault lines in contemporary political discourse.

"Black Power, Jewish Politics expands with this revised edition that includes the controversial new preface, an additional chapter connecting the book's themes to the national reckoning on race, and a foreword by Jews of Color Initiative founder Ilana Kaufman that all reflect on Blacks, Jews, race, white supremacy, and the civil rights movement"--