Dynamic Belonging

Contemporary Jewish Collective Identities

Harvey E. Goldberg, Steven M. Cohen, Ezra Kopelowitz

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9780857452580
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Jewish Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

World Jewry today is concentrated in the US and Israel, and while distinctive Judaic approaches and practices have evolved in each society, parallels also exist. This volume offers studies of substantive and creative aspects of Jewish belonging. While research in Israel on Judaism has stressed orthodox or "extreme" versions of religiosity, linked to institutional life and politics, moderate and less systematized expressions of Jewish belonging are overlooked. This volume explores the fluid and dynamic nature of identity building among Jews and the many issues that cut across different Jewish groupings. An important contribution to scholarship on contemporary Jewry, it reveals the often unrecognized dynamism in new forms of Jewish identification and affiliation in Israel and in the Diaspora.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Tables and Figures
• Preface
• Introduction — Dynamic Jewish Identities: Insights from a Comparative View
• Section I — The Fluid Nature of Jewish Belonging
• Chapter 1 — Religion, Ethnic Identity, and the Sense of Belonging
• Chapter 2 — Conceptual and Pragmatic Aspects of Binarism: Examples from Israeli Society
• Chapter 3 — From Security to Insecurity: British Jewish Communal Leadership in the Context of Multiculturalism
• Chapter 4 — The Jewish Question Again: From Collective Identity to Social Vitality
• Response to Section I — Rethinking Categories and Challenging Futures
• Section II — Diverse Attempts at Constructing Jewish Sub-Cultures in Israel and the United States
• Chapter 5 — Fundamentalist or Romantic Nationalist?: Israeli Modern Orthodoxy
• Chapter 6 — Jewish Identity, Gender, and Religion: Masorti Women and the Feminist Challenge to Traditional Jewish Identity
• Chapter 7 — "Israeli Jews" vs. "Jewish Israelis" and the Ritual Connection to Diaspora Jewry
• Chapter 8 — Engaging the Next Generation of American Jews: Distinguishing the In-Married, Intermarried, and Non-Married
• Response to Section II — Dynamic Belongings of Younger Jews and the Transformation of the Jewish Self
• Section III — Diverse Ways of Connecting to the Jewish People
• Chapter 9 — Constructing Jewish Belonging through Mass Tourism: Self-Narration in Israel Experience Programs
• Chapter 10 — A Jewish and Democratic State?: How American Jews Discuss Israel's Identity Dilemma
• Chapter 11 — In Search of Roots and Routes: The Making and Remaking of the Diasporic Jewish Identity
• Response to Section III — Hummus, Challah, and Gefilte Fish: Israel in Diaspora Jewish Culture
• Afterword — "I'm a Gentile!": Border Dramas and Jewish Continuity
• Bibliography
• Notes on Contributors
• Index