Judah Magnes: Binationalism as Political Theology
A reminder of a sacred myth
Welcome the stranger. Defend democracy. And defend ourselves.
Some perhaps surprising initial thoughts about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
An Interview with Amos Oz on Literature, Judaism and Zionism
A conversation with the Israeli author Amos Oz, conducted on November 12th in the guesthouse of the Hamburg Senate, upon receiving the first Siegfried-Lenz Prize.
NF: Bruchim Habaim leHamburg! -- Welcome to Hamburg!
AO: Thank you very much. Being the first recipient of the Siegfried Lenz literary award is a great honor ...
Israelis in Berlin and The Elephant in the Room
Notes on migration, pudding, an island economy, and frustrating metaphors (with cream on top)
“Fight from Tel Aviv, not from Berlin,” demanded former Minister of Immigrant Absorption Uzi Baram in Haaretz, while the New York Times featured the infantile (or “still adolescent”) Israeli society as the center of frustration for many Israelis now clamoring to Berlin because of the impossible price of living. The coverage of ...
Gray is Beautiful: Israel/Palestine, Turkey/Kurdistan
Israel and the Jewish Diaspora
In 1990 the scholar David Vital wrote how Jews in the Diaspora and Jews in Israel were heading in different directions. For better or for worse, this observation is proving to be increasingly accurate. For many Diaspora Jews, however, this direction of travel is undesirable. There exists a strong bond ...
A Response to Goldfarb’s Review Article on “Theocratic Democracy” by Nachman Ben Yehuda
The Social Condition: Religion and Politics in Israel
Once I commit myself to a new theoretical project, I start realizing how my reading can illuminate it. Sometimes this involves a concerted effort. Thus these days I am re-reading Georg Simmel with an intuition that he can be a key theoretical guide in understanding the social condition. ...
Ariel Sharon (1928 – 2014)
Reflecting on the myth of a Zionist martyr and the reportage in Israel and beyond
Ariel Sharon was perhaps the last Israeli soldier-statesman whose life was framed with the Zionist myth of martyrology. Although there surely is no shortage of commanders who are mythical figures and became politicians in contemporary Israel, Sharon joins an exclusive club of those mythic figures of men in the history ...