The invention of the Jewish people / Shlomo Sand ; translated by Yael Lotan.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: Hebrew Publication details: London ; New York : Verso, 2009.Edition: English edDescription: xi, 332 p. ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 1844674223 (hbk.)
  • 9781844674220 (hbk.)
Uniform titles:
  • Matai ṿe-ekh humtsa ha-ʻam ha-Yehudi? English
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 305.8924 22 Sa56i
LOC classification:
  • DS143 .S2313 2009
Partial contents:
Introduction: burdens of memory -- Making nations: sovereignty and equality -- Mythistory: in the beginning, God created the people -- The invention of the exile: proselytism and conversion -- Realms of silence: in search of lost (Jewish) time -- The distinction: identity politics in Israel.
Summary: All modern nation states have a story of their origins, passed down through both official and popular culture, and yet few of these accounts have proved as divisive and influential as the Israeli national myth. The well-known tale of Jewish exile at the hands of the Romans during the first century CE, and the assertion of both cultural and racial continuity through to the Jewish people of the present day, resonates far beyond Israel's borders. Despite its use as a justification for Jewish settlement in Palestine and the project of a Greater Israel, there have been few scholarly investigations into the historical accuracy of the story as a whole. Here, Shlomo Sand shows that the Israeli national myth has its origins in the nineteenth century, rather than in biblical times--when Jewish historians, like scholars in many other cultures, reconstituted an imagined people in order to model a future nation.--From publisher description.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books Tantur Ecumenical Institute Library Main Collection (Lower Floor) 305.8924 Sa56i (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available SS001282802

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: burdens of memory -- Making nations: sovereignty and equality -- Mythistory: in the beginning, God created the people -- The invention of the exile: proselytism and conversion -- Realms of silence: in search of lost (Jewish) time -- The distinction: identity politics in Israel.

All modern nation states have a story of their origins, passed down through both official and popular culture, and yet few of these accounts have proved as divisive and influential as the Israeli national myth. The well-known tale of Jewish exile at the hands of the Romans during the first century CE, and the assertion of both cultural and racial continuity through to the Jewish people of the present day, resonates far beyond Israel's borders. Despite its use as a justification for Jewish settlement in Palestine and the project of a Greater Israel, there have been few scholarly investigations into the historical accuracy of the story as a whole. Here, Shlomo Sand shows that the Israeli national myth has its origins in the nineteenth century, rather than in biblical times--when Jewish historians, like scholars in many other cultures, reconstituted an imagined people in order to model a future nation.--From publisher description.

Translated from the Hebrew.

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