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How Jewish is the state of Israel?
By
Mohammad Siddique Seddon
Introduction
It [Israel] will foster the
development of the country for
the benefit of all inhabitants;
it will be based on freedom,
justice and peace as envisaged
by the Prophets of Israel; it
will ensure complete equality of
social and political rights to
all its inhabitants irrespective
of religion, race or sex; it
will guarantee freedom of
religion, conscience, language,
education and culture; it will
safeguard the Holy Places of all
religions; and it will be
faithful to the Charter of the
Unites Nations.
[Declaration of the State of
Israel, 1948][1]
When the state of Israel was
established in the aftermath of
the Second World War, it granted
rights of return to all
dispersed Jews throughout the
world - claiming Palestine as
the Jewish spiritual homeland.
Although a product of Zionism, a
secular political Jewish
movement, the modern state
evoked the teachings of the
ancient Biblical Prophets as the
inspiration for its
self-proclaimed egalitarianism.[2]
For
its national language it adopted
Hebrew; associated with the
Torah and Judaism. But, despite
the inclusion of symbolic
religious motifs into the
identity constructions of the
new state, does this in fact
make Israel Jewish? This
question has produced a plethora
of dichotomous responses, from
those lauding the Jewish
exclusivity of the State to
criticism for not being Jewish
enough. The exhaustive
discussions on this contested
subject are beyond the scope of
this paper; instead the aim is
simply to focus on a few
pertinent points in order to
explore the historical
constructions of Judaism and
Jewishness in the context of the
modern State of Israel.
The Origins of Judaism
Born out of the Israelite faith
(Yahwism) predominantly
from the teachings of Moses, the
Hebrew people or Ibrim
originate either from the
legendary figure, Eber, or from
the fact that they, as Arameans,
migrated from beyond the Great
river (Eber ha-Nahar),
the Euphrates. Perhaps the most
eminent of all the Arameans was
Abraham, considered to be the
founder of the Jewish religion.[3]
Judaism as a distinct religio-ethnic
phenomenon, however, does not
appear until the split of the
Israelites into two distinct
kingdoms within the Semitic
lands after the time of Solomon.
In the North, the Kingdom of
Israel was created culminating
with Samaria established as its
capital; the South saw the
emergence of the Kingdom of
Judah (Judea).[4]
After the Babylonians defeated
the Southern Kingdom around 586
BC, Solomon’s Temple, which was
within the domain of the Kingdom
of Judea, was demolished and the
elite of the Southern Kingdom
were taken into exile in
Babylonia.[5]
The invasion of the Babylonians,
under Nebuchadnezzar, was seen
by the Judeans as punishment for
breaking the Covenant with God
after entering the Promised Land
under the guidance of Moses
(Deuteronomy, 1: 35-5). Despite
a succession of prophets and
reformers, the nation had
remained unfaithful. Jeremiah
beseeched the people to repent
but, as Ninian Smart comments,
his call remained unanswered
and, inevitably, the destruction
of the land was assured.[6]
It was not until the
Persian leader, Cyrus the Great,
in 538 BC ordered the
restoration of the Temple that
the Judeans exiled in Babylonia
were permitted back into
Jerusalem. Ezra, their sage,
reinstituted the teachings of
the Torah and undertook the
reformation of the people who
had remained in Jerusalem.
Temple worship was
re-established along with
fasting and the observance of
Shabbat. Ezra’s reforms in
the fourth century BC brought in
the Judeans from the other
regions of the Diaspora, namely
Babylonia and Egypt. This
convergence saw a conglomeration
of various interpretations of
Hebrew traditions, all born out
of the oral Torah handed down
from the teachings of Moses. It
is at this point that we begin
to see the origins of Rabbinical
Judaism.[7]
Although Ezra is attributed with
the re-establishment of the
Temple at Jerusalem, the
disintegration of the Northern
Kingdom of Israel is held in
contrast to the continuance of
Hebrew tradition within the
Southern Kingdom of Judea, which
claimed descent from David.
Hence, Cecil Roth concludes that
the political and spiritual
identity of the Northern Kingdom
waned as the influence of the
Kingdom of Judea took prominence
in the character and national
consciousness of the emerging
New Israel.[8]
However, whilst it might be
argued that Judaism derives from
the religion developed among the
Hebrews of the Kingdom of Judea,
we could equally contend that
Judaism is located in the
ancient traditions of the
Semitic peoples existing as a
nation in Judea (Palestine) from
6 BC to 1 CE. The contending
historical interpretations
present two definitions of
Judaism; one based on religion,
the other on race. In other
words, in relation to historical
constructions of Judaism there
are two fundamental questions:
who is a Jew? And, what is a
Jew? - a dialectic that has been
explored in an interesting and
detailed discussion by Manfred
Vogel.[9]
The implications of the
dual definitions of Judaism are
essential to understanding the
national identity constructions
of the modern State of Israel,
particularly in relation to the
question of its perceived
Jewishness.
For example, if Judaism is
primarily a religion, then the
validity of Israel’s sovereignty
and legitimacy rests on its
religious scriptural edicts.
That is, the where, why, when
and how of Israel should be
established according to the
Biblical text.[10]
If on the other hand, Judaism is
defined racially, how then does
the nation-state determine and
define its national identity
particularly in terms of
citizenship, the inclusion and
rights of indigenous, ethnic and
religious others and their Human
Rights? Some suggest that
Judaism is a combination of both
religion and race, firstly as a
religion based on the teachings
of the ancient prophets
descending from Abraham and
Moses. This is manifested
through the Scripture and laws
of one God by revelatory means
of a Covenant, the adherence to
which is fulfilled in Gods
promise of land - The Kingdom.
And, secondly, as a nation born
out of the Semitic races
principally emanating from
ancient Judea or Palestine, who
are historically linked to the
revelatory Covenant and promise
of God, hence, the formulation
of people and land.[11]
The connection of people and
land is intrinsic to modern day
Judaism and, perhaps more
importantly, to the State of
Israel’s historical claim as a
sovereign nation-state. However
Gods promise of land, kingdom or
state is conditional to the
people’s religious fidelity and
adherence to their oath. In
Hebrew these terms are known as
Teshuvah (returning to
righteousness) and Geulah
(redemption through Zion, the
Promised Land).[12]
It could be argued that
the religion or race debate is
both over-simplified and
reductionist. The reality is
that Judaism has been largely
shaped by diasporic and exilic
Jewish experiences that reflect
the diverse civilisations and
different cultures of historical
settlements. The Hellenisation
and Romanisation of the Jews are
two classic examples.[13]
However, whilst it is true that
the diaspora has impacted on
Judaism, resulting in a
religious pluralism and
diversity of doctrines based on
central tenets and teachings, in
recent times the assimilation
disintegration of European Jews
gave birth to political Zionism
as a reassertion of Judaism.
Theodore Herzl (1860-1904), the
person accredited with the birth
of the modern Zionist movement,
conveyed his fears of Jewish
assimilation and appealed to the
national character of historical
Judaism in order to redeem Jews
‘from every degradation’ as a
community that he believed was
‘too noble to make destruction
desirable.’[14]
The fact that Judaism could give
rise to the birth of Zionism as
a political expression outside
of the realm of Messianic
eschatology is perhaps further
evidence of the diversity of
Judaism. However, many Jewish
scholars agree that Judaism is
neither monolithic nor
homogenous and Jacob Neusner’s
explanation of Judaisms is:
Judaic systems that explained
the social order formed by Jews
with an account of a coherent
world-view, way of life, and
theory of the Jews social entity
or the Israel that they
constituted.[15]
As a ‘Judaism’, political
Zionism constructed its own
particular Israel in the form of
a modern secular nation-state.
But then how Jewish is the state
of Israel?
Zionism as Emancipation
The establishment of the Zionist
movement took its inspirations
from the malaise of the
nineteenth-century European Jews
and its desire for the creation
of Zion (the land of Israel).
The situation of European Jews
in that period was that of
polarisation. They were either
socially segregated into
ghettos where their somewhat
introspective Talmudic
observances detached them from
their non-Jewish counterparts,
or they were completely
assimilated into the European
way of life and disconnected
from their own community,
religion, and culture.[16]
These responses were a reaction
to the legacy of intolerance and
oppression of the Jews that had
existed for centuries, manifest
in brutal pogroms
occasionally incited by papal
edicts.[17]
David Vital asserts that
emancipation from the status of
European underclass and a desire
to freely express Jewish beliefs
and traditions, through the
concept of a Jewish homeland,
became possible as a result of
the Enlightenment. He claims
that the Enlightenment’s
draining away of the power of
organised religion to uphold the
traditional forms of authority
made possible an assertion of
Jewish national consciousness.[18]
Zionism as a religious
expression has always been a
part of the Messianic religious
teachings of Judaism and
Geulah represents salvation
for the dispersed Jewish nation
as an eschatological
understanding of Deuteronomy,
30:1-5.[19]
The advent of Geulah is
generally believed to be
preceded by the appearance of
the Mashiach, or the
Anointed One. The chronology of
events, according to Hebrew
tradition, teaches that Zion
will be established only by the
coming of the Mashiach,
who will then gather the
dispersed Israel and lead them
into Zion.[20]
However, the arrival of the
Meshiach is conditional to
Israel’s Teshuvah, only
then will Israel achieve
Geulah Shelemah or ‘complete
redemption’.[21]
Political Zionism, urged on by
the rise of anti-Semitism and
the problem of Jewish
assimilation, wanted to make
religious utopia a political and
social reality. Herzl, the son
of a Hungarian Rabbi, was a
prolific mobiliser and
proselytiser for the creation of
a Jewish homeland, which he
perceived as a solution to the
Jewish question.[22]
He was disturbed by the
devastating effects of
secularisation and assimilation
on Judaism and the dispersed
Jewish people. As a result, he
saw political Zionism as an
ideological alternative to
Messianic emancipation.[23]
Thus, the World Zionist
Organisation that he and
like-minded others established
transformed their Jewish
nationalism[24]
in order to appeal to religious
Jews holding Messianic beliefs.
Ben Halpern claims this
transformation was achieved,
firstly, by actively assisting
Jews from the Diaspora in
turning to Israel; secondly, by
not proposing any new Judaism or
opposing any religious
expressions; thirdly, the
Zionists insisted on a rational
solution to the problem of
Jewish exile, presented as a
re-affirmation of the religious
eschatology that had largely
been abandoned as a myth or
disregarded by western Jews.
Finally, they emphasized an
equal regard for the Hebrew
language and Jewish religious
education as traditional forms
of Jewish culture.[25]
Herzl’s Zionists, however, were
unable to convince all Jewish
factions that a Jewish homeland
through a secular state was a
workable solution to their
religio-ethnic and cultural
problems. Despite some
opposition, the first Zionist
Congress was held in Basel in
1897 and was eventually able to
enlist the help of many wealthy
western Jews including the
banker, Baron Edmund de
Rothschild, whilst also evoking
the sympathies of western
politicians and leaders.[26]
The
organisation
debated at length where the
location of the new Jewish state
would be: Uganda, Argentina, or
Palestine. But
Herzl
had previously written that,
‘Palestine is our unforgettable
historic homeland’.[27]
However, Palestine was then
ruled by the Turks and the
Sultan had already limited
Jewish immigration into the
region.[28]
Herzl made an open bid to the
Caliph by offering to bankroll
the failing Ottoman Empire
saying:
If His Majesty the Sultan were
to give us Palestine, we could,
in return, undertake the
complete management of the
finances of Turkey.[29]
The offer was swiftly and
flatly declined. However,
fortunes changed after the First
World War, when Palestine came
under the rule of the British
government as a result of the
Arabs (who were British Allies)
revolting against their Turkish
leaders. As anti-Semitism raged
through Western Europe, the rise
of National Socialism gave birth
to Germany’s Nazi Party,
eventually leading to the
formation of a fascist state.
The diabolical rise of Nazism
witnessed the most atrocious
acts of genocide and the Jews
received the brunt of Hitler’s
ethnic cleansing of Europe. A
Nazi holocaust ensued whilst
Europe waged war. Alexander
contends that the massacre of
millions of European Jews was
another demonstration of the
urgency of solving the problem
of its homelessness by
re-establishing in Eretz
Israel the Jewish state.[30]
Jewish immigration into
Palestine increased and civil
unrest between the new settlers
and the indigenous Arabs
escalated as the Zionists
continued their political
lobbying for a Jewish homeland.
By 1937, a form of partition was
enforced by the governing
British, effectively a precursor
to the Jewish state, splitting
the two Semitic communities
(Jews and Arabs) by creating two
satellite states.[31]
This mandate was preceded by the
Balfour Declaration of November
1917, which called upon the
British government to recognise
the Trans-Jordan (land west of
the River Jordan) as a national
home for the Jewish people.[32]
In November 1947, the United
Nations General Assembly passed
a resolution calling for the
establishment of a Jewish state
in Palestine and on the 15th May
1948, the State of Israel was
declared.[33]
Political Zionism had superseded
the aspirations of centuries of
Jewish dispersion and, although
the Messiah had not come,
for many the Messianic era had
begun and the Jews finally had
their state.
Israel:
between Secularism and Judaism
It would appear that Herzl’s
vision of a model state was as
much inspired by the class
struggle of revolutionary
Russian peasants as by the
aspirations of dispersed and
assimilated Western Jews. The
spread of socialism ran parallel
to the emergence of Zionism in
the nineteenth century and many
Jews were not only influenced by
socialism, but were actively
engaged in the Socialist
Revolution. Although Herzl’s
political ideas were mild,
progressive and largely based on
state and democratic socialism,[34]
Vital asserts that convergence
of these two ideologies did
occur and the needs of the
Zionists were sympathetic to the
all-Russian revolutionary
struggle.[35]
Although ideologically it may be
argued that Herzl’s dream for a
Jewish homeland relied less upon
the tenets of Judaism than it
did on the principles of
Socialism, it is true that the
state of Israel has provided an
ideological and political
identity for Jews globally.
However, the secular socialist
principles fall short of
fulfilling Talmudic law as a
complete way of life but Herzl
had mused positively about the
creation of a Jewish state
inspired by the recent creation
of the revolutionary Soviet
State; he commented,
To create a new sovereign state
is neither ridiculous nor
impossible. We have seen it
happen in our own day, among
peoples who were not largely
middle class as we are, but
poorer, less educated, and hence
weaker than ourselves.[36]
These secular influences perhaps
shaped the laws of the State of
Israel as identified in its
Declaration (1948) which, whilst
clearly defining Israel as a
Jewish state, also states that:
It [Israel] will foster the
development of the country for
the benefit of all inhabitants;
it will be based on freedom,
justice and peace as envisaged
by the Prophets of Israel; it
will ensure complete equality of
social and political rights to
all its inhabitants irrespective
of religion, race or sex; it
will guarantee freedom of
religion, conscience, language,
education and culture; it will
safeguard the Holy Places of all
religions; and it will be
faithful to the Charter of the
Unites Nations.[37]
Orthodox Jews holding
Messianic beliefs would perhaps
be even less inclined to a
kingdom without a king that not
only recognized the beliefs of
religious others but also the
sanctity of those who preferred
atheism. Reform Jews; however,
appear to be more accepting of
the secular Jewish state and
Michael Prior asserts that
whilst Jewish religious
establishments were initially
reticent in embracing Zionism,
today it fully supports its
achievements. He cites Chief
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks as stating
that ‘Israel is the most
powerful collective expression
of Jewry and the most
significant development in
Jewish life since the
Holocaust’.[38]
Prior also points us to the
contradiction of the idealism of
Israel’s egalitarianism, cited
in its Declaration, and the
actual reality in respect of its
now displaced indigenous
Palestinian people. Further, he
sees the destruction of Arab
villages and the continued
disproportionate use of force
through wars and military
operations as state terrorism.[39]
Prior’s criticism of Israel’s
failure to implement its
Declaration of State Principles;
egalitarianism based on basic
human rights, highlights
Israel’s problems as a
multicultural, multi-ethnic and
religiously plural society. In
addition to the existence of
cosmopolitan and multi-diverse
communities already indigenous
to the region before the
creation of Israel, the influx
of Russian, American, western
European, African, Middle
Eastern and Indian Jews has
added extra tension to the
regions fragile ethno-religious
balance. Each new migrant
sub-group has brought a
diversity of ‘Judaisms’ and the
hope of creating a monolithic
national Judaism from the
converging traditions will
perhaps depend on how Israel
accommodates religious
multiplicity in a modern secular
setting. The first edict of the
State of Israel’s law is the
principle of Oleh
(immigration) as a right for
every Jew. However, as a result
of their exile experiences, the
immigrant Jewish communities to
Israel are either advantaged or
disadvantaged by their relative
cogency of secularism. As
political Zionism was conceived
in a Western secular setting,
European Jews appear as the
advantaged group in Israel.
Western émigré Jews are
generally thought to fit more
readily into the states
socio-political framework
largely because the Judaic
systems they developed in exile
were a response to Europe and
America’s secular environment.
The Sephardim or Oriental Jews
as more traditional communities
emanating from Arabia, Africa
and Asia are less able to
integrate.[40]
This does not mean that other
Judaisms are not entitled to
claim Israel as theirs - rather
they have yet to orientate
themselves within the state.
This is not an easy process, for
example, hundreds of Yemeni
Sanaa’ni Jews along with large
numbers of Ethiopian Falasha
Jews have returned to their
original countries after their
unsuccessful migration attempts.
Is Daniel a Brother?
In a strange circumstance that
required the secular Israeli law
to define a Jew in religious
terms; the Law of Return (1950)
came under scrutiny during the
Brother Daniel case of 1962.[41]
As a Jewish convert to
Christianity, Brother Daniel
applied for nationality under
the Law of Return, raising the
age-old debate of who is and
what is a Jew. Brother Daniel
was indeed a Jew by virtue of
his matriarchal lineage in
accordance with the Law of
Return, Clause 4B, which states
that, for the purposes of this
law, a Jew means a person who
was born of a Jewish mother.[42]
However, because of Brother
Daniels religious conversion his
rights of return and citizenship
were vetoed and consequently
revoked by a judicial verdict.
Brother Daniels case is
interesting and offers a partial
answer to our inquiry of the
Jewishness of the State of
Israel. If Israel is simply a
modern secular state for Jews,
then Brother Daniel would meet
the criteria of Jewish by race
or lineage. However, Clause 4B
continues ‘...or has converted
to Judaism and is not a member
of another religion’.[43]
Judge Silberg, the presiding
judge in the case, revealed some
interesting Talmudic evidence
which from a religious
perspective appears to support
Brother Daniels claim to be
Jewish. One Halakah
edict reads,
For even though he has converted
to another religion he, none the
less remains a Jew, as it is
written, Israel has sinned;
though he has sinned, he remains
a Jew. (Prisha,
Commentary on Tur, ibid.,
note 22.)[44]
Judge Silberg, after
carefully scrutinising
rabbinical laws which included
laws of marriage and divorce,
had to make a clear distinction
between Jewish religious law,
which supported Brother Daniels
claim to be a Jew, and secular
law, which it was ruled denied
his claim. Ironically, Jewish
Rabbinical law ruled that
Jewishness was by blood or race,
rather than by religious
profession, whereas the secular
state law ruled in opposition to
the claimant, instead defining
Jewishness not by ethnic origin,
but by religion. The
implications of the ‘Brother
Daniel’ case is that the
question what is a Jew (vis-à-vis
beliefs) is certainly not the
same as who is a Jew (vis-à-vis
lineage).[45]
Another point of
contention in respect of
Israel’s Jewishness is the issue
of its sovereign borders,
particularly those agreed by the
United Nations (UN) which
excluded specific territories.
The disputed territories were
already within the borders of
existing sovereign states before
the creation of Israel.
However, the designated UN
borders do not correspond to the
ancient Biblical descriptions of
Israel. Although a detailed
archeological discussion falls
outside the parameters of this
paper, we might still raise the
question - how Jewish is today’s
state of Israel in the light of
biblical geography?[46]
The resulting wars with
neighboring states had a
profound effect on Jews living
outside Israel, especially those
who had perhaps never really
identified themselves with the
state of Israel. In particular,
when the Six Day War in 1967
seemed to spell the destruction
of the State of Israel by an
allied-Arab force, American
Jews, who had formed their own
Judaic system unique to
America’s secular political
framework, began to forge strong
sympathetic and supportive links
with Israel.[47]
Before the war, young American
Jews were strangely
introspective and apparently
disconnected from recent Jewish
history. For example, the
Holocaust and the creation of
the state of Israel were events
with which young Jews in America
did not associate.
Nathan Glazer attributes the Six
Day War with the re-awakening of
the American Jews to the idea of
the Land of Israel. Jewish
American youth, whose views
before the war were generally
inclined towards socialism,
realised that promoting such
ideas was in fact
counter-productive to the cause
of Israel. Glazer further
asserts that young Jews less
influenced by the New Left were
torn between their Jewish
feelings and the hostility
towards Israel by the communist
bloc realising they were more
Jewish than they had suspected.[48]
The Jewish feeling soon
transformed into mobilization,
via support of Israel,
anti-Soviet activities and
demonstrations, and large
numbers of Jewish American
immigrations to Israel. A
reaction of extremism was
employed by some young Jews
through militant organisations
like the Jewish Defence League
in which hijackings, bombings,
and assassinations were used as
terror tactics to counteract
Soviet anti-Semitism.[49]
Further, the wave of new
immigrants into Israel from
America saw a resurgence of the
Kibbutz movement. This
movement, seen by many as either
religious fanaticism or extreme
nationalism, has been
responsible for the increased
border tensions, working mostly
in opposition to the Israeli
state in its efforts to expand
Jewish territories.[50]
Thus, it would appear that
whilst the secular Israeli
Government upholds agreements on
disputed borders with other
states, many of its citizens
believe that the state
boundaries should be those of
the biblical description.
Genesis, 15:18, reads, Unto thy
seed I have given this land,
from the River of Egypt unto the
great river, the River
Euphrates. (The Bible also
contains other descriptions of
Israel in, Numbers, 34:2, and,
Ezekiel, 47:15-20.)
As a result of their territorial
activities, the ultra-religious,
nationalist Kibbutzim
believe themselves to be truer
to biblical Israel than the
state itself. Yet it would seem
that their expansionist
aspirations seriously undermine
the peace and security of the
State, which allowed them the
opportunity to settle in the
land of Israel in the first
instance. We might therefore
argue that for the Kibbutzim,
the State of Israel is not
Jewish enough. But, the fact
that Judaism is neither
monolithic nor homogenous has
caused it to continuously
manifest throughout history in
many varied forms and this
prompts some scholars of Judaism
to speak of Judaisms which have
responded to their particular
socio-political environments.
Therefore, at times Judaisms
have retracted into microcosmic
communities, cutting off from
the outside world as a means of
self-preservation. Conversely,
they have interacted
unconditionally whilst
participating fully within the
dominant culture and society.
This, it seems, has been the
historical experience of the
Diaspora - ghetto or
assimilation.
Conclusion
Before the creation of the
Zionist state of Israel, for
most Jewish theological
expressions, emancipation only
occurred with Teshuvah
and Geulah via the
Mashiach. The unifying
eschatology of Judaism is
inextricably linked to the land
and when Jews speak of Israel
they mean both people and land.
Expulsion is the price of
religious infidelity and
impiety, Salvation and
redemption takes the shape of
the Mashiach. Years of
exile for the Jewish people had
led to
mythologizing Israel
- the land. As their diasporic
experiences became increasingly
dire, the hope of mythological
Israel intensified and political
Zionism eventually realized
these aspirations. Europe did
not want the Jews, the Jews did
not want Europe and the Zionist
movement
demythologised
Israel
through an ideological
construction in the form of a
nation-state. But is this
national Jewish homeland
Jewish? If the premise of
multiple forms of Judaism or
Judaisms is accepted then
Zionism, despite its
politicization, can be described
as a Judaism even though in its
early conception of a Jewish
state, it was not overtly
Judaic. However, once the State
of Israel materialized, most
Jews made a spiritual, political
or metaphysical link with it as
the State of Israel declared
itself a Jewish homeland for the
Jewish people. By its own
choosing the state connected
itself to the ancient Jewish
Prophets and established itself
within the Biblical Jewish
homeland. Do these symbolic
claims then make the state of
Israel Jewish? Perhaps the
nearest answer to this question
is: not entirely. This is
because the essential element in
the fulfillment of Israel as a
Promised Land is the Mashiach.
The raised religious
consciousness and awareness of
belonging to a Jewish nation
from around the world is one of
Israel’s achievements. However,
its major failing has been in
the physical gathering of
diaspora Jews into the Zionist
entity of a nation state
homeland. We could therefore
argue that its disputed
existence has actually been a
major contribution to Judaism
globally, but at what price?
Finally, the problem of Israel’s
exclusivity in defining a Jew,
highlighted in the case of
Brother Daniel and its expulsion
of large numbers of indigenous
Palestinians from the land,
gives us a negative view which
reflects a policy of racism.
Through such acts Israel seems
to be saying a land only
of the Jews, only for the
Jews. If Israel is making
ancient Biblical claims for
itself in connection with
Judaism, then how can we as
non-Jews dictate whether it is
or is not? This leaves us to
conclude that the Zionist State
of Israel is only one of
many Judaisms.
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Judaism-Textual Sources for the
Study of Religion, Manchester,
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________________________________________
[1] Cited in Alexander,
Judaism-Textual Sources for the
Study of Religion, 1984, p.166.
[2] Ibid.
[3] See Roth, A history of the
Jews, 1989, pp3-4.
[4] See Smart, The Worlds
Religions, 1989, pp.208-209.
[5] Ibid., p.210.
[6] Ibid., p.211.
[7] Ibid., p.212.
[8] Roth, op. cit., p.36.
[9] Vogel, A Quest for a
Theology of Judaism, 1987,
pp.77-108.
[10] See, Lewittes, Religious
Foundations of the Jewish State,
1977, pp.1-4.
[11] Ibid., p.20.
[12] Ibid., pp.1-4.
[13] See, Weaver, An
Introduction to Christianity,
1991, pp.21-22.
[14] Alexander, Judaism-Textual
Sources for the Study of
Religion, 1984, p.158.
[15] Neusner, Judaism in Modern
Times, 1995, p.2.
[16] Vital, The Origins of
Zionism,1975, p.25.
[17] Ibid., p.24.
[18] Ibid., p.371.
[19] Lewittes, op. cit.,
pp.34-37.
[20] Ibid., pp.38-41.
[21] Ibid., p.3.
[22] Cited in, Alexander, op.
cit., p.160.
[23] Halpern, The Idea of the
Jewish State, 1961, p.15.
[24] Ibid., p.17.
[25] Ibid., p.17.
[26] Vital, op. cit.,
pp.321-331.
[1][27] Cited in, Alexander, op.
cit., p.160.
[28] Vital, op. cit., p.319.
[29] Ibid., p.160.
[30] Italics are mine, Ibid.,
p.165.
[31] Waines, A Sentence in
Exile, 1977, pp.71-84.
[32] Ibid., p.25.
[33] Alexander, op. cit., p.165.
[34] Vital, op. cit., p.316.
[35] Ibid., p.315.
[36] Ibid., p.159.
[37] Cited in, Alexander, op.
cit., p.166.
[38]Cited in, Prior, The Bible
and Colonisation, 1997, p.172.
[39] Ibid., pp.172-173.
[40] See Neusner, op. cit.,
pp.1-18.
[41] Alexander, op. cit., p.168.
[42] Cited in, ibid., p.167.
[43] Cited in, ibid., p.167.
[44] Cited in, ibid., p.169.
[45] See Kassim, in Kayyali,
(ed.), Zionism, Imperialism and
Racism, 1979, pp.109-117.
[46] For a detailed discussion
of this subject, see Isaacs, op.
cit., pp.20-44.
[47] See Neusner, op. cit., p.6.
[48] Glazer, in ibid., p.225.
[49] Ibid., p.226.
[50] See Isaac, op. cit.,
pp.153-157. |