Gandhi, his Grandson, Israel, and the Jews
Gandhi’s grandson says that Israel promotes a “culture of violence”: Shalom Goldman tells the little-known backstory.
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Israel Claims Holy Sites, Reignites Religious Flashpoint
Netanyahu’s decision to declare two holy sites located in the Palestinian Territories and once shared by Jews, Christians, and Muslims “national heritage sites” triggers violence and conflict.
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Na’vi and Goliath: Palestinian Protesters Dress as Avatar Underdogs
Many Israelis and Jews took to Avatar with aplomb, likening it to Kabbalah and turning out in record numbers in Israel. But it remains to be seen how Jews and Israelis will respond to Palestinian protesters who, dressed as the film’s besieged protagonists, aim to position themselves in the hearts of observers as the sympathetic underdogs.
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Israeli Right Demonizes Israeli Left, With American Money
The recent firing of a progressive leader by the Jerusalem Post has lit up the international press. If Israel is entering its own McCarthy era, as many fear, it is not without American support—on both sides. So where’s the American media coverage?
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Excerpt: The Christian Roots of Zionism
20th century Jewish aspirations for a revived national home were supported by three centuries of Christian enthusiasm—bolstered by biblical literalism—for the return of the Jews to “their land.” In this excerpt from the newly-released Zeal for Zion, Shalom Goldman traces the Christian roots of Zionism.
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Letters to the Editors: On Gandhian Nonviolence
Two scholars respond to Shalom Goldman’s essay, “Gandhi, His Grandson, Israel, and the Jews.”
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Oral Roberts, Pioneering Christian Zionist
Famous for his use of TV to spread the message, Oral Roberts—friend of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion—helped to popularize the notion that the newly founded State of Israel was an indication that God still acts in history and that events prophesied in the bible were at hand.
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Changing the Jewish State and the State of Jews: J Street and the Future of Israel
The Israeli ambassador to the US recently joined the American right charging that pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian J Street put the very “survival of the Jewish state” into question. Indeed, recognizing the full humanity of Palestinians would require a radical transformation of Israeli, Zionist, and even Jewish-American identity.
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Jewish Past/Israeli Future: A Review of The Invention of the Jewish People
The reactions to the English-language publication of a book deemed “a scandal” reveal as much about the politics of contemporary Israel (and of its relation to the American Jewish community) as they do about the history the book describes. It’s not that Shlomo Sand believes that the Jews are not the chosen people—he argues that they might not be a people at all.
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Moses on the Mayflower: Was the Prophet a Founding Father?
Author Bruce Feiler is back from “walking the Bible” and is roaming the country, tracing Moses’ footsteps. But in his eagerness to make the prophet into a unifying symbol, he misses the true complexity of the relationship between religion and the secular in America.
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