Boundaries, Identity and belonging in Modern Judaism

247 Pages·2015·1.55 MB·English

by  Maria Diemling, Larry Ray

Boundaries, Identity and Belonging in
Modern Judaism
The drawing of boundaries has always been a key part of the Jewish tradition
and has served to maintain a distinctive Jewish identity. At the same time, these
boundaries have consistently been subject to negotiation, transgression and con-
testation. The increasing fragmentation of Judaism into competing claims to
membership, from Orthodox adherence to secular identities, has brought striking
new dimensions to this complex interplay of boundaries and modes of identity
and belonging in contemporary Judaism.
Boundaries, Identity and Belonging in Modern Judaism addresses these new
dimensions, bringing together experts in the field to explore the various and fluid
modes of expressing and defining Jewish identity in the modern world. Its inter-
disciplinary scholarship opens new perspectives on the prominent questions
challenging scholars in Jewish Studies. Beyond simply being born Jewish,
observance of Judaism has become a lifestyle choice and active assertion.
Addressing the demographic changes brought by population mobility and ‘mar-
rying out’, as well as the complex relationships between Israel and the Diaspora,
this book reveals how these shifting boundaries play out in a global context,
where Orthodoxy meets innovative ways of defining and acquiring Jewish
identity.
This book is essential reading for students and scholars of Jewish Studies, as
well as general Religious Studies and those interested in the sociology of belong-
ing and identities.
Maria Diemling is Reader in Jewish–Christian Relations at Canterbury Christ
Church University. She has published on early modern Jewish history, Jewish–
Christian relations and, more recently, on food as a marker of identity in con-
temporary Judaism. She is co-e ditor of The Jewish Body (Brill, 2009).
Larry Ray is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. He has published
on globalisation, postcommunism, the sociology of violence and post-H olocaust
Jewish identity and memory. Recent publications include Violence and Society
(Sage, 2011). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Routledge Jewish Studies Series
Series Editor: Oliver Leaman
University of Kentucky
Studies, which are interpreted to cover the disciplines of history, sociology,
anthropology, culture, politics, philosophy, theology, religion, as they relate to
Jewish affairs. The remit includes texts which have as their primary focus issues,
ideas, personalities and events of relevance to Jews, Jewish life and the concepts
which have characterised Jewish culture both in the past and today. The series is
interested in receiving appropriate scripts or proposals.
Medieval Jewish Philosophy Philosophy of the Talmud
An introduction Hyam Maccoby
Dan Cohn- Sherbok
From Synagogue to Church: The
Facing the Other Traditional Design
The ethics of Emmanuel Levinas Its beginning, its definition, its end
Edited by Seán Hand John Wilkinson
Moses Maimonides Hidden Philosophy of Hannah
Oliver Leaman Arendt
Margaret Betz Hull
A User’s Guide to
Franz Rosenzweig’s Star of Deconstructing the Bible
Redemption Abraham ibn Ezra’s introduction to
Norbert M. Samuelson the Torah
Irene Lancaster
On Liberty
Jewish philosophical perspectives Image of the Black in Jewish Culture
Edited by Daniel H. Frank A history of the Other
Abraham Melamed
Referring to God
Jewish and Christian philosophical From Falashas to Ethiopian Jews
and theological perspectives Daniel Summerfield
Edited by Paul Helm
Philosophy in a Time of Crisis
Judaism, Philosophy, Culture Don Isaac Abravanel: defender of the
Selected studies by E. I. J. Rosenthal faith
Erwin Rosenthal Seymour Feldman
Jews, Muslims and Mass Media The Jewish–Chinese Nexus
Mediating the ‘Other’ A meeting of civilizations
Edited by Tudor Parfitt with Edited by M. Avrum Ehrlich
Yulia Egorova
German–Jewish Popular Culture
Jews of Ethiopia before the Holocaust
The birth of an elite Kafka’s kitsch
Edited by Emanuela Trevisan Semi David Brenner
and Tudor Parfitt
The Jews as a Chosen People
Art in Zion
Tradition and transformation
The genesis of national art in Jewish
S. Leyla Gürkan
Palestine
Dalia Manor
Philosophy and Rabbinic Culture
Jewish interpretation and controversy
Hebrew Language and Jewish
in medieval Languedoc
Thought
Gregg Stern
David Patterson
Jewish Blood
Contemporary Jewish Philosophy
Reality and metaphor in history,
An introduction
religion and culture
Irene Kajon
Edited by Mitchell B. Hart
Antisemitism and Modernity
Innovation and continuity Jewish Education and History
Hyam Maccoby Continuity, crisis and change
Moshe Aberbach; edited and
Jews and India translated by David Aberbach
History, image, perceptions
Yulia Egorova Jews and Judaism in Modern China
M. Avrum Ehrlich
Jewish Mysticism and Magic
An anthropological perspective
Political Theologies in the Holy
Maureen Bloom
Land
Israeli Messianism and its critics
Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed
David Ohana
Silence and Salvation
Donald McCallum
Collaboration with the Nazis
The Holocaust and after
Muscular Judaism
Edited by Roni Stauber
The Jewish body and the politics of
regeneration
Todd Samuel Presner The Global Impact of the Protocols
of the Elders of Zion
Jewish Cultural Nationalism A century- old myth
David Aberbach Edited by Esther Webman
The Holocaust and Representations Jewish Women’s Torah Study
of the Jews Orthodox religious education and
History and identity in the museum modernity
K. Hannah Holtschneider Ilan Fuchs
War and Peace in Jewish Tradition Emmanuel Levinas and the Limits
From the Biblical world to the present to Ethics
Edited by Yigal Levin and A critique and a re-a ppropriation
Amnon Shapira Aryeh Botwinick
Jesus Among the Jews
Judaism in Contemporary Thought
Representation and thought
Traces and influence
Edited by Neta Stahl
Agata Bielik-R obson and
God, Jews and the Media Adam Lipszyc
Religion and Israel’s media
Yoel Cohen Jewish Cryptotheologies of Late
Modernity
Rabbinic Theology and Jewish Philosophical Marranos
Intellectual History Agata Bielik-R obson
The Great Rabbi Loew of Prague
Meir Seidler The Ugliness of Moses Mendelssohn
Aesthetics, religion and morality in the
Israeli Holocaust Research eighteenth century
Birth and evolution Leah Hochman
Boaz Cohen
A History of Czechs and Jews
Modern Gnosis and Zionism
A Slavic Jerusalem
The crisis of culture, life philosophy
Martin Wein
and Jewish national thought
Yotam Hotam
Boundaries, Identity and Belonging
The European Jews, Patriotism and in Modern Judaism
the Liberal State 1789–1939 Edited by Maria Diemling and
A study of literature and social Larry Ray
psychology
David Aberbach
Boundaries, Identity and
Belonging in Modern Judaism
Edited by
Maria Diemling and
Larry Ray
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 selection and editorial matter, Maria Diemling and Larry Ray;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial
matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Boundaries, identity and belonging in modern Judaism / edited by Maria
Diemling and Larry Ray.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Jews–Identity. 2. Judaism–21st century. I. Diemling, Maria, editor.
II. Ray, Larry J., editor.
DS143.B75 2016
305.892′4–dc23 2015006432
ISBN: 978-1-138-78643-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76728-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of figures ix
Notes on contributors x
1 Introduction: belonging and identity in modern Judaism 1
LARRY RAY AND MARIA DIEMLING
2 Homeland, exile and the boundaries of Jewish identity 15
DAVID BIALE
3 Varieties of Jewish political identity: notes on Hannah
Arendt’s Jewish writings 31
ROBERT FINE
4 Identity and negotiation of boundaries among young Polish
Jews 48
JOANNA CUKRAS- STELĄGOWSKA
5 Shades of closeness: belonging and becoming in a
contemporary Polish-Jewish Community 63
JAN LORENZ
6 Mimicry, translation and boundaries of Jewishness in the
Soviet Union 76
KLAVDIA SMOLA
7 ‘Which self?’: Jewish identity in the child- centred Holocaust
novel 92
LIA DEROMEDI
8 Reality gaps: negotiating the boundaries of British-Jewish
identities in contemporary fiction 107
RUTH GILBERT
viii Contents
9 Deviance, polyvalence and musical ‘third space’: negotiating
boundaries of Jewishness at Palestinian Hip Hop
performances in the Tel Aviv-Y afo underground 121
MIRANDA CROWDUS
10 ‘Don’t be a stranger’: Giyur as a theologisation of the
boundaries of (Jewish) identity 135
NECHAMA HADARI
11 ‘Hands across the tea’: re- negotiating Jewish identity and
belonging in post- war suburban Britain 148
HANNAH EWENCE
12 ‘I always felt on the edge of things and not really part of it’:
fuzzy boundaries in an extended Scottish-Jewish family 162
FIONA FRANK
13 Probing the boundaries of Jewishness and Israeli identity:
the situation of non- Jewish partners and spouses of Israeli
Jews 177
DANI KRANZ
14 Pushing the boundaries: contemporary Jewish critics of
Israel and Zionism 193
DASHIEL LAWRENCE
15 Conjuring crypto- Jews in New Mexico: violating ethnic,
scholarly and ethical boundaries 208
JUDITH NEULANDER
Index 226
Figures
15.1 Valencia Cathedral (hexagram in rose window) 211
15.2 Felipe de Neri Church (hexagrams in corners) 212
15.3 Lorenzo Baca grave 214
15.4 James Floyd Massey grave 214
15.5 Westinghouse logo 214
15.6 Mystery Rock 215