Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Religion, and Government

Books on Israel, Volume IV

Edited by Kevin Avruch & Walter P. Zenner

Subjects: Sociology
Series: SUNY series in Israeli Studies
Paperback : 9780791432549, 229 pages, December 1996
Hardcover : 9780791432532, 229 pages, December 1996

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Table of contents

Introduction
Walter P. Zenner and Kevin Avruch

PART I: THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

1. Water in the Arab-Israeli Struggle: Conflict or Cooperation?
Ofira Seliktar

2. Dialogue and National Consensus in the Pre-Madrid Period: Dilemmas of Israeli and Palestinian Peace Activists
Mohammed Abu-Nimer

PART II: SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT

3. Neighborhood Renewal through the Establishment and through Protest
Efraim Ben-Zadok

4. Israeli Courts and Cultural Adaptation
Samuel Krislov

5. Modern Jerusalem: Politics, Planning, People
Jeff Halper

PART III: RELIGION

6. Sephardic Religious Thought in Israel: Aspects of the Theology of Rabbi Haim David HaLevi
Zvi M. Zohar

7. Remembering the Sages of Aram Soba (Aleppo)
Walter P. Zenner

8. Localizing Israeli Judaism
Kevin Avruch

PART IV: LITERATURE AND CULTURE

9. Israeli Military Leadership During the Yom Kippur War: Reflections on the Art of Reflection
Pnina Lahav

10. Sifrut HaMa'abarah (Transit Camp Literature): Literature of Transition
Nancy E. Berg

11. Historical Memory: Israeli Cinema and Literature in the 1980s and 1990s
Nurith Gertz

Notes on Contributors

Original review essays that provide critical commentary on recently published books and films on Israeli society, culture, politics, and religion.

Description

This book is part of a series of review volumes sponsored by the Association for Israel Studies that provides a framework for discussion of research and scholarship on all aspects of Israeli society. It brings together original review essays commenting on issues in Israeli society, culture, politics, religion, literature, and film. The authors' evaluations of recently published books go beyond critical commentary on the works themselves to include the state of scholarship and social conditions. Among the issues addressed are the conflict over water resources, the human dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, local governance, and the court system. The book provides reviews and commentary, not only on scholarly works but also on memoirs of military leaders at the time of the Yom Kippur war, Sephardi novels on the shock of immigration and on Israeli orthodox Judaism, and politically oriented cinema and literature of the 1980s and 1990s.

Kevin Avruch is Professor and Coordinator of Anthropology at George Mason University. He is the author of American Immigrants in Israel: Social Identities and Change and coeditor of Conflict Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Walter P. Zenner is Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York, Albany. He is the author of Minorities in the Middle: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, editor of Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience, and co-editor of Critical Essays on Israeli Social Issues and Scholarship: Books on Israel, Volume III, all published by SUNY Press. He also is the editor of the SUNY Press series in Anthropology and Judaic Studies.

Reviews

"This volume is unique in two ways: it covers a variety of disciplines—political science, history, sociology, anthropology, literature, and cultural studies—and it reviews the recent literature in these areas. Still, it maintains a distinct sense of integration. Experts and non-experts alike want to keep abreast of what's being written about Israel. This volume provides a means to do so." — James D. Armstrong, State University of New York, Plattsburgh