Books by "David O. Freedman"
6 books found
David Ellenson prefaces this fascinating collection of twenty-three essays with a remarkably candid account of his intellectual journey from boyhood in Virginia to the scholarly immersions in the history, thought, and literature of the Jewish people that have informed his research interests in a long and distinguished academic career. Ellenson, President of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, has been particularly intrigued by the attempts of religious leaders in all denominations of Judaism, from Liberal to Neo-Orthodox, to redefine and reconceptualize themselves and their traditions in the modern period as both the Jewish community and individual Jews entered radically new realms of possibility and change. The essays are grouped into five sections. In the first, Ellenson reflects upon the expression of Jewish values and Jewish identity in contemporary America, explains his debt to Jacob Katz's socio-religious approach to Jewish history, and shows how the works of non-Jewish social historian Max Weber highlight the tensions between the universalism of western thought and Jewish demands for a particularistic identity. In the second section, "The Challenge of Emanicpation," he indicates how Jewish religious leaders in nineteenth-century Europe labored to demonstrate that the Jewish religion and Jewish culture were worthy of respect by the larger gentile world. In a third section, "Denominational Responses," Ellenson shows how the leaders of Liberal and Orthodox branches of Judaism in Central Europe constructed novel parameters for their communities through prayer books, legal writings, sermons, and journal articles. The fourth section, "Modern Responsa," takes a close look at twentieth-century Jewish legal decisions on new issues such as the status of woemn, fertility treatments, and even the obligations of the Israeli government towards its minority populations. Finally, review essays in the last section analyze a few landmark contemporary works of legal and liturgical creativity: the new Israeli Masorti prayer book, David Hartman's works on covenantal theology, and Marcia Falk's Book of Blessings. As Ellenson demonstrates, "The reality of Jewish cultural and social integration into the larger world after Emancipation did not signal the demise of Judaism. Instead, the modern setting has provided a challenging context where the ongoing creativity and adaptability of Jewish religious leaders of all stripes has been tested and displayed."
Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee since 1990, shares 20 years of experience with the AJC, including working to help Soviet Jewry and his views on the Middle East, other parts of the world, the Holocaust, human rights, international terrorism, making a better America, and the future of American Jewry. His words on anti-Semitism, unsolved bombings in Argentina, and interfaith relations still resonate. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR
The Odyssey of the Idiots is an autobiography of the author with satirical tones discussing the politics and history that have led America to where it is today. Manuscript’s Strengths • The author uses an educated style and language that will appeal to an educated/scholarly audience. This language sets up the book to be for an educated audience who has some understanding of the topic and wishes to learn more regarding the issues discussed. • Including the glossary of terms in the back of the book was great on the part of the author to provide a tool for readers to fully understand the author’s terminology in the book. It adds a reference for readers to be able to refer to if they need further clarification of terms, which will assist in their better grasping the author’s meanings and message. • The author’s language holds a dramatic and descriptive flair that helps contribute to the engagement of readers in the text. It makes the author’s writing unique and adds something readers may not find elsewhere.
Shared Land/Conflicting Identity: Trajectories of Israeli and Palestinian Symbol Use argues that rhetoric, ideology, and myth have played key roles in influencing the development of the 100-year conflict between first the Zionist settlers and the current Israeli people and the Palestinian residents in what is now Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is usually treated as an issue of land and water. While these elements are the core of the conflict, they are heavily influenced by the symbols used by both peoples to describe, understand, and persuade each other. The authors argue that symbolic practices deeply influenced the Oslo Accords, and that the breakthrough in the peace process that led to Oslo could not have occurred without a breakthrough in communication styles. Rowland and Frank develop four crucial ideas on social development: the roles of rhetoric, ideology, and myth; the influence of symbolic factors; specific symbolic factors that played a key role in peace negotiations; and the identification and value of criteria for evaluating symbolic practices in any society.
The Decline Of The Soviet Union And The Transformation Of The Middle East
by David Howard Goldberg, Paul Marantz, Stephen Page, Stephen Gotowicki
2019 · Routledge
For more than three decades, the Soviet Union was a major force in the Middle East, and superpower rivalry exacerbated many of the conflicts endemic to the region. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union have fundamentally altered the rules of the game in Middle East politics, producing a new fluidity in the region, new diplomatic alignments, and new opportunities for peace. The contributors place recent developments in historical and political context, analyzing changes in Soviet Middle East policy under Gorbachev as well as evaluating developments since the demise of the Soviet Union. The evolution of Moscow's policy toward the Arab states, Israel, the P.L.O., and the U.N. is given special attention. The contributors also examine the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism in the new states of Central Asia and weigh the potential implications of this development for the Middle East. In addition, they discuss security issues related to the transfer of military technology from former Soviet republics to the countries of the Middle East.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the continuing US-Iraqi confrontation, the changing political dynamics in Iran, recent Pakistani-Indian hostilities and Osama bin Laden-all of these have one important common denominator: Significant strands of their origins can be traced to the tumultuous year of 1979. This text offers a new paradigm for stud