Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Jewish Studies Quarterly
Angaben zur Quelle:
27,3 (2020) 261-277
Keywords:
Jews Election, Doctrine of
;
Zionism
;
Philosemitism
;
Jewish nationalism
;
Israel Foreign public opinion
Abstract:
Claims of uniqueness or exceptionalism play a complex role in the discussion on Israel, Zionism, and contemporary Jewish existence. The attempt to describe the political situation in Israel/Palestine in universal terms never fails to lead, paradoxically, to Israel's structural exceptionalism. Lack of treatment of Israel's exceptionalism bars any ability to explain the most basic characteristics of the political situation in which we find ourselves – including the exceptional endurance of the Israeli Occupation.
Abstract:
Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism, is largely portrayed in the research literature as a committed or even radical secularist. In this view, it was his successor as leader of the movement, Menachem Begin, who brought a pro-religious dimension into right-wing Zionist ideology, a combination that continues to be influential today in Israel's ruling party, Likud. This essay argues that, while Jabotinsky was and remained alienated from traditional observance, his attitude toward religious – as spirituality, or religiosity – and its role in national societies began to change in the 1930s. The metamorphosis was spurred by the rise of racism and prejudice in European national movements. Jabotinsky came to believe that religious values needed to be understood, and could be used, as a spiritual moor to bolster the human spirit, and instill moral and liberal values.
Description / Table of Contents:
Shilon, Avi. More than poetry and music - how and why the secular Jabotinsky adopted religiosity as a solution to the crisis of the liberal; response to Ofri Ilany, "Singling out - towards progressive politics of chosenness". Ibid. 278-297.
DOI:
10.1628/jsq-2020-0018
URL:
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