Zionism and Judaism
Subtitle: a new theory
By: David Novak
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 254
ISBN-13: 9781107099951; 9781107492714; 9781316237441
Subjects: Zionismus; Zionism and Judaism; Judentum
Description: "Why should anyone be a Zionist, a supporter of a Jewish state in the land of Israel? Why should there be a Jewish state in the land of Israel? This book seeks to provide a philosophical answer to these questions. Although a Zionist need not be Jewish, nonetheless this book argues that Zionism is only a coherent political stance when it is intelligently rooted in Judaism, especially in the classical Jewish doctrine of God's election of the people of Israel and the commandment to them to settle the land of Israel. The religious Zionism advocated here is contrasted with secular versions of Zionism that take Zionism to be a replacement of Judaism. It is also contrasted with versions of religious Zionism that ascribe messianic significance to the State of Israel, or which see the main task of religious Zionism to be the establishment of an Israeli theocracy"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: 1. Why Zionism?; title: Introduction; title: Political rhetoric; title: Psychological motivation; title: Jewish celebration/Jewish commemoration; title: Reasons of the commandments; title: Four kinds of Jews; title: Four kinds of non-Jews; title: 2. Was Spinoza the first Zionist?; title: Ben-Gurion and Spinoza; title: Spinzoa's inversions of classical Jewish theology; title: The Proto-Zionists statement; title: Spinoza's Old-New Judaism; title: Spinoza and the Zionist dilemma; title: 3. Secular Zionism: Political or cultural?; title: Secular zionism; title: Political zionism; title: Cultural zionism; title: Hebrew jurisprudence; title: 4. Should Israel be a theocracy?; title: What is theocracy?; title: The primacy of theology; title: 5. Why the Jews and why the land of Israel?; title: God chooses Israel; title: God chooses the land of Israel; title: 6. Can the state of Israel be both Jewish and democratic?; title: Jewish religion and secular law; title: The problem with current Israeli secularism; title: Principled agreement; title: Whose democracy?; title: Divinely sanctioned secularity; title: Authentic Jewish secularity; title: The commandment to acquire and settle the land; title: A communal obligation; title: Human volition; title: 7. What could be the status of non-Jews in a Jewish state?; title: Rethinking the status of non-Jews; title: The resident-alien; title: The equalization of civil rights; title: Potential Jews; title: Non-Jewish autonomy; title: Right and might; title: 8. What is the connection between the Holocaust and the state of Israel?; title: Historical and political sequences; title: Holocaust theologies; title: Messianic theologies; title: Theory and Praxis; title: Another Messianism.