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    Religion or Ethnicity?
    Jewish Identities in Evolution

    Zvi Gitelman (Edited by), Zvi Gitelman (Contributions by), Yaron Eliav (Contributions by), Gabriele Boccaccini (Contributions by), Miriam Bodian (Contributions by), Steven Nadler (Contributions by), David Fishman (Contributions by), Scott Spector (Contributions by), Todd Endelman (Contributions by), Julian Levinson (Contributions by), Charles Liebman (Contributions by), Yaacov Yadgar (Contributions by), Mark Tessler (Contributions by), Shachar Pinsker (Contributions by), Calvin Goldscheider (Contributions by), Adam Chalom (Contributions by)

    9780813544519

    Paperback / softback, published 5 May 2009

    416 pages, 1
    22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.51 kg

    "This extensive array of intensive historical and contemporary analyses of Judaism and Jewishness is a valuable contribution to the understanding of what it means to be Jewish."
    - Chaim I. Waxman (Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Jewish Studies, Rutgers University)
    "We live in an age not only of fluid identities and shifting identities, but of contested identities as well. This extraordinary collection of eminently readable scholarly articles spans centuries of Jewish life, and offers an insightful, stimulating and provocative look at Jews' ongoing struggle with defining their identities. Religion? Ethnicity? Both? Neither? The answers, as we learn, depend not only on whom you ask-but when and where-and who does the asking."
    - Steven M. Cohen (author of The Jew Within: Self, Family, and Community in America)
    "A provocative and important volume. The book elucidate[s] how the definition of the Jewish people has evolved over the centuries and has changed at different times in different places. Highly recommended."
    (Choice)
    "This extensive array of intensive historical and contemporary analyses of Judaism and Jewishness is a valuable contribution to the understanding of what it means to be Jewish."
    - Chaim I. Waxman (Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Jewish Studies, Rutgers University)
    "We live in an age not only of fluid identities and shifting identities, but of contested identities as well. This extraordinary collection of eminently readable scholarly articles spans centuries of Jewish life, and offers an insightful, stimulating and provocative look at Jews' ongoing struggle with defining their identities. Religion? Ethnicity? Both? Neither? The answers, as we learn, depend not only on whom you ask-but when and where-and who does the asking."
    - Steven M. Cohen (author of The Jew Within: Self, Family, and Community in America)
    "A provocative and important volume. The book elucidate[s] how the definition of the Jewish people has evolved over the centuries and has changed at different times in different places. Highly recommended."
    (Choice)

    Can someone be considered Jewish if he or she never goes to synagogue, doesn't keep kosher, and for whom the only connection to his or her ancestral past is attending an annual Passover seder?

    In Religion or Ethnicity? fifteen leading scholars trace the evolution of Jewish identity. The book examines Judaism from the Greco-Roman age, through medieval times, modern western and eastern Europe, to today. Jewish identity has been defined as an ethnicity, a nation, a culture, and even a race. Religion or Ethnicity? questions what it means to be Jewish. The contributors show how the Jewish people have evolved over time in different ethnic, religious, and political movements. In his closing essay, Gitelman questions the viability of secular Jewishness outside Israel but suggests that the continued interest in exploring the relationship between Judaism's secular and religious forms will keep the heritage alive for generations to come.

    Jewish religion, Jewish ethnicity: the evolution of Jewish identities / Zvi Gitelman
    Secularism, hellenism, and rabbis in antiquity / Yaron Eliav
    What is a Judaism?: perspectives from Second Temple Jewish studies / Gabriele Boccaccini
    Crypto-Jewish criticism of tradition and its echoes in Jewish communities / Miriam Bodian
    Spinoza and the origins of Jewish secularism / Steven Nadler
    Yiddish schools in America and the problem of secular Jewish identity / David Fishman
    Beyond assimilation: introducing subjectivity to German-Jewish history / Scott Spector
    Jewish self-identification and West European categories of belonging from the Enlightenment to World War II / Todd Endelman
    People of the (secular) book: literary anthologies and the making of Jewish identity in postwar America / Julian Levinson
    Secular-Jewish identity and the condition of secular Judaism in Israel / Charles Liebman and Yaacov Yadgar
    Beyond the religious-secular dichotomy: masortim in Israel / Charles Liebman and Yaacov Yadgar
    What kind of Jewish state do Israelis want?: the nature and determinants of Israeli attitudes toward secularism and some comparisons with Arab attitudes toward the relationship between religion and politics / Mark Tessler
    The construction of 'secular' and 'religious' in modern Hebrew literature / Shachar Pinsker
    Jewish identity and secularism in post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine / Zvi Gitelman
    Judaism, community, and Jewish culture in American life: continuities and transformations / Calvin Goldscheider
    Beyond apikorsut: a Judaism for secular Jews / Adam Chalom
    The nature and viability of Jewish religious and secular identities / Zvi Gitelman
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