Download or read book Berl The Biography of a Socialist Zionist Berl Katznelson 1887 1944 written by Anita Shapira and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2023-05-06 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A youthful breakaway from the traditional Jewish society of White Russia, Berl Katznelson (1887-1944) emigrated to Palestine [in 1909] during the pioneering spasm of socialist Zionism known as the second aliyah. In the interwar period he helped David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Tabenkin to establish several of Israel’s enduring Labour party frameworks and trade union institutions and thus to bring about socialist Zionism’s early hegemony. Wherein lay the source of Katznelson’s immense authority? What was his particular contribution to the development of the culture and mores of the developing Jewish society of his times? Anita Shapira’s achievement lies both in her subtle presentation of these questions and in her temperate search for the answers... This richly evocative biography... will allow social historians throughout the Western world to appraise a figure who is now becoming justly revered in his own country.” — The American Historical Review “Anita Shapira’s [book] was something of a best seller when it first appeared in Hebrew in 1980 and it is not difficult to understand the reason... Dr Shapira recounts Katznelson’s life in the context of the fluctuating Arab-Jewish relationship and the waverings of mandatory policy; the whole dominated increasingly by the deteriorating Jewish position in Europe. That is what makes this book more than a biography — it is also a contribution to the history of Israel in its formative stage. The present English edition... remains an essential work for the understanding of Zionist and Israeli history.” — The English Historical Review “It is to the credit of Anita Shapira that she has single-handedly rescued Berl Katznelson from oblivion. When her book was first published in Hebrew, it immediately became a best-seller and its author the focus of a great deal of media attention. For good reasons. The book obviously touched a nostalgic nerve in the general public, perhaps a longing for a lost generation of giant idealists. But it could do so — though this was hardly the author’s intention — because it portrayed an unidealized, very human and therefore very real man. It is rare to find an historian Professor Shapira’s caliber, who also has the talents of a novelist... Throughout the book one feels the sure hand of the historian guiding the reader, examining with him the subject of the book from a few angles, employing a variety of techniques and sources (primarily archival), until a fully rounded personality emerges... this volume [is] a well-rounded, sympathetic, yet by no means uncritical analysis of one of the most fascinating figures in Jewish life in the twentieth century.” — Middle Eastern Studies “[T]he first full scholarly life of one of Israel’s founding fathers... The portrait which emerges here is of an attractive leader, whose personality inspired a degree of respect and devotion bordering worship. The author admits the difficulty in pinpointing the sources of Katznelson’s magnetism, but she demonstrates how it infused the varied facets of his socialist politics, which he took to be as much a moral as an organizational calling. In effect, his greatness was in his personification of the conscience of the Jewish labour movement in its formative phase in the interwar years.” — History “This book is an abridged version of a two-volume work in Hebrew, published in 1980. It covers Katznelson’s personal life and political activities in attempting to answer the riddle of his special leadership powers and can serve as an introduction to the study of Labor Zionism in Palestine between 1914 and 1944... this book makes a contribution to discovering the roots of today’s conflicts.” — Middle East Journal

Download or read book Nachman Syrkin Socialist Zionist written by Marie Syrkin and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2018-12-02 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nachman Syrkin (1868-1924) was a political theorist, founder of Labour Zionism and a prolific writer in the Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, German and English languages. In this present volume, which was first published in 1961, his daughter Marie Syrkin reprints translations of some of his more influential essays, and remembers her childhood and youth and the wanderings of her family over the face of the earth at a time not only of danger and suffering, but of adventure and romance and real enjoyment. A lively, engaging read!

Download or read book Converging Alternatives written by Yosef Gorny and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Converging Alternatives provides the first comparative study of the national ideology of two rival Jewish socialist movements: the Bund party and the Zionist Labor movement in Eretz-Israel (Palestine). Yosef Gorny traces the concept of the Jewish nation from the foundation of the Bund and the first Zionist Congress in 1897 until the remains of the Bund decided to join the Jewish local and world institutions in 1985. The following events from those years are covered: the Soviet Revolution, the Balfour declaration, the founding of the Polish Republic, the British Mandate on Palestine, the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, the Jewish-Arab conflict, the Holocaust, and the gradual disappearance of the two movements from the historical stage. This innovative approach to the Bund and Zionist movements helps explain the connection between nationalism and multiculturalism in the Jewish modern tradition.

Download or read book Land and Power The Zionist Resort to Force 1881 1948 written by Anita Shapira and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2023-06-07 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book traces the history of attitudes toward power and the use of armed force within the Zionist movement from an early period in which most leaders espoused an ideal of peaceful settlement in Palestine, to the acceptance of force as a legitimate tool for achieving a sovereign Jewish state. “[A] classic... This brilliant intellectual history by a distinguished Tel Aviv University scholar shows how the exilic Jewish aversion to Machtpolitik shriveled in the crucible of state-building. Mainstream Zionism, which never saw itself as a movement of European usurpers, evolved what Shapira calls a ‘defensive ethos’ under British rule that skirted both compromise and confrontation with the Arabs. It hoped to dull enmity by offering Palestine's Arabs everything as individuals but nothing as a people. But when the proto-intifada of the Arab Revolt erupted in 1936, a new ‘offensive ethos’ recognizing the inevitability of an Arab-Jewish clash and the legitimacy of the sword gained ground among Mandate Palestine's Jews. Shapira's lucid, searching book — a model of historical curiosity and craft — is indispensable for anyone seeking to understand modern Israel, whose sense of its own power coexists painfully alongside a sense of fearful victimhood.” — Foreign Affairs “Shapira succeeds... in presenting more than a one-dimensional intellectual history of the Zionist movement... Displaying her skills as a serious historian and a fine writer, Shapira offers a nuanced and even-handed examination of a variety of elements within the Jewish community based on a rich selection of original sources.” — The Historical Journal “A rich and sophisticated work that nicely complements more conventional political-historical studies of the Arab-Israeli conflict... Shapira sifts through a vast body of material, ranging from essays, poems, and memoir literature to the unpublished minutes of political party and youth group meetings. Shapira interprets these sources with sensitivity and insight. Shapira writes with power, compassion, and warmth... a landmark book that is an outstanding contribution to the history of Zionist political thought and culture.” — American Historical Review “This is a superb book. It is a well-researched, detailed, and scholarly account that provides new and valuable insights into the dilemma posed by the formation and elaboration of a more forceful Israeli military posture.” — The Historian “Shapira’s powerful, well-written... lucid intellectual history of a segment of the Zionist movement... is fascinating and easy to read... highly educational.” — Journal of Economic History “Anita Shapira provides an excellent analysis of the different debates within Zionism during the pre-state period... Altogether, this is an intellectual history of the Zionist Movement well worth reading. It is meticulously researched and analysed, incomparable in terms of depth, and essential for anyone with an interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Zionism and contemporary Jewish history.” — The English Historical Review “[A] comprehensive political history of pre-1948 Palestine... The book is lucidly written, well researched, based on extensive primary and secondary resources. The translation from the Hebrew edition by William Templer is outstanding... this is perhaps the most conceptually sophisticated and thematically integrated work on the Yishuv recently written... Land and Power is a significant and an excellent contribution to our understanding of Zionism and the Yishuv.” — Shofar

Download or read book Ben Gurion written by Anita Shapira and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Ben-Gurion cast an enormous shadow across his world, and his legacy in the Middle East and beyond continues to be hotly debated to this day. There have been many books written about the life and accomplishments of the Zionist icon and founder of modern Israel, but this new biography by eminent Israeli historian Anita Shapira is the first to get to the core of the complex man who would become the face of a new nation. Shapira tells the Ben-Gurion story anew, focusing especially on the period in 1948 immediately following Israel's declaration of independence, a time few historians have concentrated on and none have explored in such intimate detail. Through her intensive research and access to Ben-Gurion's personal archives and rarely viewed documents and letters, the author gained powerful insights into his private persona. Her fascinating literary portrait of David Ben-Gurion bares the flesh-and-blood man inside the influential historical figure who brought the Zionist dream to full fruition.

Download or read book Yosef Haim Brenner written by Anita Shapira and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2014-12-17 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on previously unexploited primary sources, this is the first comprehensive biography of Yosef Haim Brenner, one of the pioneers of Modern Hebrew literature. Born in 1881 to a poor Jewish family in Russia, Brenner published his first story, "A Loaf of Bread," in 1900. After being drafted into the Russian army, he deserted to England and later immigrated to Palestine where he became an eminent writer, critic and cultural icon of the Jewish and Zionist cultural milieu. His life was tragically ended in the violent 1921 Jaffa riots. In a nutshell, Brenner's life story encompasses the generation that made "the great leap" from Imperial Russia's Pale of Settlement to the metropolitan centers of modernity, and from traditional Jewish beliefs and way of life to secularism and existentialism. In his writing he experimented with language and form, but always attempting to portray life realistically. A highly acerbic critic of Jewish society, Brenner was relentless in portraying the vices of both Jewish public life and individual Jews. Most of his contemporaries not only accepted his critique, but admired him for his forthrightness and took it as evidence of his honesty and veracity. Renowned author and historian Anita Shapira's new biography illuminates Brenner's life and times, and his relationships with leading cultural leaders such as Nobel laureate S.Y. Agnon, Hayim Nahman Bialik, Israel's National Poet, and many others. Undermining the accepted myths about his life and his death, his depression, his relations with writers, women, and men—including the question of his homoeroticism—this new biography examines Brenner's life in all its complexity and contradiction.

Download or read book The Founding Myths of Israel written by Zeev Sternhell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-10-07 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The well-known historian and political scientist Zeev Sternhell here advances a radically new interpretation of the founding of modern Israel. The founders claimed that they intended to create both a landed state for the Jewish people and a socialist society. However, according to Sternhell, socialism served the leaders of the influential labor movement more as a rhetorical resource for the legitimation of the national project of establishing a Jewish state than as a blueprint for a just society. In this thought-provoking book, Sternhell demonstrates how socialist principles were consistently subverted in practice by the nationalist goals to which socialist Zionism was committed. Sternhell explains how the avowedly socialist leaders of the dominant labor party, Mapai, especially David Ben Gurion and Berl Katznelson, never really believed in the prospects of realizing the "dream" of a new society, even though many of their working-class supporters were self-identified socialists. The founders of the state understood, from the very beginning, that not only socialism but also other universalistic ideologies like liberalism, were incompatible with cultural, historical, and territorial nationalism. Because nationalism took precedence over universal values, argues Sternhell, Israel has not evolved a constitution or a Bill of Rights, has not moved to separate state and religion, has failed to develop a liberal concept of citizenship, and, until the Oslo accords of 1993, did not recognize the rights of the Palestinians to independence. This is a controversial and timely book, which not only provides useful historical background to Israel's ongoing struggle to mobilize its citizenry to support a shared vision of nationhood, but also raises a question of general significance: is a national movement whose aim is a political and cultural revolution capable of coexisting with the universal values of secularism, individualism, and social justice? This bold critical reevaluation will unsettle long-standing myths as it contributes to a fresh new historiography of Zionism and Israel. At the same time, while it examines the past, The Founding Myths of Israel reflects profoundly on the future of the Jewish State.

Download or read book Rome and Jerusalem written by Moses Hess and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A State at Any Cost written by Tom Segev and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2019 National Jewish Book Award Finalist "[A] fascinating biography . . . a masterly portrait of a titanic yet unfulfilled man . . . this is a gripping study of power, and the loneliness of power." —The Economist As the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion long ago secured his reputation as a leading figure of the twentieth century. Determined from an early age to create a Jewish state, he thereupon took control of the Zionist movement, declared Israel’s independence, and navigated his country through wars, controversies and remarkable achievements. And yet Ben-Gurion remains an enigma—he could be driven and imperious, or quizzical and confounding. In this definitive biography, Israel’s leading journalist-historian Tom Segev uses large amounts of previously unreleased archival material to give an original, nuanced account, transcending the myths and legends that have accreted around the man. Segev’s probing biography ranges from the villages of Poland to Manhattan libraries, London hotels, and the hills of Palestine, and shows us Ben-Gurion’s relentless activity across six decades. Along the way, Segev reveals for the first time Ben-Gurion’s secret negotiations with the British on the eve of Israel’s independence, his willingness to countenance the forced transfer of Arab neighbors, his relative indifference to Jerusalem, and his occasional “nutty moments”—from UFO sightings to plans for Israel to acquire territory in South America. Segev also reveals that Ben-Gurion first heard about the Holocaust from a Palestinian Arab acquaintance, and explores his tempestuous private life, including the testimony of four former lovers. The result is a full and startling portrait of a man who sought a state “at any cost”—at times through risk-taking, violence, and unpredictability, and at other times through compromise, moderation, and reason. Segev’s Ben-Gurion is neither a saint nor a villain but rather a historical actor who belongs in the company of Lenin or Churchill—a twentieth-century leader whose iron will and complex temperament left a complex and contentious legacy that we still reckon with today.

Download or read book A History of the Jews in the Modern World written by Howard M. Sachar and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 924 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The distinguished historian of the Jewish people, Howard M. Sachar, gives us a comprehensive and enthralling chronicle of the achievements and traumas of the Jews over the last four hundred years. Tracking their fate from Western Europe’s age of mercantilism in the seventeenth century to the post-Soviet and post-imperialist Islamic upheavals of the twenty-first century, Sachar applies his renowned narrative skill to the central role of the Jews in many of the most impressive achievements of modern civilization: whether in the rise of economic capitalism or of political socialism; in the discoveries of theoretical physics or applied medicine; in “higher” literary criticism or mass communication and popular entertainment. As his account unfolds and moves from epoch to epoch, from continent to continent, from Europe to the Americas and the Middle East, Sachar evaluates communities that, until lately, have been underestimated in the perspective of Jewish and world history—among them, Jews of Sephardic provenance, of the Moslem regions, and of Africa. By the same token, Sachar applies a master’s hand in describing and deciphering the Jews’ unique exposure and functional usefulness to totalitarian movements—fascist, Nazi, and Stalinist. In the process, he shines an unsparing light on the often widely dissimilar behavior of separate European peoples, and on separate Jewish populations, during the Holocaust. A distillation of the author’s lifetime of scholarly research and teaching experience, A History of the Jews in the Modern World provides a source of unsurpassed intellectual richness for university students and educated laypersons alike.

Download or read book Israel written by Anita Shapira and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2012 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of Israel in the context of the modern Jewish experience and the history of the Middle East

Download or read book Israel s National Historiography written by Alon Helled and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Between Capital and Land written by Eric Engel Tuten and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-08-02 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tuten shows how the Jewish National Fund (JNF) proved to be flexible in its fundraising to obtain its land-purchase objectives during the Second World War. He provides a detailed examination of the Jewish National Fund's internal development and analyses the relationship between JNF's finances and land purchase priorities. A valuable addition to recent re-evaluations of Israeli history and institutions, this book will be of interest to those researching Palestinian history, Jewish and Israeli history and the history of the modern Middle East.

Download or read book The Emergence of American Zionism written by Mark A Raider and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The images of Zionist pioneers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--hard working, brawny, and living off the land--sprang from the ascendent socialist Zionist movement in Palestine known as "Labor Zionism." The building of the Yishuv, a new Jewish society in Palestine, was accompanied by the rapid growth of Zionism worldwide. How did Zionism take shape in the United States? How did Labor Zionism and the Yishuv influence American Jews? Zionism and Labor Zionism had a much more substantial impact on the American Jewish scene than has been recognized. Drawing on meticulous research, Mark A. Raider describes Labor Zionism's dramatic transformation in the American context from a marginal immigrant party into a significant political force. The Emergence of American Zionism challenges many of the prevailing assumptions of Jewish and Zionist history that have held sway for a full generation. It shows how and why American Labor Zionism--"the voice of Labor Palestine on American soil"--played such an important role in formulating the program and outlook of American Zionism. It also examines more generally the impact of Zionism on American Jews, making the case that Zionism's cultural vitality, intellectual diversity, and unparalleled ability to rally public opinion in times of crisis were central to the American Jewish experience.

Download or read book David Ben Gurion and the American Alignment for a Jewish State written by Allon Gal and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the evolution of the demand for a Jewish state into a central and specific aim of Zionist policy and the interrelated process by which Ben-Gurion became increasingly oriented toward the United States and American Jewry at the expense of Zionism's historical connection with Great Britain. Based on new documentary evidence, Allon Gal's study charts Ben-Gurion's ascent from the leadership of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) to prominence in world Zionist and international diplomacy.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society written by Reuven Y. Hazan and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021 with total page 725 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Few countries receive as much attention as Israel and are at the same time as misunderstood. The Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society brings together leading Israeli and international figures to offer the most wide-ranging treatment available of an intriguing country. It serves as a comprehensive reference for the growing field of Israel studies and is also a significant resource for students and scholars of comparative politics, recognizing that in many ways Israel is not unique, but rather a test case of democracy in deeply divided societies and states engaged in intense conflict. The handbook presents an overview of the historical development of Israeli democracy through chapters examining the country's history, contemporary society, political institutions, international relations, and most pressing political issues. It outlines the most relevant developments over time while not shying away from the strife both in and around Israel. It presents opposed narratives in full force, enabling readers to make their own judgments"--

Download or read book Thinking about the Holocaust written by Alvin H. Rosenfeld and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1997-11-22 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the still-unsettling perspective of half a century, 13 contributors evaluate Holocaust fallout from four vantage points: through historical writings, literature, and cinema; in relation to the Zionist movement and the state of Israel; and its impact on American Jewish life, and on European Jewry in the postwar period. The incisive articles result from meetings at Indiana University in 1995. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR