Download or read book Israel Is Real written by Rich Cohen and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2009-07-21 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE A SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BESTSELLER In AD 70, when the Second Temple was destroyed, a handful of visionaries saved Judaism by reinventing it, taking what had been a national religion and turning it into an idea. Whenever a Jew studied—wherever he was—he would be in the holy city, and his faith preserved. But in our own time, Zionists have turned the book back into a temple, and unlike an idea, a temple can be destroyed. With exuberance, humor, and real scholarship, Rich Cohen's Israel is Real offers "a serious attempt by a gifted storyteller to enliven and elucidate Jewish religious, cultural, and political history . . . A powerful narrative" (Los Angeles Times).

Download or read book The Invention of the Land of Israel written by Shlomo Sand and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2012-11-20 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a homeland and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for such places throughout the twentieth century? What is the essence of the Promised Land? Following the acclaimed and controversial The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest-running national struggle of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Invention of the Land of Israel deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it. Sand’s account dissects the concept of “historical right” and tracks the creation of the modern concept of the “Land of Israel” by nineteenth-century Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of Israel; it is also threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.

Download or read book King David written by Jonathan Kirsch and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2009-07-22 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David, King of the Jews, possessed every flaw and failing a mortal is capable of, yet men and women adored him and God showered him with many more blessings than he did Abraham or Moses. His sexual appetite and prowess were matched only by his violence, both on the battlefield and in the bedroom. A charismatic leader, exalted as "a man after God's own heart," he was also capable of deep cunning, deceit, and betrayal. Now, in King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel, bestselling author Jonathan Kirsch reveals this commanding individual in all his glory and fallibility. In a taut, dramatic narrative, Kirsch brings new depth and psychological complexity to the familiar events of David's life--his slaying of the giant Goliath and his swift challenge to the weak rule of Saul, the first Jewish king; his tragic relationship with Saul's son Jonathan, David's cherished friend (and possibly lover); his celebrated reign in Jerusalem, where his dynasty would hold sway for generations. Yet for all his greatness, David was also a man in thrall to his passions--a voracious lover who secured the favors of his beautiful mistress Bathsheba by secretly arranging the death of her innocent husband; a merciless warrior who triumphed through cruelty; a troubled father who failed to protect his daughter from rape and whose beloved son Absalom rose against him in armed insurrection. Weaving together biblical texts with centuries of interpretation and commentary, Jonathan Kirsch brings King David to life in these pages with extraordinary freshness, intimacy, and vividness of detail. At the center of this inspiring narrative stands a hero of flesh and blood--not the cartoon giant-slayer of sermons and Sunday school stories or the immaculate ruler of legend and art but a magnetic, disturbingly familiar man--a man as vibrant and compelling today as he has been for millennia.

Download or read book Real Jews written by Noah Efron and published by . This book was released on 2003-05-23 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An explosive book that documents in savage detail the war that is tearing Jewish Israel apart from the inside.

Download or read book My Promised Land written by Ari Shavit and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR “A deeply reported, deeply personal history of Zionism and Israel that does something few books even attempt: It balances the strength and weakness, the idealism and the brutality, the hope and the horror, that has always been at Zionism’s heart.”—Ezra Klein, The New York Times Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Ari Shavit’s riveting work, now updated with new material, draws on historical documents, interviews, and private diaries and letters, as well as his own family’s story, to create a narrative larger than the sum of its parts: both personal and of profound historical dimension. As he examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, Shavit asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can it survive? Culminating with an analysis of the issues and threats that Israel is facing, My Promised Land uses the defining events of the past to shed new light on the present. Shavit’s analysis of Israeli history provides a landmark portrait of a small, vibrant country living on the edge, whose identity and presence play a crucial role in today’s global political landscape.

Download or read book Israel and the Family of Nations written by Alexander Yakobson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2009 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amnon Rubinstein and Alexander Yakobson explore the nature of Israel's identity as a Jewish state, how that is compatible with liberal democratic norms and is comparable with a number of European states.

Download or read book The Invention of the Jewish People written by Shlomo Sand and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2010-06-14 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A historical tour de force, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a groundbreaking account of Jewish and Israeli history. Exploding the myth that there was a forced Jewish exile in the first century at the hands of the Romans, Israeli historian Shlomo Sand argues that most modern Jews descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In this iconoclastic work, which spent nineteen weeks on the Israeli bestseller list and won the coveted Aujourd'hui Award in France, Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel's future.

Download or read book Loving the Real Israel written by Alex Sinclair and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Israel education has been taking on an increasing high profile in the Jewish community. But is it effective? Can old messages speak to a new generation? Or is a new approach called for? LOVING THE REAL ISRAEL draws from the writings of Jewish philosophers, educational theorists, and Bible scholars to offer principles for a new liberal Zionist engagement. LOVING THE REAL ISRAEL provides guidance for educators in constructing meaningful Israel educational experiences, as well as for liberal Zionists who want to discuss Israel issues with their friends, family, and community. About the Author Alex Sinclair is director of programs in Israel Education for the Jewish Theological Seminary. He received his PhD in Jewish Education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has taught at the Hartman Institute, the Schechter Institute, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and served as director of research for MAKOM, the Israel Engagement think tank of the Jewish Agency. Advance Praise Alex Sinclair brilliantly and critically addresses ones of the central challenges facing the Jewish people today: the relationship between Israel and world Jewry. In arguing for a new Israel engagement agenda founded on the amalgamation of the principles of passion, caring and anger, Alex challenges us to redefine the foundations of the relationship and sets the ground for a possible future free from paternalism, passivity and alienation. - Rabbi Donniel Hartman, president, Shalom Hartman Institute and director of its iEngage Project An intelligent guide to teaching and communicating to Jewish audiences about Israel in a manner that is loving but frank. An important addition to the discourse on Israel education. I recommend it highly. - Dr. Donald A. Sylvan, former president of Jewish Education Service of North America Sinclair proposes a bold new agenda for Israel/Zionism education in the Diaspora, an educational vision that calls for a substantive shift in how many Israel educators think and teach. His ideas are well developed and carefully researched, though not without controversy. I encourage all those who care about Israel to read this book. - Dr. Marc N. Kramer, executive director, RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network A thought-provoking and timely book. - Tom Dine, former executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

Download or read book The Genius of Israel written by Dan Senor and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-11-07 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * How has a small nation of 9 million people, forced to fight for its existence and security since its founding and riven by ethnic, religious, and economic divides, proven resistant to so many of the societal ills plaguing other wealthy democracies? Why do Israelis have among the world’s highest life expectancies and lowest rates of “deaths of despair” from suicide and substance abuse? Why is Israel’s population young and growing while all other wealthy democracies are aging and shrinking? How can it be that Israel, according to a United Nations ranking, is the fourth happiest nation in the world? Why do Israelis tend to look to the future with hope, optimism, and purpose while the rest of the West struggles with an epidemic of loneliness, teen depression, and social decline? Dan Senor and Saul Singer, the writers behind the international bestseller Start-Up Nation, have long been students of the global innovation race. But as they spent time with Israel’s entrepreneurs and political leaders, soldiers and students, scientists and activists, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Tel Aviv techies, and Israeli Arabs, they realized that they had missed what really sets Israel apart. Moving from military commanders integrating at-risk youth and people who are neurodiverse into national service, to high performing companies making space for working parents, from dreamers and innovators launching a duct-taped spacecraft to the moon, to bringing better health solutions to people around the world, The Genius of Israel tells the story of a diverse people and society built around the values of service, solidarity, and belonging. Widely admired for having the world’s highest density of high-tech start-ups, Israel’s greatest innovation may not be a technology at all, but Israeli society itself. Understanding how a country facing so many challenges can be among the happiest provides surprising insights into how we can confront the crisis of community, human connectedness, and purpose in modern life. Bold, timely, and insightful, Senor and Singer’s latest work shines an important light on the impressive innovative distinctions of Israeli society—and what other communities and countries can learn.

Download or read book 1001 Facts Everyone Should Know about Israel written by Mitchell G. Bard and published by Jason Aronson, Incorporated. This book was released on 2005-11-01 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hardly a day passes when Israel is not in the news. Virtually all the press coverage, however, is about the conflict between Israel and her neighbors. There is so much more to Israel that is positive and should be better known. This book provides essential facts about not only the political events in the news, but also the positive contributions Israel is making in the arts and sciences. It describes some of the remarkable sites and people that make the country unique. This is not a recitation of facts and figures, but a mosaic of the most important aspects of Israel's past and present. The book will entertain those interested in some of the fascinating trivia about Israel and inform those doing more serious research about the economy, government, and culture of the Jewish State.

Download or read book Raquela written by Ruth Gruber and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A National Jewish Book Award–winning biography: A look at the early years of Israel’s statehood, experienced through the life of a pioneering nurse. During her extraordinary career, nurse Raquela Prywes was a witness to history. She delivered babies in a Holocaust refugee camp and on the Israeli frontier. She crossed minefields to aid injured soldiers in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and organized hospitals to save the lives of those fighting the 1967 Six-Day War. Along the way, her own life was a series of triumphs and tragedies mirroring those of the newly formed Jewish state. Raquela is a moving tribute to a remarkable woman, and an unforgettable chronicle of the birth of Israel through the eyes of those who lived it.

Download or read book Israel is Real written by Benzion Baruch and published by Dorrance Publishing. This book was released on 2022-05-25 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Israel is Real: Our Answer to the Critics of Zionism By: Benzion Baruch The book provides an alternative, realistic insight about the Israeli-Arab Conflict and how the Jewish State of Israel can and must strengthen itself from the political quagmire that so-called Super Power countries, acting as Third World Brokers, have put Israel through to accept a Two-State solution as the only solution. In addition, Israel is Real: Our Answer to the Critics of Zionism focuses on how Israeli leadership historically has been dismally weak where it has succumbed to these policies at the expense of Israel’s own safety, security, and stability.

Download or read book Tough Jews written by Rich Cohen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning writer Rich Cohen excavates the real stories behind the legend of infamous criminal enforcers Murder, Inc. and contemplates the question: Where did the tough Jews go? In 1930s Brooklyn, there lived a breed of men who now exist only in legend and in the memories of a few old-timers: Jewish gangsters, fearless thugs with nicknames like Kid Twist Reles and Pittsburgh Phil Strauss. Growing up in Brownsville, they made their way from street fights to underworld power, becoming the execution squad for a national crime syndicate. Murder Inc. did for organized crime what Henry Ford did for the automobile, and Tough Jews is the first in-depth portrait of these men, a thrilling glimpse at the muscle that made possible the success of gangster statesmen such as Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano. For Rich Cohen, who grew up in suburban Illinois in the 1980s taunted by the stereotype of Jews as book-reading rule followers, the very idea of the Jewish gangster was a relief; for once, a Jew in jail did not have to be a white collar criminal. With a clear eye and a comic sensibility, Cohen looks beyond the blood and ultimately encounters each of these ruthless killers’ matzo-ball heart. Tough Jews shows what can happen when a member of the tribe combines brains, heart, and a dangerous determination never to back down.

Download or read book The Idea of Israel written by Ilan Pappe and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major history of Zionism and the state of Israel—for anyone interested in deepening their knowledge of the Israel-Palestine conflict and Middle Eastern politics “[Ilan Pappé] is . . . one of the few Israeli students of the conflict who write about the Palestinian side with real knowledge and empathy.” —Guardian Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has drawn on Zionism, the movement behind its creation, to provide a sense of self and political direction. In this groundbreaking new work, Ilan Pappe looks at the continued role of Zionist ideology. The Idea of Israel considers the way Zionism operates outside of the government and military in areas such as the country’s education system, media, and cinema, and the uses that are made of the Holocaust in supporting the state’s ideological structure. In particular, Pappe examines the way successive generations of historians have framed the 1948 conflict as a liberation campaign, creating a foundation myth that went unquestioned in Israeli society until the 1990s. Pappe himself was part of the post-Zionist movement that arose then. He was attacked and received death threats as he exposed the truth about how Palestinians have been treated and the gruesome structure that links the production of knowledge to the exercise of power. The Idea of Israel is a powerful and urgent intervention in the war of ideas concerning the past, and the future, of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict.

Download or read book Israel written by Barry Rubin and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive book provides a well-rounded introduction to Israel—a definitive account of the nation's past, its often controversial present, and much more. Written by a leading historian of the Middle East, Israel is organized around six major themes: land and people, history, society, politics, economics, and culture. The only available volume to offer such a complete account, this book is written for general readers and students who may have little background knowledge of this nation or its rich culture. Based on research by scholars with extensive firsthand knowledge of Israel, this book offers accessible, clearly explained material, enhanced with a generous selection of images, maps, charts, tables, graphs, and sidebars. This book provides readers with a solid foundation of knowledge about Israel and provides useful reference lists by topic for those inspired to read further.

Download or read book Israel written by Noa Tishby and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A personal, spirited, and concise chronological timeline spanning from Biblical times to today that explores one of the most fascinating countries in the world-Israel"--

Download or read book Goliath written by Max Blumenthal and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2014 Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Notable Book Award In Goliath, New York Times bestselling author Max Blumenthal takes us on a journey through the badlands and high roads of Israel-Palestine, painting a startling portrait of Israeli society under the siege of increasingly authoritarian politics as the occupation of the Palestinians deepens. Beginning with the national elections carried out during Israel's war on Gaza in 2008-09, which brought into power the country's most right-wing government to date, Blumenthal tells the story of Israel in the wake of the collapse of the Oslo peace process. As Blumenthal reveals, Israel has become a country where right-wing leaders like Avigdor Lieberman and Bibi Netanyahu are sacrificing democracy on the altar of their power politics; where the loyal opposition largely and passively stands aside and watches the organized assault on civil liberties; where state-funded Orthodox rabbis publish books that provide instructions on how and when to kill Gentiles; where half of Jewish youth declare their refusal to sit in a classroom with an Arab; and where mob violence targets Palestinians and African asylum seekers scapegoated by leading government officials as "demographic threats." Immersing himself like few other journalists inside the world of hardline political leaders and movements, Blumenthal interviews the demagogues and divas in their homes, in the Knesset, and in the watering holes where their young acolytes hang out, and speaks with those political leaders behind the organized assault on civil liberties. As his journey deepens, he painstakingly reports on the occupied Palestinians challenging schemes of demographic separation through unarmed protest. He talks at length to the leaders and youth of Palestinian society inside Israel now targeted by security service dragnets and legislation suppressing their speech, and provides in-depth reporting on the small band of Jewish Israeli dissidents who have shaken off a conformist mindset that permeates the media, schools, and the military. Through his far-ranging travels, Blumenthal illuminates the present by uncovering the ghosts of the past -- the histories of Palestinian neighborhoods and villages now gone and forgotten; how that history has set the stage for the current crisis of Israeli society; and how the Holocaust has been turned into justification for occupation. A brave and unflinching account of the real facts on the ground, Goliath is an unprecedented and compelling work of journalism.