In Countering Contemporary Antisemitism in Britain, Sarah Cardaun presents a thorough scholarly analysis of responses to present-day antisemitism in the UK. Examining discourses and practical measures adopted by the British government, parliamentary groups, and non-governmental organisations, the book provides a comprehensive overview of different approaches to addressing anti-Jewish prejudice in Britain. It offers a critical perspective on universalistic interpretations which have traditionally characterised responses towards it in various fields, such as Holocaust remembrance and...

By looking at the case of Lithuanian yeshivas in Israel, Yohai Hakak's book explores the internal tensions and dynamics of religious orders during a stage of a relative 'loss of charisma', in which the enthusiasm of the founding generation has diminished. It is the first study to include participant observations conducted within these institutions, which are the sacred heart of this segregated and highly religious community. The book highlights the current crisis these fundamentalist institutions are going through marked by a dramatic growth in yeshiva dropout rates. It examines the new and...

In Between Feminism and Orthodox Judaism, Yael Israel-Cohen offers an analysis of the activism and identity of women considered at the forefront of the feminist challenge to Orthodoxy. Through a look at women's battle over synagogue ritual and the ordination of women rabbis, an intricate and complex picture of identity, resistance, and religious change is revealed. Some of the central questions that Yael Israel-Cohen explores are: How do modern Orthodox women strategize to implement feminist changes? How do they deal with what at least on the surface seem to be conflicting allegiances?...

In Haredi Masculinities between the Yeshiva, the Army, Work and Politics: The Sage, the Warrior and the Entrepreneur, Hakak takes us on a fascinating journey into the world of young Haredi men who dare to leave Jewish Haredi religious seminaries (Yeshivas and Kollels) and explore new territories. Through extensive participant observations in a Haredi army basic training course, an occupational training program in Hi-Tech professions and the Haredi Headquarter of the Likud Party, Hakak explores the interactions between young Haredi men and the cultural and masculine models they meet in...

In this era of globalization, Jewish diversity is marked more than ever by transnational expansion of competing movements and local influences on specific conditions. One factor that still makes Jewish communities one is the common reference to Israel. Today, however, differentiations and discrepancies in identification and behavior generate plurality and ambiguities about Israel-Diaspora relationships. Moreover the Judeophobia now rife in Europe and beyond as well as the spread of the Palestinian cause as a civil religion make Israel the world's "Jew among nations." This weighs heavily on...

Only a few decades after the Holocaust, Belgian Jews, like most European Jewries, are under the attack of forces stemming from a variety of sources. How do they confront and stand these new hardships? Research done all over Europe from 2012 through 2013 tried to answer this question. Among the cases investigated, the Belgian Jewry is one of the most interesting. It is both versatile and representative, revealing essential components of the general experience of European Jews today. Conceptual considerations pave the way to the study of their plight that has been, by any criterion, anything...

This volume offers insights into the major Jewish migration movements and rebuilding of European Jewish communities in the mid-twentieth century. Its chapters illustrate many facets of the Jews' often traumatic post-war experiences. People had to find their way when returning to their countries of origin or starting from scratch in a new land. Their experiences and hardships from country to country and from one community of migrants to another are analyzed here. The mass exodus of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries is also addressed to provide a necessary and broader insight into how those...

In Jewish Youth around the World 1990-2010: Social Identity and Values, Erik Cohen offers a rich and multi-faceted picture of Jewish adolescents and young adults today. Based on numerous empirical studies conducted by the author over the course of two decades among various populations in Israel and every major Diaspora country, it considers a range of issues, including: demographics and migration patterns, Jewish identity, involvement in the Jewish community, leisure time activities, values, relationship to Israel and to the global Jewish collective. In-depth analysis of the data...

This is a book about Klal Yisrael, the worldwide commonwealth of the Jewish people. The main question asked, is whether one can still speak of 'one' Jewish people, encompassing all Jews in the world. The Jewish collective identity stands at new crossroads of multicultural ideologies and transnational diasporism. Jewry is experiencing an existential problem in today's changing society, shifting between convergence and unity on the one hand and divergence and division on the other hand. Quo vadis, O Jewish people? Rather than fully answering this question, researchers from Israel, the...

Are Jews today still the carriers of a single and identical collective identity and do they still constitute a single people? This two-fold question arises when one compares a Hassidi Habad from Brooklyn, a Jewish professor at a secular university in Brussels, a traditional Yemeni Jew still living in Sana'a, a Galilee kibbutznik, or a Russian Jew in Novossibirsk. Is there still today a significant relationship between these individuals who all subscribe to Judaism? The analysis shows that the Jewish identity is multiple and can be explained by considering all variants as "surface structures"...