Who and what is a Jew? Is there any common denominator between an ultra-Orthodox rabbi of an Israeli North African community and a Berkeley academic of the Movement for a Secular and Humanistic Judaism? Do Jews the world over convergre and emphasize their unity or do they share contrasting concepts of collective identity? Part I of this book presents a systematic discussion of Jewish identities in this era of (post)modernity. The opportunity is offered by a set of invaluable texts, which appear in Part II. These texts about Jewish identity were invited, in 1958, by Ben-Gurion from 50...

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...

When examining how the social sciences have dealt with ideology, one's first impression is often one of considerable confusion. Sociology in particular is the scene of heated debates about ideology. These debates go sometimes so far as to echo doubts of participants with regard to their opponents' scientific endeavor, even straightforward denials of their scientific status. This volume brings together a series of articles that throw light on selected aspects of this intricate matter by well-known sociologists Boudon, Wittrock, Arnason, Touraine, Smolicz, Secombe, Wieviorka, Ben-Rafael and...