Orthodox Judaism and the Politics of Religion: From Prewar Europe to the State of Israel
Cambridge University Press
Edition: First Edition. Hardback. Dust Jacket., 3/26/2020
EAN 9781108481519, ISBN10: 1108481515
Hardcover, 318 pages, 22.9 x 16 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
During the first half of the twentieth century, nationalizing processes in Europe and Palestine reshaped observant Jewry into two distinct societies, ultra-Orthodoxy and national-religious Judaism. Tracing the dynamics between the two most influential Orthodox political movements of the period, from their early years through the founding of the State of Israel, Daniel Mahla examines the crucial role that religio-political entrepreneurs played in these developments. He frames the contest between non-Zionist Agudat Yisrael and religious-Zionist Mizrahi as the product of wide-ranging social and cultural struggles within Orthodox Judaism and demonstrates that at the core of their conflict lay deep tensions between rabbinic authority and political activism. While Orthodoxy's encounter with modern Jewish nationalism is often cast as a confrontation between religious and secular forces, this book highlights the significance of intra-religious competition for observant Jewry's transition to the age of the nation state and beyond.
1. Of priests and prophets
social and political activism among orthodox Jews
2. The genesis of Orthodox political camps
3. Interwar Poland
formative competition within the Kehillah
4. Divisive land
the Jewish settlements in mandatory Palestine
5. A new Era in Orthodox relations
6. Emerging Israeli milieus
Epilogue
Orthodox dynamics in the twenty-first century
Appendix
short biographies.