Lexington Books
Pages: 224
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-4985-4360-6 • Hardback • June 2017 • $98.00 • (£75.00)
978-1-4985-4361-3 • eBook • June 2017 • $93.00 • (£72.00)
David Ohana teaches European history at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Introduction- Nationalizing Utopia: The Million Plan: Theological Vision and the Salvation Plan
- Nationalizing Messianism: How was messianism secularized?
- Nationalizing Myths: Israeli, All Too Israeli: Akkedah, Nimrod, Herod
- Nationalizing Trauma: The Restorative Memory of Bar Kokhba Revolt
- Nationalizing Land: Gershom Scholem’s Children and the “Canaanite Messianism”
- Nationalizing Space: Anti-Messiah: Towards a Levantine Space
- Nationalizing Memory: National Funeral, Sacred Grave
The author’s detailed knowledge of so many facets of modern Israeli history makes this a rich and worthwhile read. . . . this book offers a well-written and researched introduction to certain key intersections between Jewish and Zionist thought and literature.
— Israel Studies Review
Pursuing his analysis of aspects of the Israeli identity explored in his previous books (The Origins of Israeli Mythology, and The Shaping of Israeli Identity), David Ohana insightfully scrutinizes here the Zionist appropriation of the Jewish past to build its historical continuity. Putting into practice the Michael Shudson’s axiomatic formula “The Present in the past versus the past in the present,” Ohana provides in seven chapters a fascinating reading of the main elements of Judaism including the Land, messianism, the sacrifice of Isaac, and the Great Revolt of Bar Kokhba as they have been incorporated into the Israeli agenda.
— Sylvie Anne Goldberg, École des hautes études en sciences sociales
Building upon his previous studies on Nietzschean inflections of early Zionist thought, the esteemed Israeli historian David Ohana deftly analyzes how Zionism has deployed traditional Jewish religious concepts and values to further nation building and patriotic commitments. He thus echoes the Cassandran chorus that bemoans the alliance of religion and nationalism as a grave threat both to Judaism and the Zionist project.
— Paul Mendes-Flohr, University of Chicago Divinity School, professor emeritus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem