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Queer Judaism: LGBT Activism and the Remaking of Jewish Orthodoxy in Israel
By Orit Avishai. 2023
Offers a compelling look at how Orthodox Jewish LGBT persons in Israel became more accepted in their communities.Until fairly recently,…
Orthodox people in Israel could not imagine embracing their LGBT sexual or gender identity and staying within the Orthodox fold. But within the span of about a decade and a half, Orthodox LGBT people have forged social circles and communities and become much more visible. This has been a remarkable shift in a relatively short time span. Queer Judaism offers the compelling story of how Jewish LGBT persons in Israel created an effective social movement.Drawing on more than 120 interviews, Orit Avishai illustrates how LGBT Jews accomplished this radical change. She makes the case that it has taken multiple approaches to achieve recognition within the community, ranging from political activism to more personal interactions with religious leaders and community members, to simply creating spaces to go about their everyday lives. Orthodox LGBT Jews have drawn from their lived experiences as well as Jewish traditions, symbols, and mythologies to build this movement, motivated to embrace their sexual identity not in spite of, but rather because of, their commitment to Jewish scripture, tradition, and way of life. Unique and timely, Queer Judaism challenges popular conceptions of how LGBT people interact and identify with conservative communities of faith.
Shaping the Past to Define the Present: Luke-Acts and Apologetic Historiography
By Gregory E. Sterling. 2023
Uncovering ancient texts and rethinking early Christian identity with the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the ApostlesShaping the…
Past to Define the Present comprises both new and revised essays by esteemed New Testament scholar Gregory E. Sterling on Jewish and early Christian historiography. A sequel to his seminal work, Historiography and Self-Definition, this volume expands on Sterling&’s reading of Luke-Acts in the context of contemporary Jewish and Greek historiography. These systematically arranged essays comprise his new and revised contributions to the field of biblical studies, exploring: the genre of apologetic historiography exemplified by Josephus and Eusebiusthe context of Josephus&’s work within a larger tradition of Eastern historiographythe initial composition and circulation of Luke and Actsthe relationship of Luke-Acts to the Septuagintthe interpretation of the Diaspora in Luke-Actsthe structure of salvation history as it is manifested in Luke-Acts Socratic influences on Luke&’s portrayal of Jesus&’s deaththe early Jerusalem Christian community as depicted in Acts compared with other Hellenized Eastern traditions such as Egyptian priests and Indian sagesthe establishment of Christianity&’s &“socially respectability&” as a guiding purpose in Luke-Acts Engaging with current critical frameworks, Sterling offers readers a comprehensive analysis of early Christian self-definition through Judeo-Christian historiography.
Dream Big, Laugh Often: And More Great Advice from the Bible
By Hanoch Piven, Shira Hecht-Koller. 2023
This clever, informative, and artful picture book from Hanoch Piven and Shira Hecht-Koller imagines what advice 14 Biblical figures would…
have given.Feel your power. Trust the journey. Change and grow.The Bible is full of stories that teach us to dream big, be curious, and be ourselves. And who better to learn these lessons from than Biblical characters themselves? Dream Big, Laugh Often: And More Great Advice from the Bible contains portraits of 14 Biblical figures, brought to life with Hanoch Piven’s joyful and clever art made from found objects, including Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Miriam, David and Deborah and more.Read, learn, play, search, and find! You’ll love studying each portrait and imagining what piece of advice each character from the Bible would offer.
Maimonides: Faith in Reason (Jewish Lives)
By Alberto Manguel. 2023
An exploration of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, author of The Guide of the Perplexed, from one…
of the world&’s foremost bibliophiles Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in Spain before settling in Morocco. From there, Maimonides traveled to Palestine and Egypt, where he died at Saladin&’s court. As a scholar of Jewish law, a physician, and a philosopher, Maimonides was a singular figure. His work in extracting all the commanding precepts of Jewish law from the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, interpreting and commenting on them, and translating them into terms that would allow students to lead sound Jewish lives became the model for translating God&’s word into a language comprehensible by all. His work in medicine—which brought him such fame that he became Saladin&’s personal physician—was driven almost entirely by reason and observation. In this biography, Alberto Manguel examines the question of Maimonides&’ universal appeal—he was celebrated by Jews, Arabs, and Christians alike. In our time, when the need for rationality and recognition of the truth is more vital than ever, Maimonides can help us find strategies to survive with dignity in an uncertain world.
Speaking Yiddish to Chickens: Holocaust Survivors on South Jersey Poultry Farms
By Seth Stern. 2023
Most of the roughly 140,000 Holocaust survivors who came to the United States in the first decade after World War…
II settled in big cities such as New York. But a few thousand chose an alternative way of life on American farms. More of these accidental farmers wound up raising chickens in southern New Jersey than anywhere else. Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is the first book to chronicle this little-known chapter in American Jewish history when these mostly Eastern European refugees – including the author’s grandparents - found an unlikely refuge and gateway to new lives in the US on poultry farms. They gravitated to a section of south Jersey anchored by Vineland, a small rural city where previous waves of Jewish immigrants had built a rich network of cultural and religious institutions. This book relies on interviews with dozens of these refugee farmers and their children, as well as oral histories and archival records to tell how they learned to farm while coping with unimaginable grief. They built small synagogues within walking distance of their farms and hosted Yiddish cultural events more frequently found on the Lower East Side than perhaps anywhere else in rural America at the time. Like refugees today, they embraced their new American identities and enriched the community where they settled, working hard in unfamiliar jobs for often meager returns. Within a decade, falling egg prices and the rise of industrial-scale agriculture in the South would drive almost all of these novice poultry farmers out of business, many into bankruptcy. Some hated every minute here; others would remember their time on south Jersey farms as their best years in America. They enjoyed a quieter way of life and more space for themselves and their children than in the crowded New York City apartments where so many displaced persons settled. This is their remarkable story of loss, renewal, and perseverance in the most unexpected of settings. Author Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/YiddishtoChickens)
Jews in the Soviet Union: After Stalin, 1953–1967, Volume 5
By Gennady Estraikh. 2022
Offers an analysis of Soviet Jewish society after the death of Joseph StalinAt the beginning of the twentieth century, more…
Jews lived in the Russian Empire than anywhere else in the world. After the Holocaust, the USSR remained one of the world’s three key centers of Jewish population, along with the United States and Israel. While a great deal is known about the history and experiences of the Jewish people in the US and in Israel in the twentieth century, much less is known about the experiences of Soviet Jews. Understanding the history of Jewish communities under Soviet rule is essential to comprehending the dynamics of Jewish history in the modern world. Only a small number of scholars and the last generation of Soviet Jews who lived during this period hold a deep knowledge of this history. Jews in the Soviet Union, a new multi-volume history, is an unprecedented undertaking. Publishing over the next few years, this groundbreaking work draws on rare access to documents from the Soviet archives, allowing for the presentation of a sweeping history of Jewish life in the Soviet Union from 1917 through the early 1990s.Volume 5 offers a history of Soviet Jewry from the demise of the brutal dictator Joseph Stalin to the military confrontation between Israel and Arab states in 1967 known as the Six-Day War. Both historic events deeply affected Soviet Jews, who numbered over two million in the wake of the Holocaust and still formed at that point the second-largest Jewish population in the world. Stalin’s death led to the release of political prisoners and the reduction of the level of fear in society. The economy was growing and conditions of life were improving. At the same time, the state had doubts about the loyalty of the Jewish population and imposed limitations on their educational and career prospects. The relatively liberal period associated with Nikita Khrushchev’s “thaw” after the Stalinist bitter frost became a prelude to the years when contemplation about, or practical steps toward, emigration to Israel or elsewhere began to play an increasing role in the lives of Soviet Jews. In this pioneering analysis of the “thaw” years in Soviet Jewish history, Gennady Estraikh focuses both on the factors driving emigration and dissent, and on those Jews who were able to attain a high standard of living, and to rise to esteemed positions in managerial, academic, bohemian, and other segments of the Soviet elite.
Living with the Law explores the marital disputes of Jews in medieval Islamic Egypt (1000–1250), relating medieval gossip, marital woes,…
and the voices of men and women of a world long gone. Probing the rich documents of the Cairo Geniza, a unique repository of discarded paper discovered in a Cairo synagogue, the book recovers the life stories of Jewish women and men working through their marital problems at home, with their families, in the streets of old Cairo, and in Jewish and Muslim courts. Despite a voluminous literature on Jewish law, the everyday practice of Jewish courts has only recently begun to be investigated systematically. The experiences of those at a legal, social, and cultural disadvantage allow us to go beyond the image propagated by legal institutions and offer a view “from below” of Jewish communal life and Jewish law as it was lived.Examining the interactions between gender and law in medieval Jewish communities under Islamic rule, Oded Zinger considers how women experienced Jewish courts and the pressure they faced to relinquish their monetary rights. The tactics with which women countered this pressure—ranging from exploiting family ties to appealing to Muslim courts—expose the complex relationship between individual agency, gendered expectations, and communal authority. Zinger concludes that, more than money, education, or lineage, it was the maintenance of a supportive network of social relations with men that protected women at different stages of their lives.
When We Collide: Sex, Social Risk, and Jewish Ethics (New Jewish Philosophy and Thought)
By Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi. 2023
When We Collide is a landmark reassessment of the significance of sex in contemporary Jewish ethics. Rebecca Epstein-Levi offers a…
fresh and vital exploration of sexual ethics and virtue ethics in conversation with rabbinic texts and feminist and queer theory. Epstein-Levi explores how sex is not a special or particular form of social interaction but one that is entangled with all other forms of social interaction. The activities of sex—doing it, talking about it, thinking about it, regulating it—are sites of ongoing moral formation on individual, interpersonal, and communal levels. When We Collide explores the development of Jewish sexual ethics, and represents an opportunity to move beyond the usual heteronormative accounts that are presented as though they were neutral representations of what "Judaism teaches about sex."
What Is the Mishnah?: The State of the Question (Jewish Law and Culture Series)
By Shaye J. D. Cohen. 2023
The Mishnah is the foundational document of rabbinic Judaism—all of rabbinic law, from ancient to modern times, is based on…
the Talmud, and the Talmud, in turn, is based on the Mishnah. But the Mishnah is also an elusive document; its sources and setting are obscure, as are its genre and purpose.In January 2021 the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies and the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law of the Harvard Law School co-sponsored a conference devoted to the simple yet complicated question: “What is the Mishnah?” Leading scholars from the United States, Europe, and Israel assessed the state of the art in Mishnah studies; and the papers delivered at that conference form the basis of this collection. Learned yet accessible, What Is the Mishnah? gives readers a clear sense of current and future direction of Mishnah studies.
Judaism in a Digital Age: An Ancient Tradition Confronts a Transformative Era
By Danny Schiff. 2023
What is the next chapter in Judaism’s story, the next step in its journey? The dramatic changes of recent decades…
invite us to explore what role Judaism is to play in this new era. As the digital future becomes the present, Danny Schiff makes the case that the period known as “modernity” has come to an end. Noting the declining strength of Conservative and Reform Judaism, the largest US Jewish movements of modernity, he argues for new iterations of Judaism to arise in response to the myriad of weighty questions that now confront us about what it means to be human. Here is an account of the digital age through a Jewish lens, in which Schiff examines Jewish teachings and traditions, exploring what moral insight they might have to offer in this period of great flux. He marshals the thought of well-known futurists such as Ray Kurzweil and Yuval Noah Harari to forecast the exponentially larger shifts in the human condition that lie ahead, and proposes that a countercultural Judaism could have renewed relevance in addressing some of the pressing issues that confront humanity in the twenty-first century.
The Routledge Handbook of Judaism in the 21st Century (Routledge Handbooks in Religion)
By Dean Phillip Bell, Keren Eva Fraiman. 2023
The Routledge Handbook of Judaism in the 21st Century is a cutting-edge volume that addresses central questions and issues animating…
Judaism, Jewish identity, and Jewish society in a global, integrated, and forward-looking way. It introduces readers to the complexity of Judaism as it has developed and continues to develop throughout the 21st century through the prism of three contemporary sets of issues: identities and geographies; structures and power; and knowledge and performances. Within these sections, international contributors examine central issues, topics, and debates, including: individual and collective identity; globalization and localization; Jewish demography; diversity, denominations, and pluralism; interreligious relations; political orientations; community organization; family and gender; the Bible and Talmud today; Jewish philosophy and authority in Jewish thought; digital Judaism; antisemitism; Jewish spirituality and rituals; memory; language; religious education; material culture, literature, music, and art; approaches to the environment; and contemporary Zionism and Israel. The handbook also includes an extensive bibliography to help orient readers to the most important and leading work in the field. The Routledge Handbook of Judaism in the 21st Century is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies and Jewish studies. It will also be useful for those in related fields, such as cultural studies, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history, as well as Jewish professionals and lay leaders.
The Zohar: Pritzker Edition (The Zohar: Pritzker Edition #1)
By Daniel C. Matt. 2004
The first two volumes of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, translated with commentary by Daniel C. Matt, cover more than half…
of the Zohar's commentary on the Book of Genesis (through Genesis 32:3). This is the first translation ever made from a critical Aramaic text of the Zohar, which has been established by Professor Matt based on a wide range of original manuscripts. The extensive commentary, appearing at the bottom of each page, clarifies the kabbalistic symbolism and terminology, and cites sources and parallels from biblical, rabbinic, and kabbalistic texts. The translator's introduction is accompanied by a second introduction written by Arthur Green, discussing the origin and significance of the Zohar. Please see the Zohar Home Page for ancillary materials, including the publication schedule, press release, Aramaic text, questions, and answers. <p><p> Further information on the Zohar: <p> Sefer ha-Zohar, "The Book of Radiance," has amazed and overwhelmed readers ever since it emerged mysteriously in medieval Spain toward the end of the thirteenth century. Written in a unique Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of literature, comprising over twenty discrete sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of a running commentary on the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy. This translation begins and focuses here in what are projected to be ten volumes. Two subsequent volumes will cover other, shorter sections. <p><p> The Zohar's commentary is composed in the form of a mystical novel. The hero is Rabbi Shim'on son of Yohai, a saintly disciple of Rabbi Akiva who lived in the second century in the land of Israel. In the Zohar, Rabbi Shim'on and his companions wander through the hills of Galilee, discovering and sharing secrets of Torah. <p><p> On one level, biblical figures such as Abraham and Sarah are the main characters, and the mystical companions interpret their words, actions, and personalities. On a deeper level, the text of the Bible is simply the starting point, a springboard for the imagination. For example, when God commands Abraham, Lekh lekha, Go forth... to the land that I will show you (Genesis 12:1), Rabbi El'azar ignores idiomatic usage and insists on reading the words more literally than they were intended, hyperliterally: Lekh lekha, Go to yourself! Search deep within to discover your true self. <p><p> At times, the companions themselves become the main characters, and we read about their dramatic mystical sessions with Rabbi Shim'on or their adventures on the road, for example, an encounter with a cantankerous old donkey driver who turns out to be a master of wisdom in disguise. <p><p> Ultimately, the plot of the Zohar focuses on the ten sefirot, the various stages of God's inner life, aspects of divine personality, both feminine and masculine. By penetrating the literal surface of the Torah, the mystical commentators transform the biblical narrative into a biography of God. The entire Torah is read as one continuous divine name, expressing divine being. Even a seemingly insignificant verse can reveal the inner dynamics of the sefirot―how God feels, responds and acts, how She and He (the divine feminine and masculine) relate intimately with each other and with the world.
Figuring Jerusalem: Politics and Poetics in the Sacred Center
By Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi. 2022
Figuring Jerusalem explores how Hebrew writers have imagined Jerusalem, both from the distance of exile and from within its sacred…
walls. For two thousand years, Hebrew writers used their exile from the Holy Land as a license for invention. The question at the heart of Figuring Jerusalem is this: how did these writers bring their imagination “home” in the Zionist century? Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi finds that the same diasporic conventions that Hebrew writers practiced in exile were maintained throughout the first half of the twentieth century. And even after 1948, when the state of Israel was founded but East Jerusalem and its holy sites remained under Arab control, Jerusalem continued to figure in the Hebrew imagination as mediated space. It was only in the aftermath of the Six Day War that the temptations and dilemmas of proximity to the sacred would become acute in every area of Hebrew politics and culture. Figuring Jerusalem ranges from classical texts, biblical and medieval, to the post-1967 writings of S. Y. Agnon and Yehuda Amichai. Ultimately, DeKoven Ezrahi shows that the wisdom Jews acquired through two thousand years of exile, as inscribed in their literary imagination, must be rediscovered if the diverse inhabitants of Jerusalem are to coexist.
Jewish Blues: A History of a Color in Judaism (Jewish Culture and Contexts)
By Gadi Sagiv. 2023
Jewish Blues presents a broad cultural, social, and intellectual history of the color blue in Jewish life between the sixteenth…
and twenty-first centuries. Bridging diverse domains such as religious law, mysticism, eschatology, as well as clothing and literature, this book contends that, by way of a protracted process, the color blue has constituted a means through which Jews have understood themselves.In ancient Jewish texts, the term for blue, tekhelet, denotes a dye that serves Jewish ritual purposes. Since medieval times, however, Jews gradually ceased to use tekhelet in their ritual life. In the nineteenth century, however, interest in restoring ancient dyes increased among European scholars. In the Jewish case, rabbis and scientists attempted to reproduce the ancient tekhelet dye. The resulting dyes were gradually accepted in the ritual life of many Orthodox Jews. In addition to being a dye playing a role in Jewish ritual, blue features prominently in the Jewish mystical tradition, in Jewish magic and popular custom, and in Jewish eschatology. Blue is also representative of the Zionist movement, and it is the only chromatic color in the national flag of the State of Israel.Through the study of the changing roles and meanings attributed to the color blue in Judaism, Jewish Blues sheds new light on the power of a visual symbol in shaping the imagination of Jews throughout history. The use of the color blue continues to reflect pressing issues for Jews in our present era, as it has become a symbol of Jewish modernity.
Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview (Supplements To The Journal For The Study Of Judaism Ser. #121)
By John J. Collins, Daniel C. Harlow. 2012
Culled from The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism, a monumental, groundbreaking reference work published in late 2010, Early Judaism: A…
Comprehensive Overview contains fifteen first-rate essays from a diverse group of internationally renowned scholars. This volume provides the most comprehensive and authoritative overview available of Judaism in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods.Contributors:John M. G. BarclayMiriam Pucci Ben ZeevKatell BerthelotJohn J. CollinsErich S. GruenDaniel C. HarlowJames L. KugelAdam Kolman MarshakSteve MasonJames S. McLarenMaren R. NiehoffDavid T. RuniaLawrence H. SchiffmanChris SeemanGregory E. SterlingLoren T. StuckenbruckEibert TigchelaarEugene UlrichAnnewies van den HoekJames C. VanderKamJürgen K. Zangenberg
Malkah’s Notebook: A Journey into the Mystical Aleph-Bet
By Mira Z. Amiras, Josh Baum. 2022
Malkah is just a kid when she starts to learn her Aleph-Bet letters and her father begins teaching her to…
read the Torah. But they don't get very far. As Malkah reads aloud, her questions multiply. These questions take her on a lifelong journey deeper and deeper into the Hebrew letters, Jewish mystical texts, far off places, archaeological digs, and ultimately, the nature of existence itself. When Malkah discovers an earlier, different story of Creation hidden right inside the one offered on the surface of Genesis, a door opens. So she walks through.... And so Malkah begins her journey to understand her own beginnings. Told in short verse and coupled with highly evocative illustrations, Malkah's Notebook takes readers on a journey through mystical Judaism and beyond. Questions become shards of light that illuminate the path to a deeper understanding of our own origins and ourselves. Guided by the Hebrew Aleph-Bet, Malkah gradually begins to understand not only her own creation story, but that of the entire universe.
More than ever, young people today are searching for a sense of purpose and direction. Advances in science and technology…
have given our generation opportunities our grandparents could only dream of, yet our need for meaning and values is more unfulfilled than ever. Growing addiction to instant gratification and attachment to circumstantial highs leave us lacking when it comes to long-term contentment.Beyond the Instant shows young adults how to enrich their lives through faith. It examines ten different areas of contemporary life, including friendship, family, dating, money, and career, to demonstrate how a return to spirituality can help people find happiness and satisfaction. It addresses many important questions along the way: What is the true role of sex in relationships? What is the significance of failure? How can people really make a difference in the world? In the book, Rabbi Mark Wildes draws upon Jewish tradition and wisdom to bring a sense of balance, stability, and purpose to the often frenzied and occasionally directionless twenty-first-century way of life. Each chapter examines what the Torah has to say about a particular concern of modern life and then shows how thousands of years of rabbinical teachings can be applied to the contemporary situation. Written in a relatable and engaging style, it shows how faith and religion can provide a practical guide to finding happiness that goes beyond the instant.
Jonah and the Whale: The Brick Bible for Kids (Brick Bible for Kids)
By Brendan Powell Smith. 2014
Jonah was a stubborn man. When God came to Jonah to preach repentance to the Ninevites, Jonah wasn't interested. After…
all, besides being known far and wide for their wickedness, Nineveh was also one of Israel's greatest enemies. So why should Jonah help them? Instead, Jonah decided to ignore God and run-but he didn't make it very far. While aboard a ship sailing away from Nineveh, God sent a terrible storm that threatened to sink the ship. The crew, knowing God was angry with Jonah for disobeying him, threw Jonah overboard. But instead of drowning, Jonah was swallowed by a great whale. Would Jonah repent and be saved, or face a perilous demise? Meticulously constructed LEGO dioramas bring to life the incredible story of faith and being swallowed alive. Enjoy reading one of the Bible's oddest stories illustrated with LEGO bricks as a family. This book is aimed at children ages 3 to 6 and could be read by first and second graders. The book will appeal to Christian and Jewish families and institutions as a way to teach this Bible story to younger children through a familiar toy medium. It will also appeal to LEGO fanatics who collect books about LEGO, as well as fans of the author's Brick Testament website.
The Brick Bible Presents Brick Genesis: Ten Comm/genesis 8
By Brendan Powell Smith. 2014
The Brick Bible series, by master LEGO builder, photographer, and storyteller Brendan Powell Smith, has sparked new interest in this…
important religious text. His widely popular The Brick Bible: A New Spin on the Old Testament brings together the major books of the Old Testament, illustrated entirely in LEGO bricks. Now, for the first time and in a smaller, more portable format, The Brick Bible Presents Brick Genesis puts all the action of the first book of the Pentateuch in the palm of your hands. Illustrated by a favorite toy, you can now experience your favorite Biblical stories such as:the very creation of the worldthe fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Edenthe devastating flood and Noah's arkthe story of Abraham and his son Isaacthe destruction of Sodom and Gomorrahthe plight of Joseph in Egypt and his interpretation of Pharaoh's dreamand much more!The Brick Bible Presents Brick Genesis boasts over one hundred illustrations set in comic-book style, making this a fast-and fascinating-read. Whether you are religious or not, the sheer magnitude of what Brendan Powell Smith has done in illustrating these iconic scenes makes this a must-have for the LEGO-lover in us all.
The Jewish State: The Historic Essay that Led to the Creation of the State of Israel
By Theodor Herzl. 2019
Originally published in 1896 as Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State has taken its place among the likes of The Communist…
Manifesto and Common Sense as polemic writings which have changed modern history. Theodor Herzl&’s advocacy for a separate, independent Jewish state as a remedy for centuries of hostility and persecution served as the basis for modern Zionism. And though his vision would not be realized in his lifetime, it did set the course for the creation of the Israel we know today.This edition, based on the original translation to English by Sylvie D&’Avigdor, includes a foreword by Alan Dershowitz, who is among Israel&’s most prominent and most vocal scholars defenders. The Harvard law professor, who has been calledIsrael&’s lead lawyer in the court of public opinion, discusses The Jewish State&’s place in history and its impact today.