SUNY series in Anthropology and Judaic Studies – serie

A collection of essays that examines the culture, politics, and social structure of Hasidic Jewish life.Hasidim has long been the subject of historical, philosophical, and literary accounts, but it is only in recent years that it has begun to attract the close attention of social scientists. This book highlights contemporary ethnographic perspectives that convey the richness and complexity of Hasidic life. Political engagement, gender roles, ritual life, proselytizing activities, and community revitalization are just some of the topics covered in this study that casts light on one of the more enigmatic religious communities of contemporary America.

The author uses linguistic, ethnographic, and historical evidence to support his theory that the origins of Sephardic Jews are predominantly Berber and Arab.In The Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews, Paul Wexler presents a groundbreaking theory that challenges the conventional narrative of Sephardic Jewish origins. Through an in-depth exploration of linguistic, historical, and ethnographic evidence, Wexler argues that the Sephardic Jews—long believed to be the descendants of ancient Judaeans—are, in fact, the descendants of Berber and Arab proselytes who converted to Judaism during the medieval period.Drawing from an extensive array of sources, including linguistic studies of Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, and Yiddish, Wexler builds a compelling case for the North African roots of Sephardic Jewry. He identifies traces of Berber and Arab cultures embedded within the language, religion, and folk traditions of Sephardic Jews, revealing an intricate tapestry of cultural exchange and religious transformation.The book also revises the historical understanding of the term Sephardic and the role of conversion in the formation of Jewish communities across North Africa, Spain, and the broader Mediterranean world. Wexler's meticulous analysis highlights the significant influence of Arabic and Berber linguistic features on Judeo-Spanish and Judeo-Arabic, challenging long-held assumptions about the "Hispanicity" of Sephardic Jews.Incorporating elements of religious syncretism and the cultural assimilation of Berber and Arab practices, Wexler’s study offers a new lens through which to view the complex processes of Judaization in the Iberian Peninsula. This comprehensive and original work will appeal to scholars and readers interested in Jewish history, linguistic anthropology, and the rich cultural legacy of the Sephardic Jews.

Addresses how shepherding communities in Israel and the Middle East might be preserved.Examining the crucial problems confronting present-day livestock breeders, principally Bedouin and Jews in Israel, but also pastoral nomads in neighboring Middle Eastern countries, Let Shepherding Endure proposes new ways for these governments to enhance and sustain the long-term future development of shepherding communities. Adopting a broad historical and anthropological perspective on the topic, and assessing various pastoral relief programs, Kressel proposes an alternative program whereby the region's states would promote a brand of pastoralism that preserves rangeland herding while keeping in step with the contemporary cultural and political context. This truly visionary set of recommendations would have several dividends, especially for the Bedouin: their cultural legacy, in danger of obsolescence, would be preserved while at the same time enhancing both their pastoral skills and ability to secure a livelihood from herding.

Judaism Viewed from Within and from Without presents three themes. The first applies anthropological analyses to classic textual material in Judaism, the second presents studies of different expressions of Jewish life in America, while the third portrays varieties of Judaism among different cultural groups in contemporary Israel.

Using a variety of anthropological approaches, the authors illustrate how the Jewish identity has persisted in the United States despite great subcultural variation and a wide range of adaptations. Within the various essays, attention is given to both mainstream Jews and to the Hasidim, Yemenites, Indian Sephardim, Soviet Emigres, and "Jews for Jesus." Institutions such as the family, the school, and the synagogue, are considered through techniques of participation/ observation and in archeological research. Persistence and Flexibility provides a means of viewing the Jewish community through the prism of key events, or rituals, and symbols.

This book brings together insights derived from a detailed exploration of Israeli cultural patterns of communication, highlighting their role in the processes of culture formation, maintenance, and change. Katriel's ethnographic examples provide a richly-textured account of Israeli cultural experience, illustrating the potential of a cultural analysis grounded in the study of ideologically-informed communicative practices.The author addresses central issues in contemporary anthropology and human communication studies such as the identification of cultural communication patterns in ethnographic research, conceptualizations of the notions of culture and community, the rhetorical force of cultural communication forms, the role of ritualization in communication and social processes, the critical potential of ethnographic work, and the ethnographer's stance in studying one's own culture.

This book is an ethnographic study of an old age home in Israel that sheds light on the existential experience of elderly retirees. Hazan looks carefully at the universal concerns of old age, specifically examining the nature of everyday life in the institutional setting. He shows the workings of the micropolitics of control in an old age home and the tension between controlling dwindling resources and sustaining life-long meaning for residents. He also effectively brings out distinctive features of the Israeli situation, its cultural and bureaucratic codes. Hazan's study of the life cycle, based in the anthropology of process, is a senstive portrayal of the dynamics of institutionalized elderly in a complex society.

This book contains the most recent research in the intrinsically interdisciplinary field of Sephardic Studies. It provides new insights into Sephardic history, culture, folklore, languages, music, and literature from both new and established international scholars.

The author uses linguistic, ethnographic, and historical evidence to support his theory that the origins of Sephardic Jews are predominantly Berber and Arab.In The Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews, Paul Wexler presents a groundbreaking theory that challenges the conventional narrative of Sephardic Jewish origins. Through an in-depth exploration of linguistic, historical, and ethnographic evidence, Wexler argues that the Sephardic Jews—long believed to be the descendants of ancient Judaeans—are, in fact, the descendants of Berber and Arab proselytes who converted to Judaism during the medieval period.Drawing from an extensive array of sources, including linguistic studies of Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, and Yiddish, Wexler builds a compelling case for the North African roots of Sephardic Jewry. He identifies traces of Berber and Arab cultures embedded within the language, religion, and folk traditions of Sephardic Jews, revealing an intricate tapestry of cultural exchange and religious transformation.The book also revises the historical understanding of the term Sephardic and the role of conversion in the formation of Jewish communities across North Africa, Spain, and the broader Mediterranean world. Wexler's meticulous analysis highlights the significant influence of Arabic and Berber linguistic features on Judeo-Spanish and Judeo-Arabic, challenging long-held assumptions about the "Hispanicity" of Sephardic Jews.Incorporating elements of religious syncretism and the cultural assimilation of Berber and Arab practices, Wexler’s study offers a new lens through which to view the complex processes of Judaization in the Iberian Peninsula. This comprehensive and original work will appeal to scholars and readers interested in Jewish history, linguistic anthropology, and the rich cultural legacy of the Sephardic Jews.

An account of the life of the Ashkenazi Jews in Mexico in this century highlights the intersection of cultural and political international problems, shedding light on the contemporary condition of minorities the world over.In a century full of social dreams and abhorrent calamities, the survival of a small cultural ethnic group is no small story. Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews arrived in Mexico in the early years of this century. The vast majority of these 40,000 Jews live in Mexico City and have done so for most of the eighty years of this communal experiment. Arriving with few resources, the Ashkenazi created a network of organizations to sustain their cultural survival in a country that had its own complex cultural context. This community chose its own survival path; while successful in confronting some issues, it faced problems of identity and social cohesion that mirror contemporary dilemmas everywhere. The author examines the particular exchanges that took place between minority and majority, and reflects on the challenges for multicultural living shaped by pluralism, democracy, and socio-political tolerance.

Examines the discourses and experiences associated with space and place in contemporary Israel.This volume explores various processes associated with constructing what has variously been called "The Holy Land," "Eretz Israel," "Zion," Palestine," or "Israel." The contributors focus on ways the landscapes of Israel figure in creating and recreating the identity, presence, and history of groups living there. The book critiques the assumptions lying at the base of various spatial practices related to Zionism. It does this through both a theoretical examination and a focus on hitherto little explored phenomena such as pilgrimages of Israelis to their (or their relatives') native lands abroad, the establishment of Jewish saints' tombs in Israel, the design of Kibbutz museums, country hikes, and conceptions of territory in mixed (Jewish-Arab) communities.

Emphasizes the role of history in shaping Yugoslav Jewish identity.Voices of Yugoslav Jewry emphasizes the role of history in shaping Yugoslav Jewish identity. World War II imposed irreversible effects on this population of Jews, leaving them with an acute sense of disjuncture and fragmentation. This once-unified Jewish community lost its secure place in the politico-symbolic order of a single multiethnic state, and the surviving local Jewish communities, which are now a part of new states, face the task of refashioning their identities once again. The process of creating the new Yugoslavia has allowed for the emergence of a new Jewish collective voice, one that blended harmoniously with the emerging voice of Tito. This collective voice manifested itself by using language, material culture, and dramaturgical performances in ways that exhibited high public integration with the symbolic order of the new state. In searching for the voices of individuals and listening to them closely, a wide range of diverse individual experiences and ways of constructing meaningful Jewish selves can be heard. It is these voices that constitute the core of the book.

Addresses how shepherding communities in Israel and the Middle East might be preserved.Examining the crucial problems confronting present-day livestock breeders, principally Bedouin and Jews in Israel, but also pastoral nomads in neighboring Middle Eastern countries, Let Shepherding Endure proposes new ways for these governments to enhance and sustain the long-term future development of shepherding communities. Adopting a broad historical and anthropological perspective on the topic, and assessing various pastoral relief programs, Kressel proposes an alternative program whereby the region's states would promote a brand of pastoralism that preserves rangeland herding while keeping in step with the contemporary cultural and political context. This truly visionary set of recommendations would have several dividends, especially for the Bedouin: their cultural legacy, in danger of obsolescence, would be preserved while at the same time enhancing both their pastoral skills and ability to secure a livelihood from herding.

Judaism Viewed from Within and from Without presents three themes. The first applies anthropological analyses to classic textual material in Judaism, the second presents studies of different expressions of Jewish life in America, while the third portrays varieties of Judaism among different cultural groups in contemporary Israel.

Examines how Israeli society has commemorated Yitzhak Rabin.How does a society cope with the challenge of acknowledging and commemorating difficult aspects of its past? In Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination and the Dilemmas of Commemoration, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi develops a timely sociology of commemoration, drawing on the public memory of Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated at the end of a peace rally in Tel Aviv in 1995. She identifies and analyzes the building blocks from which commemoration is made: agency, space, time, and narrative. Acting as a guide, she leads the reader through monuments and gravestones, memorial services and political demonstrations, rituals both moving and banal, and individuals determined to remember, as well as those who wish to forget. Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination and the Dilemmas of Commemoration examines the meanings, boundaries, opportunities, and limits of commemoration, a phenomenon not unique to Israel but shared by many nations across the globe.