Constitutional and Electoral Freedom
The Intifada in Judea and Samaria: A View From the Field
The Future of the “Peace Process”
The Ultra Orthodox in Israeli Politics
Of Kings and Captains: Morocco, Jordan, and Prospects for Stability in the Middle East
Israel’s Doubly Precarious Position
A Democratic Safeguard: Israel’s State Comptroller
The Proliferation of Unconventional Weapons in the Arab World
Biblical Scholarship in the Communist World
Canadian Jewry: Challenges to a Growing Diaspora Community
Succession to Public Office in Rabbinic Law
This article comprises an annotated translation of a responsum (Orah Hayyim, No. 12) by R. Moses Sofer (the “rlatam Sofer”; 1762-1839). The is sue addressed is one central to all political discourse? legitimate succession to public office. Particularly noteworthy, however, is Sofer’s analysis of this question by explicit reference to the differences between the characters of office in the three governmental demesnes known to Jewish tradition as “ketarim.”
The Impact of Denomination: Differences in the Israel-Related Opinions of American Rabbis and Jewish Communal Workers
Jewish professional communal leaders differ from the Jewish public in that they are more Jewishly knowledgeable, involved, and committed. This study reports on survey data collected in 1987 from these leaders? American rabbis and Jewish communal workers ? subdivided along denominational lines. It confirms the near demise of any distinctive position of communal workers and underlines the importance of denominational or religious identity as a variable in predicting attitudes toward Israel. Analyzed
areas of behavior include frequency of travel to Israel and contact with Israelis. Attitudes investigated dealt with Zionist commitment, Israeli foreign policy and political personalities, the acceptability of public criticism of Israel, and religious pluralism.
Jews and Ukrainians in Canada: A Comparative Study of Diaspora-Homeland Relations
A relatively neglected area of inquiry in the field of ethnic relations is the impact of homeland events and relations on diaspora communities, and, indeed, on interminority
relations in those diasporas. This essay rep resents a case study of diaspora homeland relations as these have affected Ukrainians and Jews in Canada. The nature of
these relations in Canada to day is a product of socio-demographic characteristics of the two communities, the real and perceived legacy of historical relations which existed in Ukraine, and contemporary events in both Israel and Ukraine.
The Relationship between the Jewish Political Tradition and the Jewish Civil Religion in the United States
The concept of civil religion is rooted in the American situation, al though congenial to Judaism. American civil religious rituals such as a presidential inauguration, Thanksgiving, and Memorial Day serve as vehicles of national religious self-understanding. Since the earliest days of the nation, American Jews have maintained their own
interpretations of American civil religion which usually accompanied ideologies of Jewish civil religion. Some writers focused on the shedding of ethnic otherness for rebirth as a new American man, while others affirmed the central values of liberty, justice, and freedom as stemming from God’s laws. American Jews build their civil religion on the two traditional contradictory tendencies of kinship and consent, at times giving priority to one over the other. Where the saliency of the Jewish political tradition does not en counter a vigorous opposite trend within American society stemming from vernacular folk values, the process of secularization, or the natural rights tradition protecting the individual, American Jews have continued to structure their civil religious consensus and organizational life according to Jewish tenets.
Zionist Voluntarism in the Political Struggle: 1939-1948
A broad overview of the political system in the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine is presented for the years 1939-1945. The years 1939-1945 were characterized by political dissension. In the period 1945-1948 a crosscutting process may be discerned inside that system. Special attention is given to how this pluralistic and voluntaristic system functioned during World War II and the period of political and military struggle for the founding of the State of Israel. Emphasis is placed on the difference between
constructive Zionism, led by the Labor movement and headed by David Ben-Gurion, and on the pure political military Revisionist movement. The political clash between the two movements is described as a confrontation of two political cultures, which eventually determined the fate of Zionism from the 1930s until the founding of the state.
