Impossible Takes Longer
75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders' Dreams?
New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2023]
Format: Book
Edition: First edition.
Description: xxxvii, 345 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
"In 1948, Israel's founders had much more in mind than the creation of a state. They sought not mere sovereignty but also a "national home for the Jewish people," where Jewish life would be transformed. Did they succeed? The state they made, says Daniel Gordis, is a place of extraordinary success and maddening disappointment, a story of both unprecedented human triumph and great suffering. Now, as the country marks its seventy-fifth anniversary, Gordis asks: Has Israel fulfilled the dreams of its founders? Using Israel's Declaration of Independence as his measure, Gordis provides a thorough, balanced perspective on how the Israel of today exceeds the country's original aspirations and how it has fallen short"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
Preface: A Jewish national liberation movement -- Part I "I broke the bars of your yoke". Zionism transforms a nation -- "We hereby declare" : first, existence -- "We shall still see goodness" : healing Jewish heartbreak -- "Grounded in our national culture" : restoring a nation -- Part II "Must the sword devour forever?". Conflict and the Jewish state -- "Lest the sword fall from our hands" : Jews defend themselves -- "The day of vengeance will come" : wars with neighboring states -- "Liberation" or "Nakba" : Palestinians, land, legitimacy -- Part III "As envisioned by the prophets". The complicated care of Israel's democracy -- "I'm for Jewish democracy" : ethnic democracy and its discontents -- "Do what is just and right" : the "other in Israeli society -- "A life of honest toil" : from food rationing to tech powerhouse -- Part IV "The Jewish state" or "The state of the Jews"?. Jewish statehood, Jewish flourishing -- "Trust in the rock of Israel" : Judaism in the state of the Jews -- "From the four corners of the earth" : Israel and the diaspora -- "The world shall fill with bounty" : Israel and humankind -- Conclusion: "Half dust, half heaven".
ISBN:
9780063239449
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
HISTORY Asia Middle-East Israel Gor | Southeast | Nonfiction | In |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-327) and index.