Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Religion, and Government

Original review essays that provide critical commentary on recently published books and films on Israeli society, culture, politics, and religion.

Original review essays that provide critical commentary on recently published books and films on Israeli society, culture, politics, and religion.

This book is part of a series of review volumes sponsored by the Association for Israel Studies that provides a framework for discussion of research and scholarship on all aspects of Israeli society. It brings together original review essays commenting on issues in Israeli society, culture, politics, religion, literature, and film. The authors' evaluations of recently published books go beyond critical commentary on the works themselves to include the state of scholarship and social conditions. Among the issues addressed are the conflict over water resources, the human dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, local governance, and the court system. The book provides reviews and commentary, not only on scholarly works but also on memoirs of military leaders at the time of the Yom Kippur war, Sephardi novels on the shock of immigration and on Israeli orthodox Judaism, and politically oriented cinema and literature of the 1980s and 1990s.

Walter P. Zenner is Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Albany. He is the author of Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience, also published by SUNY Press

Kevin Avruch is Professor and Coordinator of Anthropology at George Mason University. He is the author of American Immigrants in Israel: Social Identities and Change and coeditor of Conflict Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Walter P. Zenner is Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York, Albany. He is the author of Minorities in the Middle: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, editor of Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience, and co-editor of Critical Essays on Israeli Social Issues and Scholarship: Books on Israel, Volume III, all published by SUNY Press. He also is the editor of the SUNY Press series in Anthropology and Judaic Studies.

"This volume is unique in two ways: it covers a variety of disciplines—political science, history, sociology, anthropology, literature, and cultural studies—and it reviews the recent literature in these areas. Still, it maintains a distinct sense of integration. Experts and non-experts alike want to keep abreast of what's being written about Israel. This volume provides a means to do so." — James D. Armstrong, State University of New York, Plattsburgh