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Jewish Political Studies Review Abstracts
Volume 2, Numbers 1-2 (Spring 5750/1990)
Jethro's advice to Moses about how to organize the political
system of the ancient Jewish state (Ex. 18:13-27; Deut. 1:12-17)
was one of the three major biblical sources which were used in
medieval and early modern political thought. (The other sources
are Deut. 17 and I Samuel 8.) This text was mainly used in two
related contexts -- the theory of government, in which the
commentators generally followed Aristotle, and the relationship
between the spiritual and temporal authorities -- between
kingship and prophecy -- in which a strong Platonic-Alfarabian
influence is apparent. This study takes into account the
changing historical realities and intellectual trends of the
medieval and early modern periods. It opens with Abraham Ibn
Ezra's pro-monarchic attack on feudalism in the twelfth century,
continues with the discussion of the interpretations to Jethro's
advice by Aquinas, Abravanel, Dei Pomis, Alemanno, Calvin, Bodin
and others, and culminates with James Harrington's republicanism
in the mid-seventeenth century.
This essay considers the degree to which Jewish political
and legal theory allows -- and, indeed, mandates -- the
recognition that the Torah legislates an ideal law which is not
appropriate for situations of social and political stress, and
the degree to which such situations are really the historical
norm rather than the exception. The Talmud, it is shown,
adumbrates this concept, but in a fairly marginal form.
Maimonides places it at center stage of societal governance,
apparently expecting that a Jewish society will of necessity be
thrown back upon this option; but he also suggests guidelines for
its regulation. R. Nissim of Barcelona (fourteenth century) both
expands the concept and also relaxes the Maimonidean restrictions
on its use. This final form of the doctrine receives a thorough
critique at the hands of Isaac Abrabanel; but it also serves as
the linchpin for much contemporary argument for the legitimacy of
Israeli legislation from a classical Jewish perspective.
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.
The concept of civil religion is rooted in the American
situation, although 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 encounter 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. However, when conflict occurs between historical Jewish
responses and American values, Jewish civil religion tends to
accommodate to the American.
A relatively neglected area of inquiry in the field of
lethnic relations is the impact of homeland events and relations
on diaspora communities, and, indeed, on interminority relations
in those diasporas. This essay represents a case study of
diaspora homeland relations as these have affected Ukrainians and
Jews in Canada. The nature of these relations in Canada today is
a product of socio-demographic characteristics of the two
communities in Canada, the real and perceived legacy of
historical relations which existed in Ukraine, and contemporary
events in both Israel and Ukraine.
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 Is |