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The Bible and Intra-Jewish Politics: Early Rabbinic Portraits of King David

April 2, 1991

This essay explores some of the concerns which might have influenced early rabbinic reconstructions of the private life and public career of King David. David and his monarchy were treated as vehicles for constitutional polemic, transposed into symbols of a particular type of ruler and regime. Three specific instances recorded in the Babylonian Talmud which lend themselves to political interpretation are discussed. When linked to allied early rabbinic dicta on the exercise and distribution of political power, they illustrate separate facets of what appears to have been an integrated constitutional doctrine. That doctrine is outlined and the purposes to which it was put are demonstrated.

The Jewish Experience of Oppression as Portrayed in the Old Testament: Leadership and Survival Strategies

April 2, 1991 | Shirley Castelnuovo

This article examines two bargaining (accommodationist) types of leaders, the shtadlan and the court Jew, using Hebrew Bible and post Biblical stories. Its focus is the notion of obligation as a way of under standing how leadership types can maximize the survival strategies of an oppressed group. Leaders organize, articulate, propose strategies, represent their group to the oppressor, and in general are critical to the survival and identity of the group. Different types of leaders differently affect a group's sense of its identity and sense of efficacy. This difference relates to the way obligation ties between members and between members and leaders are reconfirmed and validated.

Land, State and Diaspora in the History of the Jewish Polity

April 2, 1991

The Jewish people represents the classic state-and-diaspora phenomenon of all time. Indeed, the term "diaspora" originated to describe the Jewish condition. In the 3500 years of the existence of the Jewish people, Jewish states have existed for roughly 1000 years, while Jewish diasporas have existed for at least 2600 years. For some 1500 years the Jewish people existed as an exclusively diaspora community. Nevertheless, the Jewish people not only preserved their integrity as an ethno-religious community, but continued to function as a polity throughout their long history through the various conditions of state and diaspora. This essay analyzes the unique characteristics of the Jewish people, particularly in the context of a world Jewish polity.

Birobidzhan 1990: A Traveler’s Report

April 1, 1991

Report from Down Under: Australia and the Middle East

February 15, 1991

American Jewry in the 1990’s Part 2: The 1990 Demographic Study: Some Good News; Much Bad New

January 15, 1991 | Daniel J. Elazar

The 1990 Demographic Study: Some Good News; Some Bad News

January 15, 1991 | Daniel J. Elazar

American Jewry in the 1990s: Part 1 – A Growing Field of Jewish Vicitimization

January 1, 1991 | Daniel J. Elazar

The Cuban Jewish Community Today

December 16, 1990

Soviet Jewry: An Update from the Field

December 2, 1990

Operation Exodus: Soviet Jewry Comes Home

October 15, 1990

American Jews and Non-Jews: Comparative Opinions on the Palestinian Uprising

October 2, 1990

Biblical Scholarship in the Communist World

May 1, 1990

Canadian Jewry: Challenges to a Growing Diaspora Community

April 15, 1990

Succession to Public Office in Rabbinic Law

April 2, 1990 | Stuart A. Cohen