Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass

Menorah Review VCU University Archives

2001 Menorah Review (No. 52, Spring/Summer, 2001)

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah Part of the History of Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons

© The Author(s)

Recommended Citation https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah/51

This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the VCU University Archives at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Menorah Review by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. vcu ME�QRAH�

NUMBER 52 • CENTER FOR JUDAIC STUDIES OF VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY • SPRING-SUMMER 2001

For the Enrichment of Jewish Thought

on the fault lines in Zionist ideology, high­ intelligentsia. These ethnicists respondedto lighting its hegemony as a discourse in pub­ the unexpectedwave of pograrnsagainst the lic Jewish culture and in the academe. He Jewish populationthat swept through South­ inlroduces us to an exciting new !rend in em Russia in the early I 880s. What sparked Israel that takes a critical stance toward the Jewish nationalistmovement, according traditional articulations of Zionism and its to Shimoni, was thetumabout ofthe integra­ history. As such, his is both a brilliant tionists and assimilationists who joined the analysis and the most radical questioning of core of ethnicists. Chapter Two, "Ideologi­ Zionism as a movement and an ideology. cal Precursorsof Zionism," includes among the early nationalist thinkers of the 19th The Zwnist Ideology, by Gideon Shimoni, century Moses Hess and the traditionalist Brandeis University Press. This book is a rabbis Yehuda Hai Alkalai and Zvi Hirsch comprehensive historical survey and ideo­ Kalischer. Shimoni notes that the impor­ logical analysis of major !rends in the Zion­ tance of Alkalai and Kalischer lies in their ist movement It summarizes research al­ ground-breaking reinterpretationsthat broke ready available in this field. Though it adds with a long traditionof passive messianism. and refines some historical data,the book's They opened the door to the inclusion of major conlributioninheres in its ability tore­ Orthodox Jews in the modem secular na­ conceptualizelrends and alignmentsin mod­ tionalist movement. Christian ideas of Jew­ em Zionism. Shimoni argues for a consider­ ish restoration-based on a millenarian be­ ation of Zionism in the context of general lief in the necessityof a Jewish return to the theories of nationalism and ethnic identity. homeland for the universal redemption of The fJISt part of the book deals with the humankind--were also common and influ­ social origins of Jewish nationalism and ential at the time. Most notable among such with proto-Zionist thinkers, or precursors. Christian Zionists are Ben jamin Disraeli, The second part deals with major !rends in George Eliot and LaurenceOliphant Chap­ Zionist thought, politicaland spiritual Zion­ ter Three, "General Zionism," goes on to ism, national-religious Zionism, labor Zion­ discuss Theodor Herzl whose thinking is ism, and revisionist Zionism. The third part defined here as "the functional nationalist consists of discussions of two major topics: conception." Herzl analyzed modem anti­ The books I consider in this review give Zionism as a secular Jewish identity and the Semitism as the problem of the Jews and us a history of Zionism as an unfolding of right to the land of Israel. rejected emancipation as well as integration diverse and heterogeneous forces. All three Chapter One, "SocialOrigins ofJewish as a solution for this problem. Shimoni sees discuss the vast chasm that often separated Nationalism," delineates the influence of the Herzl's conlribution less in his theorizing various factions and groups in the Zionist Haska/a, the Jewish Enlightenment move­ and more in Herzl' s ability to create the movement. But, while the first two books ment and Hibbat Zion, the Love of Zion organizations and socialmechanisms for the emphasize ideological diversity as strands movement on theearly developmentof Zi­ attainment of a Zionist objective. In addi­ in a generally positive development leading onism. It argues that the early precursors tion, and most importantly, Herzl initiated to the formation of a Jewish pluralisticstate, who advocateda returnto the land, to Eretz­ political diplomacy as a means to securing thelast book points to the blind spotsthat led lsrael, were ethnicists among the Jewish an internationally recognizedcharter for the to much dis1ress and injustice in the new reestablishment of Palestine as a national State. Shimoni's The Zionist Ideology ex­ home for the Jews. The functional national­ plains basic differences and similarities ism ofHerzl and MaxNordau differed from among the various factions, while Halpern the organic nationalist conception of Ahad and Reinhartz's Zionismand the Creation of Ha'am. He conceived of a homeland as a a New Society focuses on the tortuous path spiritual center that will restore the self­ that led from conflict to social consolida­ respect of Diaspora Jews. Ahad Ha'am tion. Both highlight problematic schisms rejected any territorial compromise offered that continue to bedevil modem Israel and by thefunctional Zionists and insistedon the its relations with the Diaspora, on the one Land oflsrael exclusively as the futurehome­ hand, and with Arabs in the Middle East on land. The emergence of General Zionism, the other. Laurence J. Siberstein's The essentially a liberal orientation, developed a Postzionism Debates focuses specifically synthesis between these two approaches. 2 Menorah Review, Spring/Summer 2001

Chapter Four, "National Religious Zi­ tine. In the late 1930s, a radical right-wing (p. 366). In other words, their approach onism,'' focuseson the emergence of Mizrahi, group of poets(notable among themwas Uri would concede that theArabs toohad a right or the nationalistreligious orientation within Zvi Greenberg) and political publicists be­ to the land but that the Jewish claim is more theZionist movement To be surethere were carneknownas "maximalists,'' who believed urgent due to the physical threat to their strong haredi, ultra-Orthodox opponents to in establishinga Jewish state on both sides of survival in the Diaspora. In contrast, the Zionism, who saw it as a satanic obstacle to theJordan. Theyespoused anethosofmight revisionist claim was that the Jews were messianic redemption. Rabbi Avrabam and referredto the "kingdom oflsrae l" asthe exiled by force and stayed in the Diaspora Yitzhak Ha-Cohen Kook, Chief Ashkenazi true objective of Zionism. This ideology against their will. The radical revisionists Rabbi for Palestine in the 1920s, on the other was endorsed by small anti-British under­ argued from the position of"might is right,'' hand, insistedthat the modem return to Zion ground groups in the 1940s. claiming that the Jewish majority must as­ be seen as a messianic-redemptive event. Having surveyed the major trends in sert its authority over the Arab residents in He was convinced that the secular national­ Zionist thought and in the main factions in Palestine. By contrast, the pacifist Reform ists were serving the revival of Torah Juda­ the Zionist movement, Shimoni proceeds in rabbi, Judah Magnes of Brit Shalom, argued ism. Another faction that emerged in Pales­ Chapter Seven, ''Zionism as a Secular Jew­ that both Jews and Arabs have a right to the tine in the 1930s, synthesizing socialismand ish Identity,'' to delineate some of the com­ land, though Jews have a dire spiritual need mon motifs and principles shared by all the for a unifying center. Nevertheless, the various groups. He argues that one such fundamentalbelief that Eretz Israel belonged Though it adds and refines some principle is "the aspiration toward a renais­ partially or entirely to theJewish people was historical data, The Zionist sance of Jewish culture... predicated on the shared by all the factions of the Zionist secularized understanding of Jewish iden­ movement. Ideology's major contribution tity as an outcomeof immanent processesin In the Afterword, Shimoni notes that Inheres In its abilityto the history of the nation" (p. 269). Shimoni contemporary DiasporaZionism continues, reconceptualize trendsand align­ credits Ahad Ha'am with composing the in essence, the general orientation of the most influential-albeit positivist and es­ early 19th-century Jewish ethnicists who ments in modern Zionism. sentialist-ethosof a secular nationalist Ju­ valued positively Jewish ethnie-religion, daism. He notes, however, thatAhadHa'am languages, historical memory, folklore and traditionalism, was Ha-Poel Harnizrahi, or was challenged by Micha Yosef the connection to the land of Israel. He the Union of Religious Workers. Chapter Berdyczewsky who advocated individual projects that the contrasting interpretations Five, "Labor Zionism," surveys the various spontaneity and freedom and rejected tradi­ of Zionism as an obligation and a possible socialist trends and groups in the Zionist tional rabbinic Judaism as constricting and alternative to Diaspora life may be schis­ movement. The cumulative influence of unnecessary. Ahad Ha'am also was chal­ matic but leaves open the possibility that socialism on the Zionist movement was de­ lenged by the radical secularism of Yosef both communities will continue to co-exist: cisive. The first to attempt a synthesis be­ Haim Brenner who believed that ethnickin­ one as a nation, the other as a postrnodem, tween the tenets of socialism and Zionism ship was the essence of modem Jewish iden­ largely religious ethnic group. was Nahman Syrkin, who insisted that only tity rather than secularized, binding beliefs a socialiststate will be the proper fulfillment and observances. Aharon David Gordon Zionism and the Creationof a New Society, of theZionist dream. Another influential was another challenger who sought to an­ by Ben Halpern and Jehuda Reinharz, New voice was Ber Borochov, who became the chorJewish secular nationalismin a connec­ York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. most respected theoretician of socialistZi­ tion tonature and human fellowship. But, in Like Shimoni, Halpern and Reinharz have onism. Berl Katznelsonwas admired as an essence, all these thinkers sought toredefine written an elaborate history of the ideologi­ educator and a leader of the Histadrut, the traditionalJudaism as a secular nationalism. cal trends that led to the establishment of the largest workers' union in Palestine in the Despite their vast differences, both Berl Stateoflsrael. The emphasishere, however, 1930s. But the most prominent leader of this Katznelson, the socialist educator, and seems to rest on the social structures that influential organization was David Ben­ Vladimir Jabotinsky, the revisionist leader, emerged from the various conflicting ideo­ Gurion whose leadership steered the work­ sought to create the same thing. The young logical trends within the movement. Halpern ers union from the nucleus of a class to that Hebraists, or Canaanites, who rejected any and Reinharz trace the development of the of a nation. Ben-Gurion became the most and all affiliationto traditionalJudaism rep­ Zionist idea from its earliest expressions to powerful political figure in socialistZion­ resent yet another manifestation of the same the end of World War II, setting their study ism but Aharon David Gordon was a charis­ effort. against a broad background of political and matic thinker who was highly influential Chapter Eight, "The Right to the Land,'' social developments throughout Europeand among the young socialistsfor his insistence focuses on yet another common denomina­ the Middle East. on the individual. He demanded that each tor in the diverse body of Zionist thougth: Chapter One, "The Social Sources of individual Zionist liberate himself from the the claim to Eretz Israel, or Zion, as the Zionism,'' summarizes the major elements burden of the Diaspora through productive national homeland of the Jews. The ortho­ of Zionist ideology, elements that preceded labor. Ha-shomer Hatzair was the leftist dox segment of the Zionist movement per­ the emergence of the movement in the late faction of radical youths in Palestine that ceived this claim as part of the everlasting 1880s. These elements included Jewish split from the mainstream labor party in the covenant between God and the people of emigration from Europeas a solution to anti­ 1940s. But, despite the splits and schisms, Israel. The philosopher MartinBuber trans­ Semitism, the return to Zion, occupational Shimoni argues that some ideas were com­ lated this claim into the more modem term of retrainingand redistribution, and therevival mon to all factions of laborZionism, notable a national mission: the Jews were obligated of the Hebrew language as a medium of among them is the ideal of the Halutz, or to create a community based on the highest secular culture. The chapter brings out the pioneer, and the idea of hagshama, or real­ ethical values. But most secular Zionists attractiveness of Zionism to both East and ization. Chapter Six, "Revisionist Zion­ spoke about a historical claim or a historical West European young Jews. Chapter Two, ism," begins with a portrait of its founding connection to the land. Others like Y ehezkel "The Setting,'' focuses on Palestine under leader Vladimir Jabotinsky. He rejectedthe Kaufmann referred to a "natural national the Ottoman empire, which has become idea of a political compromise with the Ar­ right" to the land. Socialist Zionists pre­ feeble and corruptin the first half of the 19th abs and insisted on the rightsof the minority, ferred the "plea of greater existential need century. The Jewish Yishuv was in decline the middle class and entrepreneurs in Pales- and the application of utilitarian morality" and the growthof the Ashkenazi population Menorah Review, Spring/Summer 2001 3

worsenedthe congestion and unhealthy liv­ of the national home often buckled. The other Jewish homelands. TheZionist thinker ing conditions in the walled city of Jerusa­ fmal chapter, Chapter 11, "The Transition Ahad-Haarn(Asher Ginsburg) presented the lem. When Zionist immigrants arrived in from Yishuv toState," emphasizes the revo­ nation as a living organism driven by an the 1880s,theycame intoanalready troubled lutionary or rapidly evolving conditions that innate will to survive. Embedded in these Jewisb community largely dependent on framed the emergence of the State of Israel binaries are hierarchiesof power that privi­ donationsfrom Jewish sources abroad.'The in the late 1940s. The sudden rise of thestate lege the nation over religion. Chapter Two, Yishuv, Old and New" sets the political machinery forecast possible conflicts not "Critique ofZionism: Critics fromWithin," scene that greeted the earlyZionist immi­ only concerning matters of socialorganiza­ focuses onZionists thinkers who have ques­ grants. Theseimmigrants who represented tion but also of values. The assumption of tioned basic political and ideological pre­ innovative and radical voices were not al­ sovereignty meant the rise of social prob­ mises as well as positions within the move­ ways welcome in the traditionalist Old lems. The authors argue that Israel's prob­ ment Martin Bober, for instance, criticized Yishuv. Despite the difficult conditions lems were compoundedto an extent consid­ the conception of the Arab Palestinian as against which the new immigrants labored erably larger than other new statesby block­ Other. Amos Elon and Amos Oz reject the and despite the compromises they were ades, boycotts and border clashes with its representation of Zionism as an essential forced to accept, they continued to elaborate Arab neighbors. The Israeli policy of open whole. Miron Benveniste is critical of what andbetter articulate the differences and divi­ doors for all displaced Jews presented un­ sions in the Zionist movement Chapter precedented problems of economic absorp­ Four, "Settlers and Patrons," sketches out tion and social adjustment. The flight of a The Postziomism Debates draws the historical development of the Yishuv. In largeportion of the Palestinian Arab popula­ our attention to current Israeli 1882-84,eight permanentJewish settlements tion in the aftermath of the 1948 war also were founded in Palestine, then the move­ presented the new Jewish state with chal­ critiques and challenges to basic ment came to a temporary halt under the lenges and moral dilemmas. tenets and representations of pressure of Turkish opposition to the influx The authors see the success oftheYishuv national history, fact and memory. of Jews. The growth of the Jewish settle­ and the state as contingent on the ability to ment in Palestine continued through the adjust itssocial institutions tonew and evolv­ 1890s under conditions of balanced uncer­ ing historical demands. To some challenges he calls the "cult of the homeland." Chapter tainty. Chapter Five, "The Conflict of Tra­ the state responded with ratherrapid adjust­ Three, "Critique of Zionism: Critics from dition andIdea," attempts to clarify the dif­ ment while to others the adjustment has yet Without," presents the early Canaanite or ference between "proto-Zionism" and his­ to be made. Hebraic ideology that questioned the con­ toricZionism. Historic Zionism restsessen­ nection of Zionism to Jewish communities tially on a commitment to seek a secular The PostzjonismDebates: Knowledge and outside Palestine and sought to anchor the solution to the Jewish problem through the Power in lsraeU Culture, by Laurence J. new settlement in the cultural framework of return to Zion. The emotional core of his­ Silberstein, New York and London: the Middle East The chapter also discusses toricZionism was expressed in the slogan of Routledge. In contradistinctionto the previ­ the political stance of Mazpen, the radical autoemancipation. Nevertheless, the Mizrahi ous books, this book offers a revision of socialist party. Chapter Four, "Postzionism: movement sought from its inception to rec­ Zionist ideology. The bookdraws our atten­ The Academic Debates," explains that this oncile Jewish traditionand Zionism notably tion to current Israeli critiques and chal­ most recent critique emerged mostly as a through the efforts of Rav Kook, who saw lenges to basic tenets and representations of scholarly debate led by social scientists like Zionist work in Palestine as a preliminary national history, fact and memory. The Gershon Shafir, Benny Morris, Baruch stage of messianic redemption. postzionists of various schools and disci­ Kimmerling, Han Pappe and Uri Ram all of Chapter Six, "Zionism and the Left," plines understandthiscritiqueas a necessary whom question academic categories and discusses the socialistgroupingsin theZion­ prerequisite to Israel's emergence as a true constructs that determine the boundariesof ist movement LeftistZionism had to con­ democracy. discourse about the history ofZionism. This tend with a Jewish opposition that did not In the Introduction to the book, new generation of scholars call for a radical proposeto reshapethe Jewish community as Silberstein explains that the writings of scholarly pluralism that would take the per­ a Western-style religion. Leftest Zionism postzionists stress the need to open spaces spective of theOtherintoaccount. By utiliz­ emerged as a synthesis between the Jewish for the voices that have been designated as ing comparative methods of interpretations Bund and the World Zionist organization. the "Other" in Israeli society, among them: these scholars are struggling to open the ChaptersSeven,Eight and Nine focus on the DiasporaJews, Jews of Middle Eastern ori­ spaces of Israeli culture to new methodolo­ growth and development of the Labor party gin, Palestinian Arabs and women. In its gies and intellectual positions. ChapterFive, in Palestine, an orientation that shaped the current usage, postzionism is the product of "Palestinian Critics and Postzionist Dis­ history of the first crucial decades of the a crisis in Israeli life. The author emphasizes course: Anton Sham mas andEmile Habiby," State of Israel. Chapter 10, 'The National that he sees postzionism mostly as a space­ reveals why and how the exclusion of Pales­ Home," deals with Palestinein the aftermath clearing enterprise, an attempt to challenge tinian voices from Israeli cultural space oc­ of World War I. The political turmoil of the hegemony of Zionist discourse to make cludes the complex and often contradictory Europe in the 1920s, the world economic room in which to talk about Israeli history, character of Israeli culture and identity for­ and political crisis of the 1930s, and the culture and identity-{!ifferently. mation. The critic Hanan Hever demon­ cataclysms of the 1940s all left a deep im­ ChapterOne, "MappingZionism/Zion­ stratesthat the Palestinian authorsSham mas print on the Yishuv's development Yet the ist Mapping," explains how certain basic and Habiby problematize dominant notions effect was more often inversely related to terms and concepts of Zionism as well as of of Israeli literature and culture. He sees general world trends than it was a direct Zionist historians imply a value judgment them as minority writers who effectively reflection of them. The decade of the 1930s and a powerstruggle. Thus, the term "galut" subvert both the dominant Israeli political brought Hitler and the European catastro­ (exile) implies a derogatory view of any discourse and the dominant Israeli equation phe, placing Palestine under a pressure of place outsideisrael. This useofterminology of Israeli culture with Jewish culture and Jewish immigration beyond anything imag­ creates "a regime of truth" or discursive Israeli literaturewith Jewish literature. Chap­ ined before. The politicaltrials that accom­ processes that present the knowledge they ter Six, "Postzionism, Postmodernism and panied these efforts were an even greater produce as truth. The binary opposition Postcolonial Theory: A Radical Postzionist strain under which the established structure homeland/exile produces a devaluation of Critique," highlights the theoretical frame- 4 Menorah Review, Spring/Summer 2001 work of postzionist critiques. These cri­ emy where Tanner studied, tells of students work from his portrait of LeRoi Jones to tiques focus on history as a discursive prac­ "crucifying" the one Black student by tying installations with eight hanged men, an in­ tice as much as they emphasize literature as him at night to his own easel. Pennell's stallation of a slave ship, to the volume's a forum for cultural politics. Postzionist prejudice goes on to link Blacks and Jews: cover, "I Like Olympia in Black Face," a critics reject essentialistic notions of iden­ " ...there never was a great negro artist or a work now in the Paris Pompidou Center. tity. Instead, they highlight the fluid, hybrid greatJewish artistin the history of the world." In spite of several revealing glimpses and heterogeneous character of Zionist cul­ Though some parallels between the and flashes of intuition, the volume and its ture. An especially interesting postzionist search of the "New Negro" in the Harlem thesis seem to sink beneath the variety of critique has emerged in the late 1990s in the Renaissance of the 1920s and the "New artists and the complexities of their inten­ context of Israeli feminist criticism notably Jew" of Zionism can be demonstrated, and tions, many of which defy the "mirroring" in the journal Theory and Criticism. The bothgroups can finda common enemy in the thesis. Questions raisedby the attraction of final chapter, "Concluding Reflections," Ku Klux Klan, African-Americans soon African-Americans to Islam or Jewish am­ points out that although postzionism is a turned to their own internal search for iden­ bivalence regarding attempts to put the hor­ rarefied movement confined mostly to aca­ tity without recourse to the "mirror of Juda­ ror of the Holocaust into works of art are not demics and intellectuals, the dissonance of ism." Ambivalence toward the Jew, often mentioned. Nevertheless, theauthor's quest which these critics speak is broadly shared. seen as "landlord," can be detected in art as to relate the work of America's African­ The shift or change the postzionistsare try­ in the texts of Do Bois, James Baldwin and American and Jewish artists is a courageous ing to create is a pre-requisite for genuine Langston Hughes. Meantime,universalistic one, and its occasional successes are en­ peacebetween Jews and Arabs in the Middle and socialist leanings among Jewish artists lightening. East. After the political peace is achieved led to an involvement with Black issues, the cultural work will have to begin. prophetic texts on justice and applicationsof CliffEdwards is professor and chair of reli­ texts fromthe Hebrew Bible to the horrorsof gious studies at Virginia Commonwealth Esther Fuchs is professor of Judaic studies! lynching and the murder of bothJewish and University and editorial consultant of Near East studies at the University of Ari­ Black civil rights workers. Jewish artists Menorah Review. zona and a contributing editor. found in the Black struggle for liberation parallels to the terrors of the Holocaust rag­ ing in Europe. Refugee Jewish artists and scholars sought to show the kinship between swastika and Jim Crow while teaching and acting as patrons to Black artists and their work. The author demonstrates a special inter­ est in the wealth of relevant work by such Jewish artists as Ben Shahn, Jacob Epstein, Chaim Gross, Philip Guston and LarryRiv­ ers. In Rivers, born YitzrochGrossberg to a Jewish immigrant family, the longing for Zion is transformed to a craving for Africa. Illustrations show a rich variety of Rivers' Gideon Ofrat' slavishly illuslratedstudy Have African American and Jewish is the first comprehensive history of Israeli American artists mirrored a shared sense of art in the English language, but since the alienation and strugglefor liberation through RIGHTEOUS MEMORIAL state of Israel only recently celebrated its their images of one another during the past 50th anniversary, rather than its centennial, century? Milly Heyd, a specialist in Jewish They don1go lightir!J candles to the sun. the title is puzzling. Ofrat promptly explains art,teaching at Hebrew University in Jerusa­ Theywait lor darkness that his book "is about the art of a place lem, seeks to demonstrate such visual mir­ liketheir fear theirevi drownir!J reason, (Palestine, Eretz Yisrael, Land of Israel, roring in the first book-length study of the them, with blackness devils wear as piety, Israel)" not the art of a state. His assertion topic. More than a hundred black and white that secularization played a major role in Tel and then theyone illustrations of paintings, sculpture, cartoons Aviv modernism may appear to be corrobo­ and installations, along with a text tuned to rated by many of the plates that the author by one assemble matchirY;J yahrzeit tins the psychological, work to make sense of has selected. Nevertheless, Tolstoy, who wax Blacks and Jews depicting one another. and andv.ick together mourning real saw union among humans as the epitome of One might guess that some early Afri­ heroes murdered leavirY;J righteous men religion, wouldmaintainthatartworks,which can-American artists, following the lead of to light refigious lights lest darkness win. lreat such themes as equality and peace, are the "Negro Spirituals," focused on the Bible religious in import. When Ofrat submits that as a codebook employing Exodus liberation I watched thetelevision church these "secularity is in all Israeli art," surely there themes and Christ on the cross to mirror rebels against the syngogues is one obvious sense in which this is correct: longings for freedom and the sufferingof the that bred the killet Israeli artists have rarely elected to make violence of slavery and horror of I ynchings. theseOOrY;Jregated individuals condemn religion explicitly thematic in their works. For example, the Black artist Henry Ossawa But if religion is a fundamental impulse in as well schools the killer went to. Tanner, whose father was an African Meth­ humankind, then one should not be sur­ odist bishop, visited the Holy Land in the prised to find it surfacing in Israeli art. In­ A 1890s, painting its landscapes and finding man was murdered. deed, the focus of this essay will be on dark Y emenite Jews to pose for his Jesus and That alone was settled. implicit and explicit religious elements in Nicodemus images. Tanner's own studies WI'O was rational, urK:ertain, still. this art. in art reflectthe alienation of the Black artist By 1900, artists in Jerusalem were cre­ of his day. The memoirs of Joseph Pennell, -RichardSherwin ating ritual objectsfor Jewish festivals. These a White student at the Pennsylvania Acad- artifacts invite the basic question: Are they Menorah Review, Spring/Summer 2001 5 art or craft? On the one hand, like many mystical as well as dark and expressionistic. Here one recalls the musicians who contin­ products of craft, they were utilitarian and OfLeopoldKrakauer' s 1926landscapepaint­ ued to play as the Titanic sank. From 1948- did not carry a signature; on the other, they ing of Jerusalem, the philosopher-theolo­ 1963, "New Horizons," an art group that were highly expressive, and a major theory gian Martin Buber said: "Krakauer's soli­ championed abstract art and pure artistic of art holds that art is the transmission of tode encountered the solitude of the land­ values, enjoyed greatpopularity. During the emotion. In the end, many would say that to scape and, under its influence, his solitude late forties, abstract meant representation confer the status of art on an object involves was transformed into something different." stylized toward formalism. Full-blown making a decision rather than a discovery. In terms of Buber's philosophy, Krakauer's abstractionism was, perhaps, inevitable, And ifthis is trueof the category of art, it is "!"met the "Thou"of the land and theresult eventually appearing in the work of such no less true of religion, as when individuals was that bewas more fully actualized. That artistsas David Lan-Bar. Thus, FritzSchiff bestow the status of being spiritually evoca­ he left portions of his paper empty brings to wrote in a catalog: "No contemporary tive on, for example, a ritual artifact. mind the space of Chinese landscape paint­ artist... is able to avoid the compulsion of the Like Tolstoy, the Zionist Boris Schatz ings in which the void suggests the invisible abstract." Ofrat writes: "An issue more (1866-1932) affirmed "art in the service of Tao and invites the viewer to "enter." serious than ever was the 'Israeli character' society;"and for both of these artists, the Mordecai Ardon, whose life spanned of the art." Naturally, artworks expressed enemy was "art for art's sake." Tolstoy nearly a century, was another artist who subtle signs of their Israeli roots when the argued that just as genuine food can feed all some would claim was religious in his moti­ artist drew on the local light, flora, build­ people, genuine art can feed all souls. In vations since he was dedicated to humanity ings, climate and geography. But social short, ifart is truly important to humankind, and social engagement; and religions find realists attacked the abstract works of the rather than a mere frill, then art should be such commitment to be profoundly spiri­ New Horizon artists as a corruption of hu­ accessible to all. tual, for they teachthat what one does for the manism. Not surprisingly, the sculptures of By 1919, Yosef Constantinovsky had least of humans he does for the divine. In such artistsas Yitzhak Danziger was no less imported the cubist revolution to Tel Aviv. addition, like Tolstoy and Schatz, Ardon abstract than the paintings of Leah Nikel. And a few years later, Moshe Mokady (1902- condemned the "art for art's sake" move­ From 1948 to 1955, the social realism of 1975) synthesized fauvist impressionism and ment Cezanne's advice that the painter the artist Ben Shabo prevailedand thepainter cubist forms. At about this time, Y oelTeneh­ "treatnature by the cylinder, the sphere and Yohanan Simon declared: "We arerequired Tannenbaum (1889-1973) painted idyllic the cone" found its counterpart in the pre­ to raisean artist of a new type,integrated into images of kibbutz life in a serene expres­ scription of the sculptor, Rudi Lehmann: the people and the working class," a mes­ sionist style. Thus, there was great stylistic "Familiarity with the laws of the cube, the sage that Tolstoy would surely have em­ diversity but there also were thematic con­ cylinder, the pyramid, the cone and thesphere braced. Predictably, kibbutz artists, who centration points. In 1926, Nahum Gutman is a precondition for realizing sculptural created abstractart, were harassed. After all, urged fellow artists to paint the country's sensationdirectly in variousmaterials." Both how can pure formalism communicate the landscapes since he believed that loving the artists had religious leanings. There is room spirit and identity of a particular people? land could bind Jews together, "not painting for a religious interpretation of Cezanne Believing that artmust be transformative of the [Western] wall with pathetic Jews ..." because he attacked impressionism as su­ society and that the New Horizon movement His work "Rest in the Field"shows two large perficial and sought to penetrate surfaces to was effete, the socialrealists caricatured the figures at ease and agrees with the Taoist what was abiding or metaphysical. And "New Horizons" as the "Narrow Horizons." view that humans can only be serene when Lehmann said that he was partialto the artof Hence, Naphtali Bezem painted they are at peacewith nature. Ironically, the China, Japan and Persia, countries in which Gravediggers, an immense depiction of a two large principal figures prevail in this art and religion have traditionally been in­ Jew digging a mass grave as Nazi troopers workrather than the landscape. By constrast, separable. watch. Eventually, however, he also painted in a traditional Chinese landscape painting, Many members of the sculpturalschool Sacrifice of Isaac in the abstract style of the human figureappears but does not domi­ "Canaanism," which flourished between Picasso. nate the scene. One year earlier, Arieh 1939-1949, ostensibly rejectedJudaism and Born in 1938, David Sharir addressed Lubin painted his "Landscape in Sharona" Jewish art; instead, such sculptors turned to Biblical themes such as the Song of Songs with all the muscular contours of a painting archaic art for inspiration (e.g., the Easter and the Tower of Babel. Moreover, religion by Hart Benton. In 1924, YosefZaritsky's Island type sculptures,pre-Columbian sculp­ became manifest in the religious-mystical "Landscape in the Galilee" moved toward ture, Egyptian figures, Assyrian and symbolism of sculptures by Zvi Aldubi or full-blown abstractionism. In the same year, Babylonian sculptures). Of course, the aes­ the Jewish mysticism of etchings by Yitzchak Frenkel painted the representa­ thetic and the religious areinterfused in such Mordichai Moreh. Ofrat notesthat theyoung tional work "Sacrifice of Isaac" but he went cultures. Thus, rather than remove them­ avantgarde artists, known as the "Ten Plus," on to paint completely abstractpaintings. Of selves from religion altogether, the practi­ yearned to end the stagnation oflsraeli art in course, abstract art can be high! y religious tioners of Canaanism abandoned their own the 1960s. There was acorrespondingmove­ as, for instance, when the geometric design spiritual roots only to take up religious as­ ment in America as some critics declared of a Buddhist mandala promotes meditation. pects of other traditions. Representing a that minimalist painting pointed toward ba­ Among 20th-century Western artworks, the minority, one Canaanite insisted that his art nality and the death of art. During the same paintings of Wassily Kandinsky provide a was inspired by "ancient Hebrew sources decade,American theologians werearguing striking illustration of the abstract as binding me to the foundations of the East, that religion had run itscourse and that God numinous. Indeed, regarded asthe father of Sumer, Assyria and the Canaanites." was dead (i.e., no longer relevant to or sig­ nonrepresentationalart, Kandinsky entitled In 1948, the birth of a new state was nificantly directive of human conduct). his classic monographConcerning the Spiri­ accompanied by artistic responses to war; Nevertheless,in 1961, RaffiLa vie produced tual in Art. painters such as Marcel Janco displayed an a childlike drawing that was compellingly By the thirties, the Israeli artist's main obviousdebt toPicasso'spaintingGuernica. appropriate because both art and religion focuswas on urban rather than ruralsettings; His cubist style, which chopped objectsinto encourage one to cultivate the sensitivities the countryside was now less idyllic since parts and fragments, was, after all, ideally of the child. That same year the controv.er­ there had beenArab attacks on Jewish settle­ suited to capture the horrors of combat. sial monument Holocaust and Survival, cre­ ments. Still, Moshe Mokady's depiction of When bombs fell in 1949, Avigdor Arikha ated by !gael Tumarkin, demonstrated that a street scene or portrait of a boy could be painted and asked: "What else could I do?" art still was capable of addressing the most 6 Menorah Review, Spring/Summer 2001 meaningful ifimponderable ofhwnanevents. "evil which is trite... " (p. 5). But Arendt He then proceeds to list a seeming! y In 1983, Yaakov Dorchin turned to an ex­ never meant to say or imply that the evil endless catalogue of questions, some high­ plicitly religioustheme in his sculpture An­ committedby AdolfEichmann, head of Sec­ lighted in bold print, which, one surmises, gel in anlrishLandscape. And in 199l, he tion JV B 4 of the Reich Security Main are designed to guide the reader through the producedVena Poetical, a piece that calls to Office, was trite. In fact, she argued, as I morass of categories. I could not begin to mind Mu Chi's spiritual masterpieceThe Six noted above, that evil is committed by nor­ enumerate all of them because I am limited Persimmons. malindividuals following orders in pursuit by the amount of space allocated to this Ofrat identifies Moshe Gershuni, who of their everydayjobs. They are people who review so I will simply provide one ex­ blended highly personal aspects of his life do not examine the implications of what ample. Early in the book he examines the with quotes fromprayerbooks and the Bible, they are told to do, they do not look at the role of personal psychological history in as the most charismatic artist in the early outcome of their jobs and they do not accept leading to behavior that results in either eighties. The postmodern pluralism in Is­ responsibility for the results of their actions. killing or rescuing. He summarizes the raeliart has a counterpart in the posunodern Following his brief summary of Arendt, results of other studies and, from these, he plurality of religions. Not on! y have modem Blumenthal states that the goal of his book is attempts to formulate some general prin­ communication andtransportation made one to examine a series of questions that have ciples to guide behavior so that people will aware ofreligions other than one's own but relevance for contemporary society. These stop killing one another and start helping each tradition offers various alternatives include: each other. within itself. In the last quarter of the 20th "How evil is generated, and how one For instance, at one point Blumenthal century,the varietythat Ofrat superbly docu­ would shatterthe patternof evil? How argues that when individuals are inserted ments is a hallmark of Israeli art from is willing obedience generated and into a hierarchy that tolerates or reinforces JoshuaNeustein's politically-motivatedpho­ how would one break the cycle of evil those insertedinto that hierarchywill go tograph of his dog urinating to Asaf Ben authority and obedience? What sort along with the orders to hurt otherpeople. If, Zvi's mystical studies to Yaakov Mishori's of cultural teachings are necessary to on the other hand, they are inserted into a neoexpressionism. This diversity of aes­ prevent family violence and abuse?" hierarchy that forbids evil they will, like­ thetic expressions is welcome, indeed vital, (pp. 6-7) wise, go along with that In short, this comes given Yitzhak Livenh's description of con­ To besure, these areimportant questions but dangerously close to arguing that positive temporary society as: "a world whose im­ Blumenthal takes an already important, and behavior results from being inserted into a ages are all dominated by the mass commu­ one must add complicated, subject and ren­ heirarchy that reinforces positive behavior nications media and publicity firms." ders it trivial through a virtually incompre­ while negative behavior results from being hensible and incoherent discussion. Basi­ part of a hierarchy that reinforces negative Earle J. Coleman is professor of philosophy cally this book is a long review of the litera­ behavior. If this is not a tautology it does atVirginiaCommonwealthUniversityanda ture accomplished throughendless categori­ ignore the possible dialectical nature of hu­ contributing editor. zations and lacking credible explanations. man behavior. Suppose, for example, that Previous work, most of it cited by individuals chooseorganizations, hierarchi­ Blumenthal, not only more clearlyexamines cal or not, to reinforce or support behaviors the same material but has more to say about they wish to pursue. Moreover, there is the the importanceand the lessons to be derived. additionalpossibility, indeed the likelihood, To confuse matters even more, that individuals do exist who simply enjoy Blumenthal adds a concluding section to or feel rewarded for committing acts of each chapter that he calls a "counter-text." cruelty, just as there are those who are re­ Some of these are derived from traditional pelled by these same acts. In short, suppose Jewish texts and, I must admit, it is not clear all of our elaborate theories concerningwhy to me what they are supposed to add to the individuals commit acts of evil are rational­ discussion. With these comments in mind, I izations serving the purposeof divertingour am going to attempt to summarize his argu­ attention from a realitywe wish devoutly not ment to confront: namely, that there are people Blumenthal starts by attempting to as­ who, given the correct circumstances, will certain the disciplines that arerelevant to the enjoy the opportunity to commit acts that questions he lists. He statesthat the range of others regardasevil. Inaddition, Blumenthal Blumenthal begins his analysis with disciplines is a pitfall because there are so appears to argue (p. 43) that authority may Hannah Arendt's conceptualization of the many, including social psychology, experi­ sanction "both prosocial and aggressive be­ "banalityof evil." Arendt formed this con­ mental psychology, history, theology and havior." The implication here is thataggres­ cept as she witnessed the trial of Adolf personal psychology. This is, he thinks, sive behavior is necessarily negative. The Eichmann in Israel. ObservingEichmann, "simply too vast for one person to encom­ problem is that not all aggressive behavior is Arendt was impressed with his "banality," pass," but he has left out perhaps one of the negative. Behavior may, in fact, be aggres­ with the fact that he appeared not to be a most important, politics. It is no secret that sively prosocial; that is, may pursue the psychopath but a personwho obeyed orders many of the genocides of the last century saving of life in an aggressive fashion. De­ without question. Therefore, Arendt ar­ were committed by the state or political pending on Blumenthal's definition of gued, the evil thatEichmann committed was groups attempting toachieve politicalgoals. "agressive," there is an even larger concep­ done in the pursuit of his everyday job. For example, the tragedies of both Bosnia tual problem. When faced with the evil While she did not believe that the evil was and Rwanda were political genocides. This violence of destroying large numbers of banal, the person who committed that evil would not be a problem if the Holocaust people, aggressive behavior is required to she thought fit that categorization. Seizing were in some form "non-political" but it is counter evil. In short, aggressive behavior this theme, Blumenthal argues tht Arendt very clearly the case that the Nazis used the may very well serve the greater good of meant three things: first, "evil which is Jews as scapegoatsto achieve political ends. saving life. normal ... ;" second, "evil which is rational­ There are, of course, those who would dis­ PartOne of the book involves primarily ized as good because it is obedient or be­ agreewith this view but that does not negate this type of discussion. In Part Two, he cause it serves a largerpurpose;" and third, the fact that Blumenthal omits itscompletely. examines what he refers to as "The Affec- Menorah Review, Spring/Summer 2001 7

lions and Value-Concepts of the Prosocial lions. Somewhere, hidden in this literature would have a more objective and universal Life" and what he calls "Do This," which is review and summary categorizations, there appeal. Kant offered a strategyfor building a prescription for prosocial behavior. Fol­ are important questions to be asked and just such a grounding out of purereason and lowing this, the rest of the book involves a answered. Unfortunately, this bookdoes not logic; and his approach became thefounda­ look at what Blumenthal refers to as "The accomplish that task. tion on which many late 20th-century pro­ Voice of Jewish Tradition." fessors of ethics built. To besure, therewere This secondpart of the bookis, accord­ Herbert Hirsh is professor of political sci­ other streams of thought as well: moral ing to Blumenthal, designed to "outline the ence at Virginia CommonwealthUniversity theology was going strongin the seminaries values and norms necessary to cultivate a and a contribUiing editor. and situation ethics was offering a signifi­ more prosocial environment." To accom­ cant alternative to rational, a priori ethics. plish this the author starts with a discourse But the notion that developing ethical norms on God and the Jewish tradition. Important was an inherently logical and secular enter­ lacunae appear in this discussion as well, prise was widely held. questions that must beaddressed but remain By the late 1990s, however, this opti­ unspoken. Is it possible for a person to be mistic sense for developing a universally moral without believing in God? Analo­ acceptable moral philosophy was fading. In gously, is it not true that in the name of God, part this had to do with the rise of post­ or religion, many of the greatest crimes modernismand the claim that any system of againsthumanity have been committed? And behavior was merely a cultural artifact. It finally, is the Jewish tradition, as character­ followed that the assertion on the part of ized by Blumenthal, always "prosocial"? Western professors that they could generate What Blumenthal does is select those as­ a universal andobjective ethic was just an­ pects of the psychological and historical otherexample ofWesternintellectual impe­ literatureas well as the Jewish tradition that rialism. This generated a certain internal supports the points he wishes to make and dissention with the Academy. Alastair ignores material counter to his argument. Mcintyre, for example, argued that thereare For example, how does one reconcile the The first question that comes to mind in many different possible conceptualizations admonition by God to Joshua (Joshua 6:5): seeing Byron Sherwin's new book on ethics of, say, virtue and that the contemporary "Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord is, what is wrong with the ethics we have struggle to define a universal ethic was to destruction, it and all who are in it." And developed in the 20th century? Why do we doomed to failure. He even called, at one the result of that: "And he utterly destroyed need a new ethics for the 21st century? point, for a return to the concept of virtue all thatwas in the city, both man and woman, Although the authornever answers this ques­ developed by the ancient Greeks. young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, tion directly, it is clear from the content of The study of Jewish ethics was not with the edge of the sword" (Joshua 7: II). the book what he has in mind. immune to the influence of these develop­ The point is not to argue what religious or Byron Sherwin is in fact in a unique ments. On the one hand, many writers were historical texts "mean"but to note that one is position to answer thisquestion. On the one trying to show thatJ ewish ethics were just as able toderive meaning from texts to support hand, he is vice-president of academic af­ reasonable and academically acceptable as diverse and apparently contradictory argu­ fairs and distinguished service professor of "gentile" ethics, in fact, maybe even more ments. It is necessary, therefore, to ask Jewish philosophy and mysticism at Spertus so. So a range of writers was engaged in whether it is essential to bring God into the InstituteofJewishStudies in Chicago. Thus, adducing the rational and reasonable basis discussion. Apparentlynot since Blumenthal he is well aware of what is happeningin the ofJewish ethics. In the end what made the proceeds to answer his questions by arguing academic world in general and the world of contributionsof peoplelike Marc Kellner, S. that there are11 aspects of prosocial life and Jewish studies in particular. On the other Daniel Brestauer, Louis Newman, David 12 value-concepts of prosocial life. These hand, he has published numerous books on Novak, ShubertSpero and Elliot Dorff Jew­ might be boiled down to noting that if you Jewish ethics during the course of his career ish was not so much their content, which was behave morally you will be moral. and so is aware as well of the ebb and flow after all pretty much like everyone else's, Essentially, then, there are two books of the academic studies of ethics and moral but the factthat the sources cited were Jew­ here. The first is a review of the historical philosophy. In both arenas, Sherwin appar­ ish sources-Tanach, Talmud, "the and psychological literature at the root of ently senses that trendsprominent in thelate Halachah" and so forth. On the other hand negative and positive behavior, and the sec­ 20th century have come close to playing stood authors trying to do Jewish ethics in a ond is an examination of Jewish traditionsas themselves out. There is a need to look for more traditional mode-that is, by address­ the author believesthey relate to these ques- new directions. ing themselves to specific questions and Up into the 1990s, academic ethicswas articulating "the Jewish view" out of the A LEGEND JOHN KEATS heavily informed by neo-Kantianism. The traditionalhalachah. These tended tobe the FOR assumption was thatcontemporary thinkers more Orthodox scholars such as J. David could develop a coherentmoral system inde­ Bleich and Fred Rosner. For the growing Howshall we dance when jobless pendent of received religious traditions. It number of college-educatedAmerican Jews, aro v.tlatkl music? Bagladies limping was not so much that the received morality who wanted an ethic that was distinctly supermarket carts flowing over with was bad or wrong; in fact, most of what was Jewish but yet not Orthodox, neither of these garbage goodsdown written bypeoplelikeAlfredAyer,Roderick routes was producing particularly satisfying Firth, R.M. Hare, John Rawls and Phillipa results. boardedover streets. It is the adjectives Foot was quite conservative in its content. In the bookbefore us we can discern the Jol11 boardedover streets ruin us The problem was that religious discourse first attempt to chart a third way, one that is txlmeless dancing without partners was marginalized in the university and reli­ both essentially Jewish but non-Orthodox. musK: beyond our rearing. gion seemed in any case to be speaking to It is this that the author seems to be saying, and for ever smaller constituencies. Aca­ that will (or at least should) characterize -RichanfSlerwin demic philosophers saw it as their task to Jewish ethics and moral philosophy in the develop for ethics a new grounding that new millennium. 8 Menorah Review, Spring/Summer 2001

The central pivot of this new Jewish humans human and not let thetn become draw not onlyon Jewish sources but also on ethic, andwhat makes it different from aca­ mere goletns. There is a call herefor a tikkun a wide array of political theorists. It offers demic ethics, is that it "presupposes an ob­ in what it means to behuman in the modem, the reader insights into the literature associ­ jective foundation for moral behavior by industrialized world ated with the fields of Jewish political rooting morality in the revelation of God's It is this attitude that informs the other thought, classic Jewish texts,the writings of will andin tradition'sinterpretation ... of the chapters of the book, dealing with parent­ contemporary Jewish scholars and general revelation" (p. 9). In short, Jewish ethics is hood, cloning, zedakah and repentance. In political philosophy. Jewish precisely insofar as it does not de­ all cases, what is proper, according to He reaffrrms the significance of the pendon the subjectiveapplication of human Sherwin's system, is not what happensto be coventental relationship between God and reasonbut on the objective given of God's allowed or prohibited in the tradition,which the Jewish people. Judaism, he contends, will. This is, of course, no different from is in all events never so monolithic. What must be seen as a "system of rights" and what any Orthodox ethicist would say. The determines this ethicalevaluation is whether "correlative duties." Novak's principal the­ difference, as we shall see, lies in how the the action in question affirms human beings sis states that"there areno covenantal duties traditionis used toshape an approachto life. as agents struggling to mold themselves in that are not backed by correlative rights." It For Sherwin, what is important is not the the image of God and allows that struggle is Novak's contention that most opponents minutiae of the traditional halachah but the toward tikkun to move forward. No new of this model would accept the assumption image of God that lies behind and informs technology,like cloning for example, is pro­ that the concept of rights pertain only to the halachah. It is this (and not the details of hibited a priori; it is how it is used in the individual persons because the individual the halachah per se) to which Jews should larger human scheme of things that deter­ represents "the smallest component in the strive to approach. In an evocative image, mines its moral evaluation. covenantalsystem" since God and the com­ Sherwinlikens human life to a work of art,of So in the end, it is not specificactions or munity"have more claims on the individual molding oneself in the image of God (p. deeds that make for the moral life but an person" thanthe individual has on them. He 165). attitude. As Sherwin puts it at the very end counters with the following: "Once it is Thenovelty of the bookrests not only in of the book,"Ethical living offers eachindi­ shown that all dutiespresuppose correlative its refreshing articulation of what Jewish vidual the opportunity of creating his or her rights ...this erroneous dismissalof a Jewish ethics is all aboutbut in the range of issues it life as a workor art,of molding oneselfin the rights theory can be refuted." In his chapter explicitly addresses. Although this is never image of God" (p. 165). It is this scheme, on "Human Persons and Covenantal Com­ explicitly spelled out, the book takes as its neither fully rational in the Kantian sense munity," for example, Novak outlines a se­ central pivot the concept of "tikkun" or nor strictlyOrthodox, thatfor Sherwin points ries of"rights" an individual can findin any repair. The first substantive chapter (Chap­ to the direction of Jewish ethics in the 21st democratic society. He comments: "Al­ ter Two) addresses itself to "Health and century. though there is far less emphasis on this type Healing." This sets the stage for what fol­ of individual rights thanof the other types of lows by asserting, reminiscent of Peter 1. Haas is professor of religion at Case individual rights in the classical Jewish Maimonides, that the health of the bodyis Western Reserve University and a contrib­ sources, these rights are not totally absent essential if the soul is to carryout itsspiritual uting editor. from the sources." In identifying those indi­ mission. Thehealing of the body,then, is a vidual rights,Novak cites some six examples, holy act done in concert, as it were, with including the"right toprotection from harm," God. The physician is not merely applying "the right topublic assistance"and "the right a technology but doing the Lord's work. to social inclusion." TI1rough an effort to The theme implicit here is addressed combine traditional political theory with explicitly in the next chapter, devoted to Jewish source material, he seeks to capture euthanasia. Here, Sherwin tells us, that thecore themes assoc iated withthe tradition's Jewish ethics is fundamentally differentfrom emphasis. In these arenas his research is Western ethics in that it is based not on the profoundly impressive and his insights par­ rightsof the individual but on the individual's ticularly useful. obligations. Mter a careful lookthrough the However, on a more careful reading, traditional literature, the author concludes one realizes this is not a booktruly focusing that while active euthanasia is clearly con­ on the rights and duties of the individual in demned by traditional understandings of the a modem context but rather a case for reas­ halachah, passive euthanasia is not. With serting the balachic position within Juda­ the advances in today's technology, that Whenever provided the chance to re­ ism. Novak addresses his arguments in tolerant attitude in the tradition toward pas­ view any new materials on Jewish political several directions. From the outset, an at­ sive euthanasia might well need to be ex­ theory and behavior, I have relished the tempt is made by Novak to challenge the panded to cover some cases of active eutha­ opportunity. It has been an area of special ideas of both liberals and communitarians nasia. This is a startling assertion but one interest to me for some periodof time and it regardingtheir respective views on the rela­ that is made to emerge from the discussions is one in which I have been fortunate to do tionship of the individual to the community. found within the traditional sources. some of my own research and writing. The Later this attack shifts when he reas­ For me, the central image of the book notion of a discipline in "Jewish political serts a traditionalist view on the issues of emerges in Chapter Three,"In Adam's Im­ thought" is, of course, a fairly recent phe­ marriage, homosexuality and women's age." The deliberations here flow around nomenon. Daniel Elazar, Alan Mittleman, rights. Here, he seeks to build a case against the concept of the Golem and the relation­ Jonnathan Woocher and Peter Medding, the "liberal" positions and practices of Re­ ship betweenthe Golem and the human. For among others, have made significant contri­ form, Conservative and Reconstructionist Sherwin, the really centralquestion is not so butions to this emerging field. Clearly, Judaism. Binding these constituencies to­ much the traditional one of when a golem David Novak'sCovenantal Rights: A Study gether around the issue of the rights of becomes human. What haunts the author is in Jewish Political Theory will add an inter­ women, for instance, he charges them col­ when humans allow themselves to be re­ esting if not somewhat controversialdimen­ lectively with having adopted a "simplistic duced, in essence, to golems. In some sense, sion to the existing body of literature. This egalitarianism,"which he sees as "totallyat the whole point of Jewish ethics is to keep well-researched, detailed inquiry seeks to variance with the tradition." He continues Menorah Review, Spring/Summer 2001 9 NOTEWORTHY BOOKS

Editor's Note: The following is a list of books received from publishers but, as of this printing, hove not been reviewed for MenorahReview.

CaughtBy History: HolocaustEffects in Contemporary Art, Litera­ BetweenRedemption and Doom: The Strains ofGemum-Jewish trlreand Theory. By Ernstvan Alphen. Stanford University Modernism. By Noah Isenberg. Lincoln: Universityor Press. NebraskaPress.

Sabbath. By JosefErlich. Syracuse UniversityPress. The CentrifugalNovel: S.Y. Agnon'sPoetics of Composition. By StephenKatz. Cranbury, NJ: FairleighDickinson Univer· The Juderia: A HolocaustSurvivor's Tribute to the Jewish Commu­ sity Press. nityof Rhodes. ByLauraVaron. Westport,CT: Praeger (Greenwood Publishing GroupInc.). The Americanir/Jtionof theHolocaust Edited by Hilene Flanzbaum. Baltimore,MD: The JohnHopkins University A Portraitof theAmerican Jewish Community. Edited by Nonnan Press. Linzer,David J, SchnaUand Jerome A. Chanes. Westport, CT: Praeger (GreenwoodPublishing Group Inc.). Problems Uniqueto theHolocaust. Edited by HarryJames Cargas. Lexington: The Universityor Kentucky Pr ess. WagingPeace: Israel andthe Arabs at theEnd of the Century. By llamarRabinovich. NewYork: Farrar,Straus and Giroux. Dispersingthe Ghe iJJJ: The Relocationof JewishImmigrants Across America. By Jack Glazier. Ithaca,NY: CorneDUniversity ControversialCondordals: The Vatican'sRelations withNapoleon, Press. Mussoliniand Hiller. Edited by FrankJ. Coppa. Washing­ ton, D.C.: The CatholicUniversity or America Press. Allemann. By Alfred Koleritsch. Riverside,CA: Ariadne Press.

Monsters andMadonnas: The Roots of ChristianAnti-Semitism (rev. JewsAgainst Prejudice. By Stuart Svonkin. NewYork: Columbia ed.). Syracuse University Pr�. University Pr�.

PaperBridges: SelectedPoems of KadyaMolodowsky. Edited by The Sagein Jewish Society of LateAntiquity. By Richard Kalmin. Kathryn HeUerstein. Detroit: Wayne University Pr�. NewYork: Routledge.

The Cullure of Critique: An EvolutionaryAnalysis of Jewish JustRevenge. By Alan M. Dershowitz. New York: Warner Books Involvementin Twentieth-CenturyIntellectual andPolitical Inc. Movements. By Kevin MacDonald. Westwood,CT: Praeger (Greenwood Publishing GroupInc.). DaingArchoeolotzy in thelAnd of theBible. By John D. Currid. Grand Rapids,Ml: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. The Wandering Jew. By Stefan Heym. Evanston,IL: Northwest­ ernUniversity Press. The Reason for Wings. By Joyce Reiser Kornblatt Universityof SyracusePr ess. RandomHarvest: The NoveTias of Bia/Uc. Edited and translated by David Patterson andEzra Spicehandler. Boulder,CO: From Mesopatmia toModernity. Edited by BurtonL. Visotzky and WestviewPress. David E.Fishman. Boukler, CO: WestviewPr�.

Lessons andLegacies, Volume Ill: Memory,Memorialization and The ApocalypticImagination: An Introductionto Jewish Apocalyptic Denial. Edited by Peter Hayes. Evanston, IL: Northwestern Literature(2nd edition). By John J. Collins. Grand Rapids, University Press. Ml: William B. EerdmansPublishing Co.

BeforeDeporlation: Lettersfrom a Motherto Her Daughters, The FintBuber: YouthfulZionist Writings of MarlinBuber. Edited January1939-December 1942. By Hertha Feiner. Evanston, by Gilya G. Schmidt. Universityor Syracuse Press. IL: Northwestern University Press. Building theFuture: JewishImmigrant Intellectuals and theMaking JamesJoyce's Judaic Other. By MarilynReizbaum. Stanford ofTsukunft. Edited by Steven Cassedy. New York: Holmes University Press. and Meier.

UneasyAsylum: Franceand theJewish Refugee Crisis, 1933-1942. OfMoses andMarx: Folkldeo/of!YandFolk History in the Jewish By VickiCaron. Stanford University Press. LaborMovement By DavidP. Shuldiner. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey (Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.). BudapestDiary: In Search of theMotherbook. By Susan Rubin Suleiman. Lincoln: Universityor Nebraska Press. The Death ofGod Movement and theHolocaust: RadicalTheology Encounters theShoah. Edited by Stephen R. Haynes and HolocaustJoumey. By Martin Gilbert. New York: Columbia John K. Roth. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. University Press. Adieu toEmmanuel Levinas. By JacquesDerrida. Stanford Not theGermans Alone: A Son's Search for theTruth of Vichy. By University Press. IsaacLevendel Evanston,IL: NorthwesternUniversity Press. Kaddish for a ChildNot Born. By Imre Kertesz. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Dialogue,Conflict, Resolution and Change: Arab-Jewish Encounters inIsraeL By Mohammed Abu-Nimer. Albany: State The Red Cross andthe Holocaust. By Jean-Claude Favez. New Universityor New York Press. York: Cambridge University Press. 10 Menorah Review, Spring/Summer 2001

by stating: "This total disregard for the what sits outside acceptable Jewish prac­ outside tltis model? His principal intention normative tradition will, sooner or later, tice, Novak is seeking, in fact, to prescribe here is to press for the "renewal of the cov­ make the practice of these new religious conduct and behavior. It is here that one enant," which for Novak implies the rights a hollow exercise,for it quickly calls must raise the question of whether he realis­ reassertion of rabbinic Jewish law and prac­ to question just about everything the tradi­ tically takes into account the availability of tice. lion has ever bequeathed... " As a result of choices that exist in democratic systems. Theory is only meaningful when it is the assault on tradition, he concludes,"the Arguing on behalf of the compatibility of responsive to the realities of a culture. continuity of the community is lost and a Judaism with democracy,Novak leaveslittle Novak's brilliant analysis appears to fall new, ideological vision is substituted for it, room for accepting change within Judaism. short in tltis regard, as it fails to take into one basedneither on revelation nor reason." As a result, he neither accounts for the account social change and the democratic Elsewhere,Novakproposes thatGod's rights impactor rolesplayed by these liberalmove­ liberal tradition. From the beginning, he are "more foundational" than the rights of ments withinJewish life. rejects the idea of the "fallacy of immediate the individual or the community. But later, Early on, Novak suggests the follow­ relevance," which Novak describes as "the he would write even more directly on this ing: "As long as thereare Jews who look to simple location in the Jewish tradition of notion when he says: "All power and rights the Jewish tradition for authority, the cov­ precedents for the modem democratic inter­ are gifts from God." enant between God and Israel is still opera­ est in human rights." But Novak can not and It ishere whereI feela greatdiscomfort tive, however partially." By this statement does not offer the reader an altemative road. with this approach. Novak, at the outset, is Novak suggesting that his model is not argues that this effort is "not an attempt to applicable to the rest of the Jewish enter­ Steven Windmuel/er is director of the Irwin provide any immediate solutions tothe very prise? Since the majority of Jews may not fit Daniels School of Jewish Communal Ser­ real politicaldilemmas of eitherthe Jews or Novak's definition,one must ask how might vice, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Insti­ the larger world in which Jews live today." he broaden the relevance of his philosophi­ tute ofReligion, Los Angeles, and a contrib­ By using his theoretical model to defme cal treatise to incorporate those who sit uting editor.

Nonprofit organization U.S. Postage PAID MEt!QRAH� Richmond, Virginia !vcu I Permit No. 869

NUMBER 52 • CENTER FOR JUDAIC STUDIES OF VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY • SPRING-SUMMER 2001

Menorah Review is plblished by lhe Cenler for Judaic Studies of Virginia Commonwealth Univenity and distributed worldwide. Comments md manuscripts are welcome. Address all correspondence to Center for Judaic Studies, P.O. Box 842025, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond,VA 23284-2025.

Editor: Jack D. Spiro Editorial Consultant: CliffEdwards Produ