Has Zionism exhausted itself? A critique of liberal Zionism -- My tragic love affair with Zionism -- How to separate Jewishness from Zionism, or, Israel after Zionism -- On Jews, un-Jews, and anti-Jews: Resetting an old table -- The grand collaboration: Where the boycott and settlement movements unwittingly work towards the same end -- Who owns the Holy Land? Thoughts on homeland, rights, and ownership -- Are the Jews an oppressed people today? Thoughts on antisemitism and oppression -- Exile in the land: the religious post-Zionism of Rav Shagar -- The necessity of exile: Reading exile back into Jewish history -- Outro.
Summary:
What is exile? What is diaspora? What is Zionism? Jewish identity today has been shaped by prior generations' answers to these questions, and the future of Jewish life will depend on how we respond to them in our own time. In The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance, celebrated rabbi and scholar Shaul Magid offers an essential contribution to this intergenerational process, inviting us to rethink our current moment through religious and political resources from the Jewish tradition. On many levels, Zionism was conceived as an attempt to "end the exile" of the Jewish people, both politically and theologically. In a series of incisive essays, Magid challenges us to consider the price of diminishing or even erasing the exilic character of Jewish life. A thought-provoking work of political imagination, The Necessity of Exile reclaims exile as a positive stance for constructive Jewish engagement with Israel/Palestine, antisemitism, diaspora, and a broken world in need of repair. -- Back cover.
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