Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-327) and index.
Contents:
Preface: A Jewish national liberation movement -- Part I "I broke the bars of your yoke". Zionism transforms a nation -- "We hereby declare" : first, existence -- "We shall still see goodness" : healing Jewish heartbreak -- "Grounded in our national culture" : restoring a nation -- Part II "Must the sword devour forever?". Conflict and the Jewish state -- "Lest the sword fall from our hands" : Jews defend themselves -- "The day of vengeance will come" : wars with neighboring states -- "Liberation" or "Nakba" : Palestinians, land, legitimacy -- Part III "As envisioned by the prophets". The complicated care of Israel's democracy -- "I'm for Jewish democracy" : ethnic democracy and its discontents -- "Do what is just and right" : the "other in Israeli society -- "A life of honest toil" : from food rationing to tech powerhouse -- Part IV "The Jewish state" or "The state of the Jews"?. Jewish statehood, Jewish flourishing -- "Trust in the rock of Israel" : Judaism in the state of the Jews -- "From the four corners of the earth" : Israel and the diaspora -- "The world shall fill with bounty" : Israel and humankind -- Conclusion: "Half dust, half heaven".
Summary:
"In 1948, Israel's founders had much more in mind than the creation of a state. They sought not mere sovereignty but also a "national home for the Jewish people," where Jewish life would be transformed. Did they succeed? The state they made, says Daniel Gordis, is a place of extraordinary success and maddening disappointment, a story of both unprecedented human triumph and great suffering. Now, as the country marks its seventy-fifth anniversary, Gordis asks: Has Israel fulfilled the dreams of its founders? Using Israel's Declaration of Independence as his measure, Gordis provides a thorough, balanced perspective on how the Israel of today exceeds the country's original aspirations and how it has fallen short"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.