A Less Spoken About Angle: The Threat Israel Presents to Jewish Peoplehood

As head of an organization for religious freedom and equality in Israel, Regev focuses on the threat to a sense of Peoplehood brought on by the lack of religious pluralism in Israel. He points to the conflict between Israel’s unifying role for world Jewry and its current laws that discriminate against “the overwhelming majority of…

The Pluralism of Pluralism in Israel:

Kelman gives a short history of the struggle surrounding Israeli religious pluralism since the mid-1980s, when the Israel Religious Action Center was founded to promote liberal Judaism in Israel and create a more level playing field for non-Orthodox Judaism. She concludes that, “pluralism has the potential to strengthen peoplehood. That is the challenge facing us.…

Guidelines for the Philanthropic Response of World Jewry to a Crisis in Israel

This article offers guidelines for individuals, foundations, or organizations that aim, through their philanthropy, to either increase Israel’s resilience or help Israel respond better to crisis. The context for this paper is that while philanthropists can and should play a significant role in enhancing the preparedness of Israel’s civil society, during future crises it may…

Klal Israel – Are we in it Together? Israelis and Jewish Peoplehood

From the Peoplehood Papers #8, this article discusses the perception of the diaspora from the perspective of Israelis. The authors argue that there are three factors that have shaped these views in Israel, including the classic Zionist narrative, politics and religion, and American philanthropy. Ezrachi and Rafaeli believe that meaningful educational initiatives will enhance their sense…

Jewish Peoplehood and Zionism – Towards a Historical Synthesis

The author argues that strengthening the sense of Jewish Peoplehood can only take place around the connection between Israel and the Diaspora: By strengthening already existing short and long term Israel programs for Diaspora youth, but also the opposite: It is wrong that the only connection of Israeli youth to the diasporas will be through…

A Post-Modern Jewish Peoplehood for Israel

The author compares different ways that scholars, writers and activists understand the concept of Jewish peoplehood and provides an analytic framing of the concept. Overall, he sees peoplehood as a concept invented by American Jewry and discusses what happens when it is imported into the Israeli context. He believes that peoplehood has the potential to…

Rethinking Global Jewish Collectivity in a Post-Statist World

The author frames Mordechai Kaplan’s thinking on the Jewish State and Jewish nation (people), using it to argue that it is time to move from priveleging state over nation and political sovereignty over global collectivity. He suggests that we need to modify the current paradigm which puts the Jewish State at the center, and consider…

Pushing Peoplehood: An Agenda that Matters

Based on the position that intellectual activity around the expression of Jewish peoplehood is aligned with a sense that the bonds of Jewish peoplehood are declining, the authors focus on the implications for Jewish communal settings, especially surrounding tzedaka and community-building – raising money and the level of consciousness around collective Jewish values. Using research…

On the Relationship Between Peoplehood and Zionism

The author questions the relationship between peoplehood and Zionism, distinguishing between dimensions of meanings of the term peoplehood, and offering four propositions that civer the different schools of thought regarding the idea/ideology of Zionism. He concludes that the idea of peoplehood is fully congruent with the basic underlying proposition of the Zionist idea. He notes…

Zionism and Peoplehood: Toward a Historical Synthesis

Religion, nationalism and peoplehood are highlighted as the anchors of Jewish identity. Historically, first religion dominated the three, and then nationalism in the form of Zionism. Changes in classical Zionism in the 21st century have made room for religion and peoplehood to be complimentary rather than contradictory to Jewish nationalism, with a move from state…

When the Jewish People and Israel Conflict

The word “Israel” has multiple meanings and associations. The author discusses the intentional ambiguity of three terms associated with Israel – am (people), eretz (land), and le’om (nation) – signifying a rootedness in a particular geographic locale and the aspiration that all Jews are part of the Jewish collective regardless of where they live. She…

Peoplehood’s Overlooked Origins as a Critique of Zionism and Nationalism

One of the underlying issues in today’s conversations about the meaning of “peoplehood” is situating the term’s relationship with historical expressions of Zionism. There is a lot at stake in establishing precisely where the concept falls on the spectrum between nationalism’s inclination to place the state at the center of collective cohesion and a more…