Israeli Nation-State Political, Constitutional, and Cultural Challenges [Paperback]

This volume of original essays, by some of Israels most remarkable public and academic voices, offers a series of state-of-the art, accessible analyses of Israels ever-evolving theater of statecraft, public debates, and legal and cultural dramas, its deep divisions andmore surprisingly, perhapsits internal affinities and common denominators. Contributors: Fania Oz-Salzberger, Yedidia Z. Stern, Ayman K. Agbaria, Aviad Bakshi, Ariel L. Bendor, Ruth Gavison, Michael M. Karayanni, David Passig, Avi Sagi, Gideon Sapir, Anita Shapira, Daniel Statman, Gadi Taub, Shira Wolosky, Alexander Yakobson, Yaffa Zilbershats.There can be no more urgent issues facing the contemporary State of Israel than the relationship between democracy and its Jewish identity. In these trenchant and timely essays, the authorsall of them distinguished Israeli scholarsapproach the question with tools of political theory, history, law and the philosophy of religion.Fania Oz-Salzberger (PhD Oxford University) is professor of history at the University of Haifa Center for German and European Studies and Faculty of Law, where she directs the Posen Research Forum for Political Thought. Among her books are Translating the Enlightenment (1995), Israelis in Berlin (2001), and Jews and Words, co-authored with Amos Oz (2012). She recently edited, with Thomas Maissen, The Liberal-Republican Quandary in Israel, Europe, and the United States (2012).An outstanding collection of essays by the leading scholars writing on modern Israel. Anyone who wants to think deeper about the Jewish and democratic character of Israel and the complicated relationship between state and religion should read this book.Yedidia Z. Stern is the Vice President of Research at Israel Democracy Institute, where he heads the projects on Religion and State and Human Rights and Judaism. He is a full professor at Bar-Ilan University Law School, and served as its Dean. His areas of professional interest are religion and state, Jewishl³1