In Search of Identity

Culture has played a focal role in the shaping of Jewish-Israeli national identity. Since the 1950s, Israeli culture has been disintegrating into simultaneous sub-cultures. The contributors discuss the nature and characteristics of this cultural tension and the nature of Jewishness. Part 1 Cultural tension: Judaism in Israel culture, Eliezer Schweid; secular Judaism and its prospects, Charles S. Liebman; between hegemony and dormant Kulturkampf in Israel, Baruch Kimmerling; shall we find sufficient strength? on behalf of Israel secularism, Gershon Shaked; between Rabbi Shach and modern Hebrew literature, Dan Miron. Part 2 The Jewishness of Israeli identity: spiritual rootlessness and circumscription to the here and now in the Sabra World View, Avraham Shapira; the Shdemot circle members in search of Jewish sources, Gad Ufaz; Jewish education in the Jewish state, David Zisenwine. Part 3 Artistic representations of Jewish identity: Sisera's mother and the Trojan women - on universal aspects of the Jewish/Israeli theatre, Eli Rozik-Rosen; from Jew to Hebrew - the Zionist narrative in the Israeli cinema of the 1940s and 1950s, Nurit Gertz; the theme of Jerusalem in the works of the Israeli fathers of conceptual arts, Moderchai Omer; The Dybbuk revisited - images of religious Jews on the Israeli stage, Shimon Levy.