Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents Religious Dissidence in Contemporary Israel

by Topel, Marta F.

• ISBN13: 9780761859178
• ISBN10: 0761859179
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-06
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

In this book, Marta T. Topel utilizes anthropological research to analyze both macro and micro social processes among secular and Orthodox Jews in Israel. She covers such complex issues as the tensions between the two groups and the radicalization of Israeli Jewish Orthodoxy in the last thirty years. The book also delves into micro social processes such as the long and tortured journey of Israeli religious dissidents and the role of non-governmental organizations in helping these dissidents adapt to secular society. In addition, she discusses the symbolic and ritual paraphernalia that dissidents must become familiar with in order to be successful in their new lives as secular Jews. Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents approaches the phenomenon of religious dissidence within the Jewish Israeli Orthodoxy through the lens of the inverse phenomenon: religious conversion to Jewish Orthodoxy. This outlook is based on theoretical ground as both events constitute a radical change of the ideology of both the social actors and the social structures they have abandoned.

Author Biography

Malta F. Topel is an anthropologist, researcher, and lecturer in the Program for Jewish Studies at the University of Sao Paulo. She is the author of Jerusalem and Sao Paulo: The New Jewish Orthodox in Focus and has written several articles on Jewish orthodoxy, modern Judaism, and religious fundamentalism in Brazil.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xix
The Disenchantment of the World and the Dismantlement of Rabbinical Judaism	p. 1
Religion and Religious Coercion in the State of Israel	p. 20
Religious Dissidents, the New Marranos and the Discontented; or, Of a Certain Unrest in the Orthodox Universe	p. 42
Separation: In Search of Questions	p. 61
In the Margin of the Margins	p. 84
Incorporation: A Limited Number of Answers to a Great Many Questions	p. 111
Glossary	p. 134
Bibliography	p. 139
Index	p. 145
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