The Chosen The History of an Idea, and the Anatomy of an Obsession

by Beker, Avi

• ISBN13: 9780230600485
• ISBN10: 0230600484
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-04-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The Chosen explores Judaism's key defining concept and inquires why it remains the central unspoken and explosive psychological, historical, and theological problem at the heart of Jewish-Gentile relations. Crisscrossing the twin cultural and theological divides between Judaism, Christendom, and Islam, The Chosen explains how the Jews, of all people, have come to represent at once the epitome of both the good and the odious. Beker covers not only the great stories of how the Jews came to be chosen and the Christian, Muslim, and Nazi efforts to appropriate the title, but also the key role 'chosenness' plays in contemporary anti-Semitism and in the current Middle East conflict over the Land of Israel and the chosen city of Jerusalem.

Author Biography

Avi Beker served as Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) until 2003. He served as a member of the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN and was a delegate to five General Assemblies dedicated to disarmament.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Confronting the Issue of the Chosen	p. 1
How Were "The Chosen" Chosen?	p. 15
The Gentile Replacement of the Chosen	p. 39
Global but Apart	p. 69
Hating the Chosen: Anti-Semitism	p. 89
Shoah: The Final Solution for the Chosen	p. 109
Israel: A Chosen Nation in Their Chosen Land	p. 131
Jerusalem: The Chosen City	p. 157
Epilogue: Why Is the World Obsessed with the Jews?	p. 177
Notes	p. 193
Bibliography	p. 219
Index	p. 231
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