The Others Within Us: Constructing Jewish-Israeli Identity

by Dan Bar-On

• ISBN13: 9780521708289
• ISBN10: 0521708281
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-07
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Dan Bar-Ons psychosocial approach sees identity as dynamic, constructed in contra-distinction to various Others. Drawing parallels to other societies, he looks most closely at identity formation among Israelis, or more precisely, among the largely secular Jews from European lands who formed the hegemonic backbone of Israeli society. Case studies and analysis depict various stages in identity formation, as do personal windows onto the author as he experienced these stages. Others such as Diaspora Jews, Jews from Muslim countries, and Arabs represent repressed aspects of the collective self. Monolithic identity disintegrates over time, in ways that are often confusing and painful. The perception of threat often creates a neo-monolithic backlash. Yet the book holds out the possibility of a constructive dialogue, internal and among groups in society, that will give rise to a better-integrated and more inclusive identity construction.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Past: Monolithic Identity Construction	p. 14
Personal Window 1	p. 21
The Present I: Disintegration of the Monolithic Construction	p. 51
Personal Window 2	p. 59
Being a "sabra" in the shadow of the Holocaust	p. 60
Personal Window 3	p. 65
The social role in avoiding acknowledgment of battle shock	p. 66
Deconstruction of the monolithic myth in the first Intifada: Shimon's testimony	p. 84
Personal Window 4	p. 89
The logic of moral argumentations: Descendants of Nazi perpetrators in Germany	p. 91
The Present II: The Neo-Monolithic Construction	p. 100
Adi: Between monolithic and neo-monolithic identity construction	p. 107
Personal Window 5	p. 122
Why did the Al-Aqsa Intifada backlash overtake the gains of the Oslo Accord?	p. 123
The Future: A Dialogue Between Disintegrated Aspects of Identity	p. 131
Yael and her father	p. 135
Dialogue between the self and the alien other: Israeli Jewish and Palestinian students	p. 159
Postscript	p. 192
Identity construction in other conflict-ridden regions	p. 192
Parties in conflict sharing stories: Acknowledgment and working through	p. 198
Personal Window 6: From The Monolithic Construction to Dialogue	p. 207
Bibliography	p. 213
Index	p. 219
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