Showing papers on "Jewish state published in 1968"

The Problem of Jewish Law in a Jewish State.

Abstract: Introduction: With the increasing tendency in Israel to replace the old Ottoman civil law, thefamiliar question of the reception of Jewish (talmudic) law has once again become the subject of lively discussion. In his policy speech in the Knesset the then new Minister of Justice, Mr. Y. S. Shapiro, declared as his objective the gradual severance of Israel law from the present pervasive influence of the English legal system. He was too cautious to take a definite stand on the question of the reception of Jewish law (or any other specific system) to replace the present law, but aspirations towards this goal have recently been expressed on various occasions by representatives of different parties. The forceful demand “to base the laws of the State on the Halacha” comes especially from die religious parties. But representatives of the non-religious parties also recommend the reception of Jewish law in those areas of private law where no decisions on ideological grounds need to be made.In point of fact, the unanimity with regard to the reception of Jewish law is based on two outlooks differing in origin. Non-religious circles view Jewish law as a cultural creation of national significance, comparable to the revival of the Hebrew language. The firm establishment of Israel law on Jewish legal principles is advocated as an expression of spiritual independence, stressing the historical continuity of the people residing in Zion.

The Zionist attitude to the Arabs 1908–1914

Abstract: A good deal has been written about the beginnings of the Arab national movement, its cultural background and early teachings. A certain amount has been written about its political manifestations in the period before World War I, the different groups and societies and their various inclinations and aspirations. However, one aspect of this movement has received very little attention, namely its relations with the Zionist movement and Jewish activity in Palestine, one side of which will be discussed in this article.1 As early as 1905 a number of Arab nationalist and antiZionist manifestations drew the attention of the European press and of Zionists to the Arab national movement. In that year Negib Azoury published Le Reveil de la Nation Arabe which demanded the establishment of an independent Arab empire from the Nile to the Euphrates. He indicated the danger to the fulfilment of the project inherent in the Zionist movement, the ultimate aim of which, according to Azoury, was the revival of the ancient Jewish state at its most expansive.2 An article on the Arab movement devoted largely to an analysis of Azoury's book, was the first of three articles published on the subject in the Jewish nationalist periodical Hashiloah. The article discussed 'the Arab movement, that has just come to light and attracted the gaze of all the peoples of Europe'. The writer pointed out that while there was as yet no real Arab nationalist movement, and although the Arab was still living in a state of ignorance, serfdom and religious fanaticism 'in history it is the movements, not the

A Binational Approach to the Palestine Conflict

Abstract: Binationalism as a possible solution to the bitter conflict between Arab and Jewish nationalisms in Palestine is not a novel conception. Thirty and even forty years ago there were Zionists such as Dr. Judah Magnes' and leaders of the Ha-Shomer ha-Zair movement2 who conceived of binationalism as a middle way toward resolution of the conflict. However, neither Palestine Arab nationalists nor most Zionist leaders found such proposals meritorious. By the end of World War II when the Biltmore program3 calling for a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine had become accepted Zionist policy, and establishment of the country as an independent Arab state was the generally proclaimed goal of Palestine's Arab leaders,4 a binationalist compromise seemed even more remote. Extermination of ninety per cent of Europe's Jews, and intensification of Arab nationalism deepened the rift between the two groups of peoples. Zionists, with the support of most organized world Jewry, by and large declared willingness to accept less than all of Palestine rather than surrender to a shared sovereignty. They preferred a smaller but exclusive Jewish state in part of the disputed area to a diluted control within a larger region. Without complete sovereignty, they believed, it would be impossible to achieve their total national

Israel and Jewish Education in the Diaspora

Abstract: T X HE IMPLICATIONS OF the rise of Israel for the educational and cultural fortunes of Diaspora Jewry may not be as obvious and as pressing as present-day social and political issues confronting Israel and World Jewry, but from the long range view it is certain that the question of cultural and spiritual ties bewteen Israel and the Diaspora, particularly that of American Jewry, will surpass in importance some of the problems that command our attention today. Unlike the issues arising from the new political realities, the question of the cultural relations between the Jewish State and the Diaspora has been up for discussion for some time. Indeed, one may speak of three classic versions of this relationship as formulated by Theodore Herzl, Ahad Haam and Jacob Klatzkin. Herzl, as is well known, had neither knowledge of, or interest in a specific Jewish culture; he therefore, thought of Palestine in terms of a multi-lingual commonwealth patterned after Switzerland or other western European community. In his "Judenstat" Herzl wrote: "Switzerland affords proof of the possibility of a