Contemporary Jewries: Convergence and Divergence

by Eliezer Ben-Rafael (Editor)

This is a book about "Klal Yisrael," the worldwide commonwealth of the Jewish people. The main question asked, is whether one can still speak of 'one' Jewish people, encompassing all Jews in the world. The Jewish collective identity stands at new crossroads of multicultural ideologies and transnational diasporism. Jewry is experiencing an existential problem in today's changing society, shifting between convergence and unity on the one hand and divergence and division on the other hand. Quo vadis, O Jewish people? Rather than fully answering this question, researchers from Israel, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine, Russia, France and Belgium try to open up the discussion in this book.

406 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Eliezer Ben-Rafael (Hebrew: אליעזר בן-רפאל; born 1938 in Belgium) is an Israeli sociologist. He is Weinberg Professor of Sociology, emeritus, at Tel Aviv University.