What do you think?
Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians
For many Jewish people in the mid-twentieth century, Zionism was an unquestionable tenet of what it meant to be Jewish. Seventy years later, a growing number of American Jews are instead expressing solidarity with Palestinians, questioning old allegiances to Israel. How did that transformation come about? What does it mean for the future of Judaism?
In Days of Awe , Atalia Omer examines this shift through interviews with a new generation of Jewish activists, rigorous data analysis, and fieldwork within a progressive synagogue community. She highlights people politically inspired by social justice campaigns including the Black Lives Matter movement and protests against anti-immigration policies. These activists, she shows, discover that their ethical outrage at US policies extends to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. For these American Jews, the Jewish history of dispossession and diaspora compels a search for solidarity with liberation movements. This shift produces innovations within Jewish tradition, including multi-racial and intersectional conceptions of Jewishness and movements to reclaim prophetic Judaism. Charting the rise of such religious innovation, Omer points toward the possible futures of post-Zionist Judaism.
In Days of Awe , Atalia Omer examines this shift through interviews with a new generation of Jewish activists, rigorous data analysis, and fieldwork within a progressive synagogue community. She highlights people politically inspired by social justice campaigns including the Black Lives Matter movement and protests against anti-immigration policies. These activists, she shows, discover that their ethical outrage at US policies extends to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. For these American Jews, the Jewish history of dispossession and diaspora compels a search for solidarity with liberation movements. This shift produces innovations within Jewish tradition, including multi-racial and intersectional conceptions of Jewishness and movements to reclaim prophetic Judaism. Charting the rise of such religious innovation, Omer points toward the possible futures of post-Zionist Judaism.
368 pages, Paperback
Published May 21, 2019
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
October 7, 2022
“Wow. Wow. Wow. A riveting, densely packed, bottom-up tour de force on Jewish Palestine solidarity work.
A heavy dose of intellectual food for thought on those working on reclaiming Judaism, painfully transforming from indoctrination to enlightenment, by consciously “unlearning” with a bold determination to employ the Jewish tradition of social justice in the struggle to end the nightmare Zionism, through Israel, has brought upon Judaism.
This deep dive research is founded on dozens of interviews with those American Jews acting in “critical caretaking” of their Judaism while in the trenches of social justice to dismantle and rebuild the doxa they have been brought up to believe.
The book addresses the dynamics and inner workings of the intersectionality of Palestine solidarity work as it relates to the Movement for Black Lives, the Church, and the LGBTQI communities.
Bottom line, Judaism is just as beautiful and convoluted as all religions, and where there is a will to constructively employ it in advancing social justice it is powerful.
Days of Awe informs us that, not only is their hope but hope is being played out—here and now—as we live through these turbulent times."
~ Sam Bahour
A heavy dose of intellectual food for thought on those working on reclaiming Judaism, painfully transforming from indoctrination to enlightenment, by consciously “unlearning” with a bold determination to employ the Jewish tradition of social justice in the struggle to end the nightmare Zionism, through Israel, has brought upon Judaism.
This deep dive research is founded on dozens of interviews with those American Jews acting in “critical caretaking” of their Judaism while in the trenches of social justice to dismantle and rebuild the doxa they have been brought up to believe.
The book addresses the dynamics and inner workings of the intersectionality of Palestine solidarity work as it relates to the Movement for Black Lives, the Church, and the LGBTQI communities.
Bottom line, Judaism is just as beautiful and convoluted as all religions, and where there is a will to constructively employ it in advancing social justice it is powerful.
Days of Awe informs us that, not only is their hope but hope is being played out—here and now—as we live through these turbulent times."
~ Sam Bahour
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review