1st Edition
The Making of Modern Jewish Identity Ideological Change and Religious Conversion
Introduction 1. Moving Away From Communism: The Case of Arthur Koestler 2. "Is it good for the Jews?" The Conversion of Norman Podhoretz, Editor of Commentary magazine, from the New Left to Neoconservatism 3. From Anti-Zionist Orthodoxy to Messianic Religious Zionist: the Case of Yissachar Shlomo Teichtel 4. From Spiritual Conversion to Ideological Conversion: The Quest of Ruth Ben-David 5. The "Deconversion" of Haim Herman Cohn: A Model of Secular Religion 6. Avraham (Avrum) Burg between Religious Zionism and Post-Zionism Concluding remarks
Biography
Motti Inbari is an Associate Professor of Religion at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. An expert in the study of Jewish Orthodoxy, his books include Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount (2009), Messianic Religious Zionism Confronts Israeli Territorial Compromises (2012), and Jewish Radical Ultra-Orthodoxy Confronts Modernity, Zionism and Women’s Equality (2016).
"The book offers interesting glimpses into the relationship between the psychological, religious, and political biographies of noteworthy Jewish figures. Inbari’s invitation to consider the experience of conversion, be it political or theological, as an important theme within the modern Jewish experience is a welcome one, and one can only hope that scholars will further pursue this line of inquiry that promises to challenge common assumptions." — Eva Gurevich, H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews, January 2020
