Next Year in Jerusalem: Exile and Return in Jewish History

by Leonard J. Greenspoon (Editor)

Overview

Next Year in Jerusalem recognizes that Jews have often experienced or imaged periods of exile and return in their long tradition. The fourteen papers in this collection examine this phenomenon from different approaches, genres, and media. They cover the period from biblical times through today. Among the exiles highlighted are the Babylonian Exile (sixth century BCE), the exile after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple (70 CE), and the years after the Crusaders (tenth century CE). Events of return include the aftermath of the Babylonian Exile (fifth century BCE), the centuries after the Temple’s destruction (first and second CE), and the years of the establishment of the modern State of Israel (1948 CE). In each instance authors pay close attention to the historical settings, the literature created by Jews and others, and the theological explanations offered (typically, this was seen as divine punishment or reward for Israel’s behavior). The entire volume is written authoritatively and accessibly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557538758
Publisher:	Purdue University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Series:	Studies in Jewish Civilization , #30
Pages:	324
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Leonard J. Greenspoon holds the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University, where he also is a professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies and of theology. Prior to his tenure at Creighton, Greenspoon was a professor of religion at Clemson University. As well as editing the Studies in Jewish Civilization series, Greenspoon has coedited another four volumes and written four monographs. A prolific author, he has written over two hundred and fifty journal articles, book chapters, and major encyclopedia entries. He has made public and scholarly presentations throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Israel and many European countries. His major research interests center on Bible translations (especially Jewish versions) and religion in popular culture.

Read an Excerpt

For the last two decades or so, we have held our annual symposium on the last Sunday and Monday of October. At the conclusion of every year’s event—and sometimes even before then—someone asks about the topic for the following year. This is not surprising, since our selection of a different topic for each year is a distinctive feature of our series of symposia—and from my perspective (and not mine alone, I think) a positive characteristic.

So it was that at the end of October 2016, with the twenty-ninth symposium still a vivid memory, I began soliciting ideas for our thirtieth installment from my academic colleagues and interested members of Omaha’s Jewish community. My good friend Moshe Gershovich, director of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Schwalb Center and an active cosponsor of the symposium series, was brimming with enthusiasm as he suggested “Exile and Return.”

In this context he was especially interested in the Balfour Declaration, which was promulgated one hundred years earlier in 1917. We talked about Moshe’s delivering the keynote address on this topic. Alas, Moshe’s death, which was a personal and professional loss to all who knew him, intervened, and he was no longer alive in the fall of 2017.

We did keep alive Moshe’s idea for the symposium. Recognizing that we could not find a “substitute” Moshe, as it were, to make a keynote presentation, we went in another direction with a concert by renowned performers Maria Krupoves and Gerard Edery. This was made possible through the generosity of the director of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Harris Center, Jean Cahan.

In a sense, then, the symposium and these essays are a tribute to Moshe and his vision. In a larger sense, they also reflect the combined talents and energies of those who participated in this symposium and prepared a publishable written version of their presentations.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Editor's Introduction ix

Contributors xv

Place as Real and Imagined in Exile: Jerusalem at the Center of Ezekiel Samuel L. Boyd 1

"How Deserted Lies the City": Politics and the Trauma of Homelessness in the Hebrew Bible Dereck Daschke 29

Exile and Return in the Samaritan Traditions Menahem Mor 49

The Al-Yahudu Texts (ca. 572-477 BCE): A New Window into the Life of the Judean Exilic Community of Babylonia Jean-Philippe Delorme 71

Karaites and Jerusalem: From Anan ben David to the Karaite Heritage Center in the Old City Daniel J. Lasker 99

Jewish Folk Songs: Exile and Return Paula Eisenstein Baker 111

Is Zionism a Movement of Return? Haim Sperber 127

The Jew in Situ: Variations of Zionism in Early Twentieth Century America Judah M. Bernstein 135

Returning to Jewish Theology: Further Reflections on Franz Rosenzweig Jean Alexrad Cahan 153

Exile and Return: Indian Jews and the Politics of Homecoming Joseph Hodes 171

Against the Sabra Current: Hanokh Bartov's Each Had Six Wings and the Embrace of Diasporic Vitality Philip Hollander 185

Shylock and the Ghetto, or East European Jewish Culture and Israeli Identity Dror Abend-David 211

Exile and Zionism in the Writings of Rav Shagar Shlomo Abramovich 229

The Role of the Temple Mount Faithful Movement in Changing Messianic Religious Zionists' Attitude toward the Temple Mount Mordechai (Motti) Inbari 247