Publications
This book is about the birth of Christianity. Its perspective, however, is a Jewish one. It suggests that Christianity, as a discrete religious entity, distinct from Judaism, was born, among many other things, out of a complicated and dynamic social and discursive process of both seclusion and exclusion, in which various Jewish groups, among which were also the followers of Jesus, were introduced under the rabbinic category of minim, and were thus produced by rabbinic discourse as “others,” as “non-Jews.”
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In 1965 social scientist Charles S. Liebman published a study that boldly declared the vitality of American Jewish Orthodoxy and went on to guide scholarly investigations of the group for the next four decades. As American Orthodoxy continues to grow in geographical, institutional, and political strength, author Adam S. Ferziger argues in Beyond Sectarianism: The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism that one of Liebman’s principal definitions needs to be updated. While Liebman proposed that...
הספר דן בעיקר במידת ידיעתם של חכמי ארץ-ישראל מימי המשנה והתלמוד על אודות הפגאניות מן התקופה הרומית המאוחרת, וכן מצביע על קיומם של יהודים עובדי עבודה זרה בארץ-ישראל הרומית-ביזנטית. וזאת בניגוד לדעתו של פרופ' א"א אורבך שהותיר משנת 1959 ועד שנות האלפיים את חותמו בעניין זה בהיסטוריוגרפיה של התקופה. אשר לחקר הידע של החכמים בענייני עבודת הנכר, יש להזכיר את דבריו של פרופ' שאול ליברמן: "פרטים בודדים על מנהגי עבודה זרה ועובדיה מפוזרים בכל כתבי הספרות התלמודית. הדיון בנושא זה לפרטיו היה מצריך חיבור שלם" (הנ"ל, יוונית ויוונות בארץ-...
From the eighteenth-century a rising number European Jews chose not to observe the religious laws and customs that had earlier marked them as culturally different from their Christian peers. In parallel, an orthodox movement also emerged, creating a discrete identity for a group within the Jewish community that opted not to move toward the mainstream but instead to embrace the traditional laws.
By tracing the evolution of the approach of the Orthodox to their nonpracticing brethren, Adam S. Ferziger sheds new light on the emergence of Orthodoxy as a...
Detailed and compelling, this pioneering study of Syria's key Jewish communities at an important juncture in their history covers Jewish community life, the legal status of Jews in Syria, their relationship with their Muslim and Christian neighbours, and their links with the West. Drawing on a wide range of archival material in six languages, it brings to light an enormous amount of material and provides a broad, multifaceted perspective on Jewish life in Syria.
Lev Ari looks closely at three components of Israelis immigration to and assimilation in the USA: motives and the decision to emigrate; economic, social and cultural assimilation, and the respondents attitudes toward a return to Israel. The theoretical framework is anchored in new perceptions of migration research, particularly in transnationalism theory. These attempt to understand migration more deeply as a combination of socioeconomic and cultural influences. Migration to the USA increases choices for some groups of immigrants, both men and women,...
This book is a scientific and comprehensive analysis of Israelis who live in the United States. Using different complementary sources of data, and through cutting-edge approaches in the social sciences, this volume examines the settlement patterns of the Israeli immigrants, their social profile, their economic achievements, their Americanization processes, as well as the nature and rhythm of their Jewish identification including changes in attachment to the homeland. The characteristics of the immigrants shed light on Israeli society. At...
