The Invention of the Jewish People Kindle Edition
by Shlomo Sand (Author), Yael Lotan (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 out of 5 stars 441 ratings
-
Kindle $14.11
Bestselling new analysis of Jewish history by a leading Israeli historian.
A historical tour de force, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a groundbreaking account of Jewish and Israeli history. Exploding the myth that there was a forced Jewish exile in the first century at the hands of the Romans, Israeli historian Shlomo Sand argues that most modern Jews descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
In this iconoclastic work, which spent nineteen weeks on the Israeli bestseller list and won the coveted Aujourd'hui Award in France, Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel’s future.
Length: 357 pages Word Wise: Enabled Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled Language: English
Product description
Review
"Israel's Declaration of Independence states that the Jewish people arose in the Land of Israel and was exiled from its homeland. Every Israeli schoolchild is taught that this happened during the period of the Roman rile, in 70 CE. The nation remained loyal to its land, to which it began to return after two millennia of exile. Wrong, says the historian Shlomo Sand, in one of the most fascinating and challenging books published here in a long time. There was never a Jewish people, only a Jewish religion, and the exile also never happened--hence there was no return."--Tom Segev, Haaretz
"The reader will have understood the message: what this well-documented and fearless book explodes is the myth of a unique Jewish people, miraculously preserved, in contrast to all the other peoples, from external contamination ... [Sand's] conclusions, which are prudently formulated, nonetheless lead one towards a sole solution: the construction of a secular and democratic Israel."--Jacques Julliard, Le Nouvel Observateur
"Shlomo Sand has written a remarkable book ... Anyone interested in understanding the contemporary Middle East should read it."--Tony Judt, author of Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
"The Invention of the Jewish People is an indispensable challenge and a very complex intellectual exercise ... a more secure society [than Israel] would include the book in the core curriculum of its school system."--Avraham Burg, former Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Yedioth Ahronoth --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
Shlomo Sand studied history at the University of Tel Aviv and at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, in Paris. He currently teaches contemporary history at the University of Tel Aviv. His books include The Invention of the Jewish People, On the Nation and the Jewish People, L’Illusion du politique: Georges Sorel et le débat intellectuel 1900, Georges Sorel en son temps, Le XXe siècle à l’écran and Les Mots et la terre: les intellectuels en Israël. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Book Description
Bestselling new analysis of Jewish history by a leading Israeli historian. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Read less
Customer reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
Top reviews from Australia
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Quite simply brilliant. If you are looking to read an enlightening ...
Reviewed in Australia on 7 March 2016
Verified Purchase
Quite simply brilliant. If you are looking to read an enlightening book by an extremely intelligent, sensitive and informed person on a subject that is utterly diffuse and full of misinformation that has plagued the world for centuries then read this book. You will become one of the enlightened and informed few.
Helpful
Report abuse
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Open Your Eyes and Mind.
Reviewed in Australia on 27 August 2016
Verified Purchase
A "Must Read" book for everyone, especially the ones who turn blind eye to the politics of the Zionist..
Helpful
Report abuse
See all reviews
Top reviews from other countries
Mark Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars Bitter ironies
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 August 2018
Verified Purchase
Imagine if Germany’s leading Universities embarked upon a project to find the “German Gene”. Imagine how obscene that would seem. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s “working definition” of anti-Semitism includes “comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis”. In 2018 one of Britain’s leading Political Parties rejected this definition in order to grant their members the right to criticise Israel. Jew-splaining is politically toxic, not just amongst Gentiles but in Israel itself. Schlomo Sand has bought us a controversial and brave book that may well have fallen foul of the same toxic environment if it was not for the fact that he is a Jewish Israeli academic who wrote this in Hebrew. This is dynamite. This is pertinent.
“The Invention of the Jewish People” is littered with references that may baffle a non-Jewish-reader yet it is worth sticking with, because it builds and builds and builds. Sand starts by establishing his own impeccable Jewish-ethnic credentials (very important!) before exploring the European origins of ethno-nationalism. After this slow start Sand builds his case refuting the concept that there is a Jewish Race. He argues that the Jewish belief in the wandering Tribes of Israel (expelled from their homeland) has no foundation in archaeology. This mythical “exile” was more a religious state of mind than a physical movement of peoples. Sand offers a simple explanation for the spread of Judaism – conversion.
Few of us Gentiles can properly understand the power of this national myth. Other than in Bible class we learn of no such thing in school. The idea that there is a Christian “race”, a Muslim “race” or a Buddhist “race” simply never arises. Judeo-history is unique since the 1940’s as being an area where such myths persist. And they persist for good reason – they retain modern political expediency. Sand explains how Zionism embraced the concept of ethno-nationalism in Europe in the 1880s at the exact same time that other European nationalities did the same. Yet even then, the concept of a “Jewish race” remain hotly contested amongst Jews and Gentiles alike. Many scholars scoffed at the idea and even rabbinical law forbade the Jews from returning to Israel until the return of the Messiah. Yet the idea of such a “race” was taken every bit as seriously as the idea of the Aryan race. Alarmingly so.
Sand is quick to disown his own conclusions. “This bizarre association with the National Socialists must not be misunderstood.” he writes before going on to suggest that the Zionists didn’t seek racial purity like the Nazis did. He devotes just one paragraph in the book to this yet in numerous other sections he marks the war of 1967 as a point at which the ethnic myth of a Jewish Race was re-invigorated to justify the occupation of a Greater Israeli territory. It would seem to the reader that if ethno-nationalism cannot be used to promote a ‘destiny’ of the German people in the lands of the Slavs then it cannot justify the presence of Israelis in the lands of Palestine. Yet here we are.
Sand expertly skirts around such taboo thoughts in his original book. Yet in the English language paperback edition there is an Afterword where he addresses his many critics. Sand is justifiably outraged at the use of science to pursue the hunt for a “Jewish gene” writing “It is a bitter irony to see descendants of Holocaust survivors set out to find a biological Jewish identity: Hitler would certainly have been very pleased!” Yes, he really wrote that. It is hard to fault his logic. This is frightening.
Without doubt this is one of the most interesting books you might ever pick up. Absolutely fascinating. Absolutely essential if we are to understand anything about the world today. History as a firework lighting up all before it.
Read less
47 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Chris Morriss
4.0 out of 5 stars The Ashkenazi Khazar hypothesis is not dead.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 August 2017
Verified Purchase
A thorough and interesting update on 'The Khazar Hypothesis'. In this book Shlomo Sand goes into considerable detail about the origins of the Ashkenazi Jews, providing considerable support for the view that they are of Khazar origin, and are a Slavic, not a Semitic people.
Arthur Koestler's pioneering book, 'The Thirteenth Tribe' from 1976 was subjected to all the ire that the powerful Israeli propaganda machine could throw at it. Sand's book is much better researched, and written in a less provocative manner. Well worth reading, though the opening chapters do drag a bit.
23 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Tony LeMesma
5.0 out of 5 stars An alternative explanation of Israel!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 April 2020
Verified Purchase
The premis of this book is that the Jewish people were not exiled from lands in the Middle East 2000 years ago and, so, there is no proper claim or right to re-occupy those lands in contemporary times. Jews never exiled after the fall of Jerusalem and they never harboured a desire to ‘return’; this was a fiction invented by Zionism in the 20th century. The presence of Jews around the world is not due to descendants of those exiled (so there is no modern-day DNA link with 2000 years ago) but due simply to the conversion of local peoples as the religion spread. The Jewish religion always having been an evangelical movement spreading the word first around the Mediterranean and then further afield.
A controversial and entertaining idea and fascinating reading for anyone interested in modern history and the ME. An academic work, heavily footnoted, referenced and with a huge index. 5 Stars for the chutzpah.
6 people found this helpful
Report abuse
B. S. Bahi
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book, incredibly detailed so if you want to ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 May 2018
Verified Purchase
Fantastic book, incredibly detailed so if you want to refute anything you better know more than the author! Unfortunately confirms many people's worst fears: The Palestinians are the descendants of the original Judeans, and the modern Israelis are the descendants of Eastern European converts to Judaism. This makes the current situation in Israel even more heartbreaking. Shlomo not only increased my awareness of thei history, but made me feel evern more for both and all sides involved. Anyway, buy and read the book, make up your own minds. And then stand up for the truth. Thank you Mr Shlomo Sand.
19 people found this helpful
Report abuse
jolly green giant
5.0 out of 5 stars INTERESTING BOOK
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2019
Verified Purchase
ZIONISTS HATE THIS BOOK !
14 people found this helpful
---
Want to Read
Rate this book
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
The Invention of the Jewish People
by Shlomo Sand, Yael Lotan (Translator)
4.10 · Rating details · 1,049 ratings · 126 reviews
A historical tour de force that demolishes the myths and taboos that have surrounded Jewish and Israeli history, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a new account of both that demands to be read and reckoned with. Was there really a forced exile in the first century, at the hands of the Romans? Should we regard the Jewish people, throughout two millennia, as both a d ...more
GET A COPY
KoboOnline Stores ▾Book Links ▾
Hardcover, 332 pages
Published October 19th 2009 by Verso (first published 2008)
Original Title?מתי ואיך הומצא העם היהודי
ISBN1844674223 (ISBN13: 9781844674220)
Edition LanguageEnglish
Literary AwardsPrix Aujourd'hui (2009), Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize Nominee (2010)
Other Editions (37)
اختراع الشعب اليهودي
The Invention of the Jewish People
The Invention of the Jewish People
اختراع قوم یهود
Comment le peuple juif fut inventé
All Editions | Add a New Edition | Combine
...Less DetailEdit Details
EditMY ACTIVITY
Review of ISBN 9781844674220
Rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Shelves to-read edit
( 856th )
Format Hardcover edit
Status
July 12, 2021 – Shelved as: to-read
July 12, 2021 – Shelved
Review Write a review
comment
FRIEND REVIEWS
Recommend This Book None of your friends have reviewed this book yet.
READER Q&A
Ask the Goodreads community a question about The Invention of the Jewish People
54355902. uy100 cr1,0,100,100
Ask anything about the book
Popular Answered Questions
has it occurred to anyone that if the available evidence for the history of the Jewish people is not convincing that there is even less testimony for the existence of an ancient Arab kingdom of Palestine? Israel had three kings. Palestine had zero.
Like 32 Days Ago Add Your Answer
Baran Nope, just you. In addition: this antagonism is cheap and out of place.
flag
See 1 question about The Invention of the Jewish People…
LISTS WITH THIS BOOK
The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen CorasantiMornings in Jenin by Susan AbulhawaGaza Writes Back by Refaat AlareerThe Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan PappéThe Question of Palestine by Edward W. Said
Books on the Israel Palestine Conflict (fiction and nonfiction)
368 books — 651 voters
The Holocaust Industry by Norman G. FinkelsteinExodus by Leon UrisThe Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J. MearsheimerThe Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo SandThe Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Zionism
48 books — 15 voters
More lists with this book...
COMMUNITY REVIEWS
Showing 1-30
Average rating4.10 · Rating details · 1,049 ratings · 126 reviews
Search review text
English (93)
More filters | Sort order
Sejin,
Sejin, start your review of The Invention of the Jewish People
Write a review
Andre
Mar 16, 2012Andre rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
"The Invention of the Jewish People" is one of the most original, honest and historically accurate books I’ve read to date. Professor Sand’s expels the myth of the Jewish "people" and the myth of the "exile" of these people from the land of “Israel”. The Jews were never expelled in large numbers from Palestine as it was called even then; there is simply no historical evidence to back this claim up. The evidence shows that the vast majority of Jews living in Palestine simply converted to Christianity and then later to Islam and that they still live there today and are identified as Palestinians. He also shows how Judaism was spread by the Himyaritic of Yemen to gentiles from the Berbers in northwest Africa and the Khazar who lived in what is now southern Russia.
So in conclusion Sand’s book confirms that the Ashkenazi Kkazarian Jews that make up the majority in the Zionist state today have little or no historical claim to the land or right of return. Something they’ve taken away from the true indigenous people of Palestine as today 1/3 of all political refugees in the world are Palestinian who are not allowed to return to their homeland. This is a book that should be required reading in every high school, college and university in America.
(less)
flag40 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
بثينة العيسى
Oct 15, 2011بثينة العيسى rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Recommends it for: Arabs, Palestinians, and especially Jews
What a book!
This book exposes how fragile and vulnerable is the state of Israel, mainly because it is relying on biblical myths to construct its Zionist ideology and Jewish identity, rather than on actual history proven by archeological and biological research.
It is said that this book is another nail in the coffin of Zionism and I couldn't agree more. Unless the state of Israel starts acknowledging it's moral Schizophrenia and political hypocrisy, and it's discriminatory/ racist policies ( .. and let's not forget its violent actions against the native Palestinians) .. it is unlikely that it will survive in a World that is dominated by international law, rather than on myths and some twisted interpretation of religions.
I urge you to read this book, and judge for yourself. Way to go Shlomo Sand!
(less)
flag24 likes · Like · comment · see review
Book
Jun 24, 2011Book rated it it was amazing
Shelves: atheism-religion, history
The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand
"The Invention of the Jewish People" is an interesting yet controversial scholarly book about Jewish history through the eyes of leading historian Shlomo Sand. What makes this book controversial is the fact that the author denies such a thing as a Jewish "race" that were descendents of the first exiles with everything that it entails. This 344-page book is composed of the following five major chapters: 1. Making Nations: Sovereignty and Equality, 2. Mythistory: In the Beginning, God Created the People, 3. The Invention of the Exile: Proselytism and Conversion, 4. Realms of Silence: In Search of Lost (Jewish) Time, and 5. The Distinction: Identity Politics in Israel.
Positives:
1. A well written, well researched book that will take you deep into the fascinating Jewish history.
2. Professor Sand provides a lot of eye-opening arguments in support of his views.
3. A thought-provoking and enlightening book.
4. Professor Sand does not hold back. He says what he has to say and has conviction and passion behind his words while providing compelling arguments in defense of his theories.
5. A good history lesson on nationalism.
6. A fascinating look at Zionism.
7. A myth buster of a book. Including the exile...
8. The impact of Darwin's grand theory of evolution.
9. A controversial look at the Old Testament and how the Bible became a decisive starting point of the Jewish past.
10. The impact of archaeology. Exiles? Legendary kings? Great flood?
11. Polytheism to monotheism.
12. Jewish genealogy...The DNA findings controversy.
13. The fascinating history of proselytizing Jews. Berber Judaization...and the fascinating story of the Judaized queen. Khazars...
14. The importance of religious identity.
15. Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Arabian Jews.
16. Understanding the Law of Return and the concept of "ethnocracy".
17. Fascinating conclusions.
18. Links worked great.
19. Excellent notes.
20. Great afterword.
Negatives:
1. As a non-Jew, I found myself looking up the proper pronunciation of many people, places and Jewish traditions. It's not a strike against the author more so a limitation for any potential reader who is not familiar with Jewish terms.
2. Once again, as a non-Jew I have no cultural ties to the Jewish community but I can see where the issues brought up by Professor Sand can and has stir up a hornet's nest. In other words, the issues brought forth will and has upset Jewish people.
3. The initial chapter was a bit obscure until "revelations" were made.
4. My skeptical nature keeps me from accepting everything at face value despite the compelling arguments. There is so much information in this book it makes me wonder what is truly historically accurate and what is not, so it will entail further reading and research on my part. Ones beliefs should be based on the best evidence possible but one must not also jump to conclusions.
5. It was bit repetitive.
6. Illustrations and or charts could have added value to the book.
In summary, "The Invention of the Jewish People" is one of the most interesting, enlightening books you will ever read. My skeptical nature and my limited knowledge of Jewish history keeps me from accepting all the assertions at face value but at the very least Professor Sand has kindled my curiosity enough to pursue more research. I highly recommend reading this book with some noted observations.
(less)
flag19 likes · Like · see review
Clif
Sep 14, 2010Clif rated it it was amazing
Shelves: history
I have written reviews of many books here. If there is one above all the rest that I would like others to read it would be this one.
Regardless of the country you call home, it rests on a foundation of myths, stories of the distant past that unite the citizenry. Israel is no exception, yet the story of the historical Jews is one that more people in the United States are familiar with that that of any other people.
Shlomo Sand begins his book discussing definitions - what are a people? What is a nation? With his terms defined, he looks at the story of the Jews and how it relates to what has been discovered (or not) by archeology, philology (language study) and archival research.
He takes us from the founding myth of the Jews as a tribe descended from Abraham, in captivity in Egypt, escaping in the Exodus, wandering in the desert for 40 years, defeating the Canaanites, living under kings David and Solomon, exiled to Babylon, returning to Judea, expelled by the Romans and continuing on to the present in Israel.
There's only one problem. Except for the Babylonian exile, none of this account of the Jews in ancient times holds up. There is no evidence for any of it and plenty of facts that deny it. The central fact is that there was never any expulsion of the Jews by the Romans after the Jewish revolt was suppressed in 70 CE.
But the facts are no less interesting than the myth. Did you know there was a Jewish Khazar empire between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea? Did you know there was a long period (400 years) of enthusiastic conversion to Judaism prior to the coming of Christianity? Did you know there was a Jewish warrior queen in north Africa and a Jewish kingdom in what is now Yemen?
Sand effectively makes the case that the vast majority of today's Jews have no connection by birth to the Jews of ancient Palestine. The Palestinians of today are more likely related to the Jews of ancient times. Today's Jews are descendants of converts to Judaism. It is impossible to define the Jews by genetics, only by religion.
So where did the mythology come from? It is based on the Biblical account and even that was never considered to be based on hard facts until the coming of Zionism put it to use to create the body of people who would become the people of modern Israel - it was a script, made concrete and embellished by those with an agenda for creating a new country.
And the agenda continues to be followed by historians in the modern state of Israel. One of the most remarkable things mentioned by Sand is the complete lack of scholarly research into the origins of modern Jewry by anyone in Israel. Why? Because it would contradict the story of the nation, the story that is in Israeli textbooks used in Israeli schools to teach history.
The overwhelming evidence for the origin of the Yiddish-speaking millions of eastern Europe (destroyed or driven out by the end of WW2) points to the Khazar empire and not Germany. The Sephardim of Spain and north Africa came not from ancient Palestine but from converts to Judaism. There is no Jewish gene, just as there is no Anglican or Methodist or Catholic gene.
The book concludes by an examination of the dilemma of modern Israel - a country that denies there is such a thing as an Israeli or an Israeli culture. Citizens of Israel are defined as Jews quite intentionally to connect them to the Jews of the world and to disconnect them from the Palestino-Israelis, the Arab citizens of Israel who make up a fifth of the population of the country, but are denied acknowledgment as full citizens.
Israelis allow orthodox religious Jews to determine who is a Jew for the purpose of citizenship precisely to maintain the connection to world Jewry as a pseudo-biological link. This mythological link allows Israel to take in foreigners (in all but religion) as rightful heirs to the land while denying legitimacy to those who have actually been living on the land, the Palestinian. It's an inherently unstable situation that cannot continue indefinitely. The book is a warning that things must change in the direction of a true democracy and away from an "ethnocracy".
The Invention of the Jewish People is a riveting read during which Sand systematically and very clearly demolishes myth under the bright light of solid research. In the process he introduces the people who built the myth to epic proportions and relates how they did so. Shlomo Sand is a credit to his profession. Bravo!
American readers of this review should check out my blog, Daylight between America and Israel - http://endoccupation.blogspot.com/ (less)
flag14 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
jordan
Feb 07, 2010jordan rated it it was ok
While Shlomo Sand’s “Invention of the Jewish People” has attracted endless accolades from partisans with an axe to grind – though not always exactly the same axe as the author – any close scrutiny reveals the book to be little more than a collection of strawmen arguments forming a feeble foundation for a weak argument. Time and again, Sand rails against a scholarly consensus which seems to exist only in his mind and ignores the considerable primary source evidence that undermines his case.
Consider for example, his “bold” assertions about the lack of historicity of the Hebrew Bible or successful proselytization by Jews in the ancient world. The former is of course particularly amusing to anyone with even a passing familiarity with Jewish history. One could make good money betting that Sand could walk the length and breath of Tel Aviv’s history department and not find a single faculty member who would make a claim that the Hebrew Bible could be read as a history book (I might even go further, and say he could probably jump on the bus and do the same at Orthodox Bar-Ilan University’s history department and still come up empty handed). The same could be said about claims with the subject of large scale conversion, a topic attested to by diverse ancient sources and widely written about by modern scholars. For those readers interested in this topic, I would heartily recommend Seth Schwartz’s provocative and well researched “Imperialism and Jewish Society.” Unlike Sand, Schwartz is both familiar with the relevant ancient sources and reads the languages necessary to work directly from the original source texts.
Of course, where Sand really goes off the intellectual rails is where he goes further afield from the scholarly consensus. No where is this clearer than in his assertions of Eastern European Jewry originating with the refugees from the central Asian Khazar Kingdom – I used the term “assertion” intentionally, for the claim lacks even sufficient evidence to bring it to the level of a theory. Nor can Sand even bring himself to deal with the substantial evidence against this notion which has it origin with the late 19th century racist Ernest Renan, instead resorting to invective and hyperbole for lack of a rational argument. Instead, for example, in engaging in the genetic data which has appeared in numerous peer reviewed journals, Sand scorns the entire exercise by invoking the ghastly horrors of Nazi psudo-science. As with much of Sand’s method in this book, one must assume that this rejection is selective to the Jewish case. Genetic comparison is widely used in the historical analysis of migration patterns. One can hardly imagine Professor Sand, for example, at a conference on the Norman roots of the northern French castigating some presenter of genetic data as a Nazi. No, one suspects for Sand this epithet’s use is limited primarily in an attempt to silence Jewish critics.
As with his treatment of conversion in the ancient world, on the Khazars as well, Sand makes odd claims that his writing is somehow revelatory. Putting aside anecdotal data, such as my own memory of Jewish Khazaria being well known and widely discussed in my own youth, Pulitzer prize winner, Michael Chabon recently wrote an adventure novel which took place almost entirely in that ancient Jewish Kingdom. And, should any wishing to leap to Sand’s defense want to claim that this novel, “Gentleman of the Road,” is somehow obscure, it was actually serialized in that rarely read journal, The NY Times Sunday Magazine.
(less)
flag14 likes · Like · 5 comments · see review
Judy
Jun 20, 2010Judy rated it it was amazing
This is a really excellent and brilliantly original book written about the origins of the 'Jewish people'. Shlomo Sand, who is an Israeli historian, shows that in fact European Jews were converts to the religion rather than being descendents of a Jewish 'race'. By the same token, he maintains and that the original Jews who stayed in their country of origin eventually converted to Islam and are today's or many Jews wish to hear though I gather it was a best seller in Israel. As a 'Jew' in name, but not in religion, I personally find it a highly persuasive thesis. It is a fascinating read and also an impassioned plea for a new non Jewish state that encompasses both Jews and Palestinians on equal terms. (less)
flag11 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jess
Apr 07, 2012Jess rated it did not like it
Shelves: anthropology-archaeology, jerusalem-2012, politics, history
I attempted to read this book in preparation for a trip to Israel figuring that if I can't find objective sources at least I know the particular author's bias. I enjoyed the story-telling in the introduction of the book; however the discussion of nations and modern nationalism in the first chapter quickly showed me that bias would not be my biggest criticism. Sand focuses entirely on black-and-white thinking. He seemingly argues that the modern notion of the Nation (or nationalism or nation state) is the only notion that can be used ignoring similar concepts in history and the etymology of the word nation. Sand makes arbitrary separations about size, language, religion and culture. This dogmatic, illogical, and poorly argued premise is one example of the depth or lack thereof of arguments that Sand puts forth.
The basic premise of the book is that the current Jewish people making up the state of Israel are not the original inhabitants of that land and therefore have no legitimate claim on it. Unfortunately, Sand's explanations for European Jews who founded Zionism and Israel is conversion espousing the psuedohistory notion that Ashkenazi Jews, in particular, descend from Khazar converts (from the Thirteenth Tribe by Arthur Koestler.) Genetic studies have irrefutably shown that modern Jews have common descent similar to modern human populations in Israel (Palestinians) and Lebabnon with admixture from various other genetic backgrounds including Europeans. Genetic studies have also shown that Palestinians are closely related to Jewish groups with some admixture from Arab groups. Sands basic premise is unsupportable. Both Jews and Palestinians are likely descended from a common population.
His other arguments for a large conversion population seem weak although certainly the most historically interesting to me. I would have also been interested in historic intermarriage between Jews and European populations. However, neither the existence of converts nor intermarriage really supports his argument.
Sand also sets himself as a prosecuted minority going after The Truth, while the establisment maintains a diliberately false image of history, the Zionist movement and the state of Israel. This requires a major rewrite of the Zionist movement and view of Judaism as a collective identity as well as creating a homogenous and conscious modern Jewish establisment to rail against it. While I don't doubt that some Jews (and Christians) hold infalliable views of the bible as a historic document, I would argue that this is likely a fringe view in any academic dealing with history, archealogy and/or anthropology.
Utimately, I think that legitamate criticisms can be made about the state of Israel; however, Sand completely misses the conversation by producing and maintaining wrong conclusions with ahistoric arguments. Of course Sand responded to the newest genetic evidence with "It is a bitter irony to see the descendants of Holocaust survivors set out to find a biological Jewish identity." A statement that is both irrelevant and nonsensical as many of the recent studies have emphasized the common origin of Israeli and Levant populations; as it fails to actually address the fact that modern Jews descended from Middle Eastern ancestral populations; and as it does not address the actual problems in Israel. (less)
flag9 likes · Like · 5 comments · see review
David M
Nov 29, 2017David M rated it it was amazing
A wonderful book that convincingly unpacks the myths of Zionism. Shlomo Sand shows himself conversant with ancient history, Biblical scholarship, theoretical innovations in the social sciences, and contemporary politics. His argument culminates in the case for a single, binational state of Israel/Palestine that belongs equally to all its citizens.
Given the patent bad faith of many who smear anti-Zionism as necessarily anti-semitic, this book has not had the impact it deserves. Nonetheless, for anyone with minimal intellectual honesty and a concern for justice, it remains required reading.
*
'There were no such thing as Palestinians.'
Golda Meir was maybe half right. All nationalities are a relatively recent invention. There was no such thing as the Jewish people either, certainly not in the sense of an ethnic identity or blood kinship stretching back to the mists of time.
A deeper exploration of the ways of life and communication in past Jewish communities might further expose a wicked little fact: that the further we move from religious norms and the more we focus our research on diverse daily practices, the more we discover that there never was a secular ethnographic common denominator between the Jewish believers in Asia, Africa, and Europe. World Jewry had always been a major religious culture. Though consisting of various elements, it was not a strange, wandering nation. - pp 248
*
Some powerful testimony by the author here
https://www.theguardian.com/world/201... (less)
flag9 likes · Like · comment · see review
Deborah
Jun 14, 2011Deborah rated it did not like it · review of another edition
Professor Sand, who teaches film history and modern political French history, opines that the Jewish people is a construct invented some time in the 19th century. This book is his argument in support of his opinion. It's also, if unwittingly, Sand's argument in favor of writing about what one knows. Presumably, Sand knows film history and modern French political history. What this book makes clear is that Sand does NOT know ancient or medieval history, or Jewish history. The professor also seems to think modern DNA analyses are on a par with medieval alchemy. In short, a book to avoid. (less)
flag7 likes · Like · comment · see review
Steve Cran
Jul 28, 2011Steve Cran added it
---
Shlomo SandShlomo Sand > Quotes
Showing 1-29 of 29
“Dans chaque démocratie libérale s'est élaboré un imaginaire de citoyenneté au sein duquel la projection dans l'avenir est devenue plus significative que le poids du passé. Cet imaginaire s'est traduit par des normes juridiques, et a même pénétré par la suite à l'intérieur du système éducatif étatique.[...] La souffrance du passé justifie le prix exigé de la part des citoyens dans le présent. L'héroïsme des temps qui s'éloignent promet un avenir rayonnant pour l'individu, du moins sûrement pour la nation. L'idée nationale est devenue, avec l'aide des historiens, une idéologie optimiste par nature. De là, notamment, vient son succès.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
tags: political4 likesLike
“Peoples, populations, native populaces, tribes and religious communities are not nations, even though they are often spoken of as such.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
3 likesLike
“If certain Jewish communities had distinctive qualities, they were due to history, not biology.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
tags: facts, history-of-mankind, jews3 likesLike
“Dominated by Zionism's particular concept of nationality, the State of Israel
still refuses, sixty years after its establishment, to see itself as a republic that
serves its citizens. One quarter of the citizens are not categorized as Jews, and
the laws of the state imply that Israel is not their state nor do they own it. The
state has also avoided integrating the local inhabitants into the superculture it
has created, and has instead deliberately excluded them. Israel has also refused
to be a consociational democracy (like Switzerland or Belgium) or a multicultural democracy (like Great Britain or the Netherlands)—that is to say, a state
that accepts its diversity while serving its inhabitants. Instead, Israel insists on
seeing itself as a Jewish state belonging to all the Jews in the world, even though they are no longer persecuted refugees but full citizens of the countries in which
they choose to reside. The excuse for this grave violation of a basic principle of
modern democracy, and for the preservation of an unbridled ethnocracy that
grossly discriminates against certain of its citizens, rests on the active myth of an
eternal nation that must ultimately forgather in its ancestral land.”
― Shlomo Sand
tags: history-palestine2 likesLike
“To the dismay of anti-Semites, the Jews were never a foreign “ethnos” of invaders from afar but rather an autochthonous population whose ancestors, for the most part, converted to Judaism before the arrival of Christianity or Islam.17”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
2 likesLike
“History can be ironic, particularly with regard to the invention of traditions in general and traditions of language in particular. Few people have noticed, or are willing to acknowledge, that the Land of Israel of biblical texts did not include Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, or their surrounding areas, but rather only Samaria and a number of adjacent areas—in other words, the land of the northern kingdom of Israel. Because”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
1 likesLike
“the term “Land of Israel” was a later Christian and rabbinical invention that was theological, and by no means political in nature. Indeed, we can cautiously posit that the name first appeared in the New Testament in the Gospel of Matthew.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
1 likesLike
“Die Abgrenzung Jahwes als einzigem Gott von seiner vormaligen, bunten Familie - seiner Frau Aschera, selbst eine Göttin des Bodens, und ihren begabten Kindern, dem wilden Baal, der promisken Astarte, der Jägerin Anat und dem Meeresgott Jam - erscheint als Sysiphosarbeit.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland
tags: monotheismus, polytheismus, religion1 likesLike
“Behind every act in Israel's identity politics stretches, like a long black shadow, the idea of an eternal power and race.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
tags: israel, middle-east, politics1 likesLike
“One of the secrets of the Muslim army's power was its relatively liberal attitude toward the religions of the defeated people-provided they were monoththeists, of course. Muhammad's commandment to treat Jews and Christians as "People of The book" gave them legal protection.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
1 likesLike
“I concluded that the Zionist “return” was, above all, an invention meant to arouse the sympathy of the West—particularly the Protestant Christian community, which preceded the Zionists in proposing the idea—in order to justify a new settlement enterprise, and that it had proven its effectiveness.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
1 likesLike
“I believe neither in the past existence of a Jewish people, exiled from its land, nor in the premise that the Jews are originally descended from the ancient land of Judea.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
1 likesLike
“Canaan, therefore, would serve as a spiritual bridge between the faith born in the northern Fertile Crescent and the cultures of the Mediterranean region. Jerusalem would become the first stop in the mighty theological (Jewish-Christian-Muslim) campaign that would eventually conquer a large portion of the earth.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland
0 likesLike
“The fine and varied literature that I read was almost all in translation: from classic works by Jack London, Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens, to detective stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Georges Simenon, not to mention fascinating pornographic books. I also appreciated the biblical stories that contained all three genres.”
― Shlomo Sand, La fin de l'intellectuel français ?
tags: bible, reading0 likesLike
“In no text or archaeological finding do we find the term “Land of Israel” used to refer to a defined geographic region. This”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
0 likesLike
“Names of regions and countries change over time, and it is sometimes common to refer to ancient lands using names assigned to them later in history. However, this linguistic custom has typically been practiced only in the absence of other known and acceptable names for the places in question.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
0 likesLike
“Only in the early twentieth century, after years in the Protestant melting pot, was the theological concept of “Land of Israel” finally converted and refined into a clearly geonational concept. Settlement Zionism borrowed the term from the rabbinical tradition in part to displace the term “Palestine,”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
0 likesLike
“My main goal in this book is to deconstruct the concept of the Jewish “historical right” to the Land of Israel and its associated nationalist narratives, whose only purpose was to establish moral legitimacy for the appropriation of territory.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
0 likesLike
“Mommsen did not think that the Judeans were necessarily the spiritual successors of the ancient Hebrews, and assumed that most of the Jews throughout the Roman Empire were not direct biological descendants of the inhabitants of Judea.37”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
0 likesLike
“A Nation … is a group of persons united by a common error about their ancestry and a common dislike of their neighbors. —Karl Deutsch, Nationality and Its Alternatives, 1969”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
0 likesLike
“All historical writing that is not aware that the actions and plots related do not coincide with past reality is potentially the bearer of a mythological dimension. It may well be a serious narrative full of references and quotations, distinguished by its “exactness” and abstaining from any polemic, yet it remains nonetheless that that belief of the author, whether naive or not, associates him or her with many propagators of myth history who continue to swell the tanks of discipline today.
A living myth is not a lie; it is a story about the past or the future whose veracity cannot be established in a rational manner, yet that no-one can imagine rejecting. It remains valid, in the eyes of believers, until heretics succeed in refuting it. Even in this case, however, the belief is not necessary shaken; myths in fact tend to preserve themselves as long as they are needed, or else until other myths come along to replace them. In history all societies need myths to ensure their coherence and preserve their collective identity, in particular, that of elites that revolve around the sovereign power.”
― Shlomo Sand, Twilight of History
tags: history-historiography-modern0 likesLike
“The construction of a new body of knowledge always bears direct connection to the ideology in which it operates. Historical insights that diverge from the narrative laid down at the inception of the nation can be accepted only when consternation about their implications is abated. This can happen when the current collective identity begins to be taken for granted and ceases to be something anxiously and nostalgically clings to a mythical past, when identity becomes the basis for living and not its purpose - that is when historiographic change can take place.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
tags: culture, identity, ideology, nationhood0 likesLike
“The person residing in the Land of Israel must always remember the name Canaan, indicating slavery and submission”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland
0 likesLike
“Una delle massime priorità della pedagogia statale è la trasmissione di memorie indotte, il cui cardine è proprio la storiografia nazionale.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
0 likesLike
“It is an irony of history that, had it not been for the 1948 war, which truly was initiated by Arab leaders, the newly established State of Israel would have to have included a large Arab minority that would have gained strength with the passage of time, ultimately counteracting the state’s Jewish isolationist nature and possibly even its very existence.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel
0 likesLike
“The inescapable and troublesome conclusion was that if there was a political entity in tenth-century Judea, it was a small tribal kingdom, and that Jerusalem was a fortified stronghold. It is possible that the tiny kingdom was ruled by a dynasty known as the House of David. An inscription discovered in Tell Dan in 1993 supports this assumption, but this kingdom of Judah was greatly inferior to the kingdom of Israel to its north, and apparently far less developed. The documents from el-Amarna, dating from the fourteenth century BCE, indicate that already there were two small city-states in the highlands of Canaan—Shechem and Jerusalem—and the Merneptah stela shows that an entity named Israel existed in northern Canaan at the end of the thirteenth century BCE. The plentiful archaeological finds unearthed in the West Bank during the 1980s reveal the material and social difference between the two mountain regions. Agriculture thrived in the fertile north, supporting dozens of settlements, whereas in the south there were only some twenty small villages in the tenth and ninth centuries BCE. The kingdom of Israel was already a stable and strong state in the ninth century, while the kingdom of Judah consolidated and grew strong only by the late eighth. There were always in Canaan two distinct, rival political entities, though they were culturally and linguistically related—variants of ancient Hebrew were spoken by the inhabitants of both.”
― Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People
0 likesLike
“As a scion of the persecuted who emerged from the European hell of the 1940s without having abandoned the hope of a better life, I did not receive permission from the frightened archangel of history to abdicate and despair.”
― Shlomo Sand, How I Stopped Being a Jew
tags: history, hope, horizon0 likesLike
No comments:
Post a Comment