Suffering as Identity: The Jewish Paradigm

Benbassa, Esther

ISBN 10: 1844674045 / ISBN 13: 9781844674046

Published by Verso / New Left Books, London, England, 2010

About this Item

x, 207pp w bibliography and index. Photo illustrated wrapper is clean and without wear. Binding square and not creased. Octavo: 235 x 158mm. Winner of the 2008 Guizot Prize of the Academie francaise. First published as La Souffrance Comme Identite by Fayard (Paris, 2007) and translated from the French by G.M. Goshgarian.

Seller Inventory # 045596

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Suffering as Identity: The Jewish Paradigm
• Publisher: Verso / New Left Books, London, England
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844674045
• ISBN 13: 9781844674046
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: First U.K. Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • History
  • Judaica

About this title

Synopsis

Reaching from biblical times to the present day, Esther Benbassa’s prize-winning exploration of Jewish identity is both epic and comprehensive. She shows how in the Jewish world, the representation and ritualization of suffering have shaped the history of both the people and the religion. Benbassa argues that the nineteenth century gave rise to a Jewish ‘lachrymose’ historiography, and that Jewish history was increasingly seen to be a ‘vale of tears’—a development that has become even more pronounced since the Holocaust. The treatment of the Holocaust in the State of Israel now has the form of a civil religion. In principle within reach of everyone, the ‘duty of memory’ and the uniqueness of the genocide have mitigated for many Jews the loss of other traditions. The Israeli government invokes the memory of the Holocaust to neutralize threats to its interests—ensuring that suffering continues to be a central part of Jewish identity and positioning the State of Israeli as a redemptive force.

About the Author

ESTHER BENBASSA is Chair in the History of Modern Judaism at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. She is the author of many books, including The Jews of the Balkans, The Judeo-Spanish Community: 15th to 20th Centuries, History of Sephardic Jewry: XIVth-XXth Centuries, The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present, and The Jew and the Other.