New Article: Chen, Visiting the Temple Mount—Taboo or Mitzvah

Chen, Sarina. “Visiting the Temple Mount—Taboo or Mitzvah.” Modern Judaism 34.1 (2014): 27-41.

URL: http://mj.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/1/27.extract.html

Excerpt

On June 2, 2008, the twenty-eighth of the Hebrew month of Iyar, 5768—Jerusalem Day—the fortieth anniversary of the unification of Jerusalem, forty nationalist Orthodox rabbis, some of them from the settlements of Judea and Samaria, visited the Temple Mount. This declarative act was preceded by a number of calls opposing the ban on visiting the mount that had been issued after the Six-Day War by the Chief Rabbinate. Such calls have been issued in clearly political contexts: in 1996 at the height of the struggle against the Oslo Accords; in 2001 in protest against the Waqf’s exclusion from the mount of non-Muslims at the beginning of the second intifada; and in 2004 after the Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims.

The rabbis’ visit to the Temple Mount was a high point in the debate within nationalist ultra-Orthodox society between opponents and supporters of such a visit. The visit to the Temple Mount also revealed a nascent change toward the authority of the Chief Rabbinate and its rulings.

New Article: Pullan, Militarism in Jerusalem’s Holy Places

Pullan, Wendy. “‘Bible and Gun: Militarism in Jerusalem’s Holy Places.” Space and Polity 17.3 (2013): 335-356.

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13562576.2013.853490

Abstract

Violence is a regular occurrence at many of Jerusalem’s holy sites. Ongoing civilian clashes play a role, but official modes of control through the Israeli army (IDF) and Border Police, as well as more informal private security operations are often involved. Such militarisation may keep violent upheavals in check, but it is carried out within the framework of a long and harsh occupation. The two sites considered here—the Western Wall in the Old City and Rachel’s Tomb on the border of Jerusalem and Bethlehem—each have a history of war and are fixtures of the occupation. This study explores the mechanisms that embed religious and militaristic meanings at each site. In so doing, certain questions are addressed. Firstly, how are the sites being constructed and used as popular and dramatic settings for certain constituents to promote religious militarism/militarised religion in Jerusalem? In which ways do these characteristics act to intertwine with the religious and militaristic aspects of the sites, making them more extreme but also, in some circles, more attractive? And finally, how do these sites contribute to the character of Jerusalem, both in their own construction and image but also in the roles they play within the wider urban topography?

ToC: Israel Studies 17,2 (2012)

URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.issue-2

 

SPECIAL SECTION: The 1948 War as Witnessed by Photographers and a Poet

1.  

   Portrait of Haifa in 1948: The Poet, the Bay and the Mountain(pp. 1-24)

   Nili Scharf Gold

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.1

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.1

2.  

   Miracles and Snow in Palestine and Israel: Tantura, a History of 1948(pp. 25-61)

   Alon Confino

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.25

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.25

3.  

   Photography, Memory and Ethnic Cleansing: The Fate of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, 1948—John Phillips’ Pictorial Record(pp. 62-76)

   Maoz Azaryahu, Arnon Golan

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.62

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.62

1. SPECIAL SECTION: Roundtable on Loyalty and Criticism in the Relations between World Jewry and Israel

   1.  

      Loyalty and Criticism in the Relations between World Jewry and Israel(pp. 77-85)

      Gabriel Sheffer

      DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.77

      Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.77

   2.  

      Diaspora-Israel Relations: A Long-Term Perspective(pp. 86-91)

      Yehezkel Dror

      DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.86

      Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.86

   3.  

       Loyalty and Love of Israel by Diasporan Jews(pp. 92-101)

      Leonard Saxe, Matthew Boxer

      DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.92

      Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.92

   4.  

      From a Jewish People to a Jewish Religion: A Shifting American Jewish Weltanschauung and its Implications for Israel(pp. 102-110)

      Daniel Gordis

      DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.102

      Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.102

   5.  

      On Gabriel Sheffer’s “Loyalty and Criticism in the Relations between World Jewry and Israel”(pp. 111-119)

      Steven Bayme

      DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.111

      Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.111

   6.  

      Orthodox and Other American Jews and their Attitude to the State of Israel(pp. 120-128)

      Eliezer Don-Yehiya

      DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.120

      Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.120

2. ARTICLES

   1.  

      From “Crime of Passion” to “Love Does Not Kill”: The Murder of Einav Rogel and the Role of Na’amat Women’s Organization in the Construction of Violence against Women in Israel(pp. 129-155)

      Anat Herbst, Yonatan Gez

      DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.129

      Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.129

3. ZIONIST DIALECTICS

   1.  

      Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People and the End of the New History(pp. 156-168)

      Derek J. Penslar

      DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.156

      Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.156

4.  

   Notes on Contributors(pp. 169-171)

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.169

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.169

5.  

   Guidelines for Contributors(pp. 172-174)

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.172

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.17.2.172