Kinship and Consent:
The Jewish Political Tradition
and Its Contemporary Uses
Daniel J. Elazar
Politics is, in many respects, the Cinderella of Jewish studies.
Much attention has been lavished on the development of Jewish
religious, legal, and social practice; probably even more has
been written about the history of Jewish Gentile relations. By
comparison, the study of the Jewish political tradition -- with
all that it entails for an understanding of Jewish modes of
self-government, Jewish political perceptions, and Jewish
political responsibilities -- remains an almost uncharted area.
This omission is surprising. Concerns of an intrinsically
political nature, have, after all, constantly lain at the very
heart of much Jewish thought and practice. Traditionally,
indeed, the validity of Jewish teaching has always been
considered to find best expression in a political setting,
through a polity in which Jews bear the responsibility for
creating the "kingdom of heaven" (Hebrew: malkhut shamayim -- the
good commonwealth) on earth. Hence, the Bible is replete with
examples of political behavior and contains seminal ideas
concerning political organization and obligation. In turn, these
are reflected and quoted in later texts of Jewish law.
Furthermore, and as the entire chronicle of the Jewish diaspora
experience indicates, Jewish political practice did not come to
an abrupt end with the destruction of the Temple and the
subsequent Exile of the Jews from the Holy Land. Throughout
their dispersion, the Jews continued to develop and embellish
distinctive patterns of communal government, and it was in
accordance with these that communal authority was conferred and
accepted.
Total uniformity was, of course, impossible. Geographical,
temporal and cultural circumstances compelled individual
communities to develop in different ways. What is remarkable,
nevertheless, is the extent of the similarities and continuities
in the political practices of the Jewish people, and the degree
to which those practices remained faithful to a commonly
acknowledged source. A survey of legal, homiletic and
philosophical literature reveals the preservation of a shared
Jewish political terminology, a distinctive Jewish political
outlook, and a common approach to political institution-building.
In short, it confirms the existence of a specifically Jewish
political tradition, with all that the term implies in the way of
a continuous dialogue regarding proper and common modes of
political behavior, accepted institutional forms, and authentic
political norms.
There exists a sad irony in the fact that the very existence of a
Jewish political tradition should have gone virtually
unrecognized in our own time. It might have been expected that
the Jewish national revival of the twentieth century would have
generated attempts to enhance public awareness of the political
tradition of which it forms a part. In effect, the operational
resurgence of the concept of a Jewish polity in the modern State
of Israel has not been accompanied by an awareness of its
historical parallels and roots. Concentrating their focus on
what is novel in the present Jewish institutions in Israel and
the diaspora, past and present; equally obscured is the evidence
which indicates that contemporary Jewry functions -- for the most
part unconsciously -- in the political arena in no small measure
on the basis of certain fundamental beliefs and practices which
are embedded in Jewish culture. There has been very little
regard for the fact that the present behavioral patterns of the
Jewish political world, revolutionary though some of them might
seem, are in essence extensions and modifications of a tradition
which possesses deep roots in the entire course of Jewry's long
and eventful history.
Attempting to correct this situation has initiated a systematic
effort to recover the several dimensions of the Jewish political
tradition.1 One purpose of this venture is, clearly, scholarly:
the desire to demonstrate the extent to which the Jewish
political tradition constitutes an integral segment of the entire
fabric of Jewish tradition, a sine qua non of that tradition
given Jewry's hallowed commitment to peoplehood and the
attainment of Divine redemption through the creation of the
"kingdom of heaven" -- the good
commonwealth -- on earth. No less compelling, however, is the
contemporary communal importance of the Center's enterprise. As
is often acknowledged, an increasing number of Jews find
themselves expressing their Jewish identity principally or
substantially through their identification with Jewish political
issues -- support for Israel, the struggle for the emigration of
Soviet Jewry, and the like. In this respect, they may be
described as neo-Sadducees, Jews who find their principal means
for expressing Jewishness through the public institutions and
affairs of the Jewish people. For such people, linkage to the
Jewish political tradition may constitute a primary medium of
linking them to Jewish tradition in its entirety. Awareness of
the tradition, and an understanding of its resonance, promises in
effect to enhance and buttress Jewish self-consciousness in our
times, and thereby to play a crucial role in contemporary Jewish
life in both Israel and the diaspora.
It is in the light of such considerations that it is appropriate
to build a comprehensive and fully integrated program in the
Jewish political tradition and its contemporary uses. Drawing
upon the vast storehouse of accumulated Jewish historiography,
and utilizing the methodologies more recently developed in the
political and social sciences, such a program can arouse
contemporary awareness of both the importance and relevance of
the topic. This is a venture which must, of necessity, engage
the attention of Jewish political and communal leaders, as well
as academics. Such a program will not only fill a scholarly
lacunai, but also should make a contribution to the continuing
development of a tradition of enduring worth.
Jewish political studies emphasizes the organization of the
Jewish community as a polity -- a corporate entity whose
structure, institutions and processes have reflected the
continuing effort of the Jewish people to govern itself under a
variety of conditions. As a field, it is designed to recover and
enrich the political dimensions of Jewish life in all its
manifestations.
The subject matter of Jewish political studies falls into three
major divisions: Jewish political institutions and behavior,
Jewish political thought, and Jewish public affairs. At least
nineteen areas of concern have been identified on the basis of
these divisions as reflected in the literature currently
available. They include:
Civic Education
Contemporary Issues
Country, Community and Area Studies
Defining the Boundaries of Jewish Society
External Relations
Intercommunity Relations
Israel
Jewish Organizations and Interest Groups
Jewish Political and Communal Institutions
Jewish Political Behavior
Jewish Political Culture
Jewish Political Organization
Jewish Political Thought
Jewish Public Law
Public Personalities
Religious Movements, Ideologies and Public Persuasions
Research Approaches and Methods
Subdivisions of the Jewish People
The Course of Jewish Public Affairs
There are four primary tasks that should occupy the field:
(i) Investigation - research into Jewish political theory and
practice, past and present, and the development of Jewish
attitudes towards the exercise of political prerogatives.
(ii) Interpretation - the analysis of Jewish political behavior
and its meaning in light of the constitutional bases and
divisions of the Jewish polity.
(iii) Policy Application - the utilization of scholarship in
Jewish public affairs.
(iv) Presentation - the dissemination of the fruits of ongoing
research to a variety of audiences -- academic, professional, and
general.
I. Investigation
Not the least of the achievements of the first two decades of
systematic study of Jewish political life and thought has been
the development of frameworks of analysis which have facilitated
an informed understanding of major trends in Jewish political
life. By positing the notion of a continuous tradition of Jewish
political behavior, and by highlighting the importance of the
covenant idea within that tradition, it has been possible to
focus attention on the basic elements of the subject and,
thereby, to fashion tools for its further study.
Such study has proceeded along three parallel lines.
(i) Delineation of the field of Jewish political studies, in the
form of thematic enquiries into various of the component elements
of the Jewish political tradition and its manifestations. Many
of these have been undertaken within the framework of the
Jerusalem Center's two workshops in the Covenant Idea and the
Jewish Political Tradition and in the Study and Teaching of
Jewish Political Studies, the latter co-sponsored with the
International Center for the University Teaching of Jewish
Civilization. During the past few years, an entire series of such
studies have appeared: some in the form of the Center's working
papers; others in scholarly journals; and in a growing number of
books, including Kinship and Consent and The Jewish Polity.2
Scholarly bibliographies also have appeared, in the American
Jewish Year Book series of articles on the literature of Jewish
public affairs, prepared by Daniel J. Elazar and Harold M. Waller
between 1967 and 1976, and in Mala Tabory and Charles S.
Liebman's Jewish International Activity and Annotated
Bibliography.3 These publications now constitute an impressive
corpus of seminal studies, which have both explored the subject
as a field of enquiry and mapped its most significant
manifestations.
(2) A worldwide study of the structure and functioning of
contemporary Jewish communities as polities. Initiated by the
Study of Jewish Community Organization, the precursor of the
Jerusalem Center, in 1968, this project has now encompassed every
major community in the Jewish world, and thereby constitutes an
invaluable map of the post World War II Jewish polity. It has led
to the publication of several books, including Community and
Polity, People and Polity, and Israel: Building a New Society; a
series of country reports, monographs, and special issues of
Tefutzot Israel, which, during its existence, was Israel's
leading academic journal in this field.4
(3) A historical survey of the entire course of Jewish political
organization from biblical times until the present day. Among the
products of this project is The Jewish Polity, the very first
attempt to present a comprehensive picture of the political
systems through which the Jewish polity has governed itself from
biblical times until the present day. In its substance, that work
aspires to conform to the strict standards of political and
historical enquiry. Where it breaks new ground, however, is in
its deliberate emphasis on the political facet of Jewish history,
and in its emphasis on the re-interpretive implications of its
approach. Thus, while it acknowledges it debt to previous Jewish
historical scholarship, it is not bound by the historiographical
categories usually dictated by the conventions of the field.
Rather, it posits somewhat different points of reference.
Most conspicuously is this so in the thorny matter of
chronological divisions. The various conventional breakdowns are
superseded by a more refined typology based on the rhythms of
political life; apportioning Jewish history into 14
constitutional epochs, each of approximately three centuries
duration, each of which can be seen to possess a distinct
political character of its own. Each epoch in fact represents a
particular Jewish constitutional response, or series of connected
responses, to challenges from within the Jewish polity itself and
from outside of it. What distinguishes each epoch from its
predecessor and successor is the nature of its basic
constitutional referents: the documents, customs, and practices
that provided the organic or fundamental laws of the Jewish
people of the time and served as the framework of its
socio-political organization and development.
The issue of constitutionalism and constitutional change is
central to the study of Jewish political history in its entirety
and provides a base for its periodization. Basically, this is
because the Jewish constitution has differed from modern
constitutions, most significantly because of its all-embracing
character. It is not confined to the delineation of the
political power of a secular society, but extends into virtually
all phases of life. A study of constitutionalism in Jewish
history, accordingly, must embrace far more than the record of
specific fundamental political laws. A reconstruction of the
political constitution of any particular period of Jewish history
must come to terms with the entire range of communal living
during that time, and thereby provide a framework that can
encompass virtually all aspects of Jewish civilization.
The Torah is, in this respect, both an exemplar and a touchstone.
It is an organic and all-embracing law. For the vast majority of
Jewish history and by the vast majority of the Jewish people, it
has been perceived to be of Divine origin. On both counts, the
Torah must be regarded as the basic and foremost constitutional
document of Jewish history. Its subsequent modifications and/or
amplifications must, therefore, be considered to have been
necessitated by overwhelming pressures for constitutional change.
All subsequent constitutional referents claim, explicitly or
implicitly, to maintain the traditions embodied in the Torah: but
all nevertheless do so in a manner which supplements and
redirects the original in line with the pressures of contemporary
conditions. Thus the Mishnah, Gemara, and the great halakhic
codes represent such adjustments, from one epoch to another.
Although there exists no compilation comparable to The Jewish
Polity, that work clearly cannot claim to be more than a first
step towards a complete study of the subject. Principally, this
is because of the paucity of historical attention to the subject
hitherto. We had to begin our investigation from primary sources
and scattered secondary works not designed for the purposes to
which the study is directed. It is in that sense that the
contribution of the work lies as much in its notation of
scholarly lacunae (of which there are many) as in its summary of
received historical wisdoms (of which there are very few). It
offers an agenda for investigation, not least by locating and
identifying the most prominent gaps in our present knowledge.
These initial efforts need to be supplemented with a number of
urgently necessary projects:
1. The compilation of a comprehensive, annotated Bibliography of
Jewish Political Studies designed to provide students of the
field with a readily available index to all published studies on
Jewish political behavior, institutions, and thought, in general,
and epoch by constitutional epoch and arena by organizational
arena. It is an indication of the under-developed state of the
field that no such essential research aid yet exists.
2. Compilation of a Sourcebook of Jewish Constitutional Documents
as a companion to The Jewish Polity. This, too, can be
classified as a necessary tool for further investigation and a
valuable stimulant to further enquiry. The Sourcebook should
present documents illustrative of Jewish constitutional
development from the entire body of recorded Jewish culture. The
scan must, or necessity, be far-ranging. As has often been
pointed out, the Jewish political tradition includes relatively
few works which represent fully articulated, systematic
statements of Jewish political thought. Even those that might
thus be identified are too dispersed to merit their consideration
as linearly progressive statements of political doctrine. The
Jewish 'style' in such matters is usually eclectic, and consists
of refractory comments on matters of political import rather than
reasonably architectured statements of political doctrine. Most
important of all, the Jewish political tradition has usually been
articulated in the institutional and behavioral dimensions of
communal life, and it is to documents which illustrate those
dimensions that attention must be called.
Ultimately, therefore, the selection will not only include
immediately appropriate citations from biblical and Mishnaic
sources; it will also incorporate quotations from the vast
literature of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud; the great
halakhic codes; the entire tradition of rabbinic responsa;
various communal and synodal takkanot (ordinances); modern
rabbinic pronouncements; communal manifestos; organizational
directives; and -- in the case of the State of Israel --
governmental decrees. Even thus baldly to recite the potential
source literature is to reveal the magnitude (and importance) of
the undertaking. Few of these sources have been mined from a
political perspective -- even though research has already
dispelled all possible doubts that they might profitably be so
mined. Simply rescuing such materials from the obscurity to which
they have hitherto been condemned, and attaching to them discreet
explanatory notes and short biographical profiles, will make an
important contribution to Jewish scholarship.
3. The Structure and Functioning of Jewish Communities.
Notwithstanding the vast number of community studies to have
appeared during the past century, there still exists a need for a
systematic historical examination of the institutional and
political dynamics of Jewish life throughout the course of its
evolution based on the canons of political science. No less
necessary are analytical examinations of the contemporary Jewish
world, which might throw light on the nature and form of present
Jewish government in both Israel and the diaspora.
What most studies to date have provided consists, in effect, of
little more than raw materials -- and even then, much of the data
is lacking and what there is, is still being collated. The
information presently available has now to be reexamined and then
restructured, in order that it might present a consolidated
picture of the functions and services performed by various
agencies within and across Jewish communities throughout the
world.5
4. The Jewish Language of Politics. The absence of a lexicon of
Jewish political terms constitutes yet another lacuna of the
field. The omission is particularly deplorable, since it is the
language of political discourse -- the manner whereby key terms
are coined, adapted, and sometimes discarded -- which provides
one of the most important keys to an understanding of the
concepts which they attempt to transmit. Consequently, a
historical dictionary of such terms promises to provide a mirror
to the development of the Jewish political tradition in its
entirety.
Some initial steps have been taken in this direction. The
Jerusalem Center has compiled a file index of some fifty major
Jewish political terms, noting their frequencies, contexts and
connotations. Making use of this information, The Jewish Polity
further listed Jewish political terms (old, new, changed, foreign
derivatives) epoch by constitutional epoch. Among the initial
works in this field are Lawrence Berman's Lexicon of Medieval
Terms (Stanford, 1973), and Gordon Freeman's The Heavenly
Kingdom, Rabbinic Political Thought (University Press of
America/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 1985).6 Here, too,
however, scholarship can claim to have done no more than scratch
the surface of a very deep mine. Yet to be explored in a
systematic fashion are the vast storehouses of the Jewish
tradition: the Bible, the Talmuds, the great halakhic codes, and
the responsa. Now that many of these materials can be
computerized, students of the field can look forward to both
mastering them and examining them for their specifically
political content. In this connection, the Responsa Project at
Bar-Ilan University, Israel, is a vital resource.
5. Studies of Jewish Political Personalities. Who have been the
principal architects of Jewish constitutional development
throughout the ages? Who have played roles as statesmen, leading
the edah and its subdivisions within the constitutional framework
in which they find themselves? Who have cast their eyes upon
Jewish constitutional materials and their implications for the
polity, acting as influential commentators on what they see
rather than as either a shaper or moulder of constitutional
developments?
The Jewish Polity was probably the first work of its kind to ask
such questions, and to present such a categorization. the
findings there presented have now to be tested and pursued. What
this involves is far more than individual studies of whoever is
deemed to have been a "prominent personality" in Jewish history.
The need is for essentially political biographies, which
stress -- not only the 'life' of their subjects, but also the
"constitutional times" within which such lives were lived.
6. Jewish Political Parties. Whatever the truth in the
conventional notion that the Jews have always been a factious
people, there is no doubt that the formation of particular
parties (and in some epochs entire 'camps' of parties) has
constituted a particularly dominant characteristic of Jewish
constitutional history. Indeed, it can be claimed that the great
turning points of that unfolding story can be traced almost
entirely to the divisive effect exerted on the entire Jewish
polity by crucial questions of essentially constitutional import.
For example, one need only examine the history of the division of
the two kingdoms after the death of King Solomon; the break
between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; the Rabbanite campaign
against the Karaites; the conflict between Hassidim and
Mitnagdim; and the rift caused by the appearance of political
Zionism.
There are a few studies of Jewish parties and politics in
distinct periods but no systematic study exists of the phenomenon
of Jewish political parties and their impact.7 The phenomenon
and its various manifestations need to be examined, not as
isolated incidents, but as parts of a pattern whose effects have
made themselves felt upon the Jewish political tradition
throughout the ages.
II. Interpretation
The accumulation of additional knowledge is but an essential
preliminary to an analysis of the information thus obtained.
Jewish political studies is not to be regarded as a progression
of attested "facts;" it is to be perceived as a finely-balanced
testimony to a particularly Jewish perspective on governance,
each stage of which reflects a basically continuous affirmation
and application of constitutional principles which lie at the
very heart of the Jewish experience.
This requires development of a conceptual framework which gives
form to the mass of data, and supplies hypotheses for its further
analysis and interpretation in terms which speak to the present
Jewish condition. By asking incisive questions of the material
which has been hitherto gathered, it has been possible to
identify the existence of distinctive bases of Jewish political
action. In so doing, we have begun to formulate models of
analysis which are as exciting and instructive as they are
informative.
Those models have now to be tested and refined, and then so
coordinated that they might facilitate the formulation of a
comprehensive scheme for the systemic mapping of the Jewish
polity. It is of the essence of the scheme outlined here that
the two ventures proceed simultaneously. While it is the
historical and contemporary evidence which must provide the
bedrock of all theoretical postulates, it is the very existence
of such postulates which must inform and enlighten the enquiry.
While this matrix is not to be regarded as a procrustean bed, to
which each and every instance of Jewish political behavior must
necessarily conform, we believe that it does encompass the most
pertinent coordinates of the field. Not only has it hitherto
stood the test of preliminary -- but rigorous -- historical
investigation; it has also, and more significantly, helped to
deepen our enquiry by taking due account of the emphasis
within Judaism on God's sovereignty and Jewish peoplehood and of
the consequent constancy of Jewish political
concerns.
A brief review of the points along the two axes in the present
matrix provides an indication of the avenue of enquiry to be
explored. Its starting point (as is indicated by the "temporal"
division) is chronological -- a division of Jewish history
into the fourteen constitutional epochs to which reference has
been made above. Thereafter, however, it advocates the adoption
of an analytical approach to take appropriate advantage of recent
methodological and conceptual advances in the scientific study of
politics. It proposes, in effect, the study of "problems" rather
than of "periods" (a guideline which most historians would in any
case now unhesitatingly accept) and the removal thereby of some
of the blinkers of historiographical traditions which have
hitherto prevented due recognition of broad currents and
backwater ripples of Jewish political life.
Every political tradition, it is here suggested, rests upon
certain assumptions about the nature of man, government, and
politics; the role of law; and the character of justice. Central
to the dialogue that informs every political tradition is the
attempt to wrestle with the questions which arise from such
postulates: what constitutes political authority and obligation?
who governs? who gets what from the polity? when and how are
those advantages obtained? Such questions -- together with the
terminology in which they are phrased -- possess numerous
ramifications, all of which have to be explored if the political
tradition in its entirety is to be properly understood and
appreciated. In the particular case of the Jewish political
tradition, that exploration might best be pursued by noting the
particularities of Jewish constitutional requirements and the
distinctive characteristics of Jewish political organizations and
forms.
First among the former is the covenantal (otherwise federal) base
of the Jewish political tradition. Fundamental to any
analysis of this coordinate is a recognition of the Jewish
teaching that the universe and all its parts are under Divine
sovereignty (malkhut shamayim) and hence that all human
institutions possess only delegated authority and powers. that
is the essence of Jewish theocracy. In fact, the good political
order is, in the Jewish view, a complex of interlocking
authorities whose legitimacy is derived from a distinct and
explicit covenant-established partnership between God and man.
In some cases, the former elects and the latter ratifies, and in
others the process is reversed; but in every one the two sides of
the partnership are somehow represented. Part of the theocratic
character of the Jewish political tradition is indeed reflected
in a constant tension between the Divine (shamayim or theo) and
rule (malkhut or cratos) which must be reconciled by federal or
covenantal linkage.8
Covenant theology has become sufficiently common coin in the last
decade or two in Jewish circles, so that the idea itself is
hardly foreign even to those who were brought up in a different
generation of Jewish intellectual endeavor when that vital aspect
of the biblical teaching was overlooked.9 What is suggested here
is that there exists a strong political dimension to the covenant
idea, and that covenants themselves have consistently served as
the principal instruments for shaping Jewish political
institutions and relationships.
Our research to date already indicates that Jewish political
institutions and behavior have remained remarkably faithful to
this covenantal base. These give expression to the concept of
political relationships as the embodiment of a partnership based
on a morally-grounded pact and, like all partnerships, oriented
towards decision- and policy-making through negotiation and
bargaining. It is, indeed, by studying those arrangements that
we can measure the continuing expressions of the tradition and
identify its principal constitutional referents.
Like all great ideas, the basic simplicity of the notion of
covenant masks important complexities. The term brit (covenant)
conveys the sense of both separation and linkage, cutting and
binding. A covenant creates a perpetual (or at least
indefinitely continuing) bond between parties having independent
but not necessarily equal status. That bond is based upon mutual
obligations and a commitment to undertake joint action to achieve
certain defined ends which may be limited or comprehensive, under
conditions of mutual respect in such a way as to protect the
fundamental integrity of all parties involved. Here the concept
of hesed (covenantal obligation) also plays a crucial role, since
it provides the basis for the operational dynamics of the
covenantal relationship. It underscores the need for a wide and
generous response among b'nei brit (covenant partners) and for a
brake on the natural human inclination in contractual situations
to interpret contractual obligations as narrowly as possible. It
is here proposed to examine the multiplicity of Jewish
institutional arrangements wish such considerations in mind, and
thereby to underscore the recurrence of the covenantal paradigm
in structurally analogous examples of community organization.
An enquiry of that nature promises to be most profitable when
allied to an examination of the constitutional, linguistic,
conceptual and political-cultural categories, for it is these which provide pivotal
points of reference for an appreciation of the organic character
of the Jewish political tradition. A political analysis of the
principal constitutional issues and norms of any single epoch,
for instance, will not only reveal their grainy particularity.
It will also illustrate the manner in which individual
constitutional referents reflected contemporary interpretations
of the constitutional framework in its entirety and attest to the
manner in which their framers struggled to make their own
adaptations conform to the mainstream of traditional Jewish
political discourse.
Within the same context, specific attention must also be paid to
the terminology of Jewish political language. The texts of any
particular epoch have to be read as much for their language as
for what they purport to inform us about political practices and
events. Following Max Kadushin, among them are value concepts,
terms and phrases bearing especially illuminating political
content.10 It is already apparent that some of these have
remained virtually unchanged in meaning and form since the days
of the Bible (which, indeed, remains the primary source for
Hebrew political terms); others are of more recent invention and
adoption; in certain cases, old terms have been suffused with new
-- sometimes radically new -- meaning. A comprehensive lexicon
of Jewish political terminology has to be compiled for the full
implications of the phenomena of Jewish political language to be
properly assessed.
Appropriate note
can be taken of the operational manner in which the bases of
Jewish political action have been implemented throughout the
various epochs of Jewish constitutional history. Its starting
point is, once again, faithful to the classic sources of Jewish
political doctrine: the notion that polities (kibbutzim mediniim)
are extensions of the original, Divinely-inspired covenantal
relationships of their constituents. There is, therefore, no
"state" in the Jewish political tradition, in the sense of a
reified entity complete in and of itself. Classically, only God
is sovereign. In accordance with His covenant with Israel, God
has entrusted the exercise of many of His sovereign powers of
governing to the people as a whole. Ultimately, therefore, human
authority for fundamental decision-making -- in accordance with
the Torah-as-constitution -- resides in the entire edah
(commonwealth), invariably defined as including all adult males
and best rendered as a polity of equals based on consent.
The Bible provides several illustrations of the manner in which
the edah as a whole was responsible in ancient Israel for actions
of a primary constitutional character: the territorial division
of the Promised Land, the election of Kings, the ratification of
covenants. As that source itself indicates, however, the edah was
not the only possible arena of Jewish political organization;
there also existed subsidiary congregational forms (initially of
a familial and tribal pattern), which are here defined as
kehillot (local communities) and medinot or aratzot (regional
frameworks of governance or congeries of kehillot). To some extent these arenas constituted
adaptations of covenantal arrangements and the manner whereby the
relationship between such constituent parts of the edah was --
and is -- periodically adjusted in response to temporal and
regional circumstances. Accordingly, it traces the emergence,
virtual disappearance and (in our own day) re-emergence of the
concept of the edah as an operational or organizational
expression of the Jewish polity; the extension in mandatory power
of the local kehillah (especially during Epoch XI); and the
fortunes of various medinot or aratzot, several of which at
various times vied for hegemony over the edah as a whole (as did
Israel and Judah in Epoch IV; Eretz Yisrael and Bavel in Epoch
IX; and the State of Israel and the Jewish community of the
United States in our own day).
Each of the arenas here outlined has consistently adhered to the
constitutional principles of Jewish political practice (even the
terminology of congregational organization reflects its
covenantal orientation; among Sephardic kehillot, for example,
the articles of agreement establishing congregations are know as
askamot -- a term that has an explicitly covenantal derivation
and significance). Nevertheless, substance must not be confused
with structure. In fact, no single form of political
organization is mandated by Jewish law or Jewish tradition. A
proper Jewish polity is one which embraces a proper set of
relationships, rather than any particular structure.
Within every arena of Jewish political
organization, authority and power are distributed among several
reshuyot (governmental authorities). From the time of the
foundation of the edah in Sinai, these have been clustered into
three sets of authoritative combinations, each with its own
direct source of Divine authority. During Epoch VII (the period
of the Second Commonwealth), these three authoritative
combinations were designated ketarim (literally "crowns" -- a
term which itself expressed the theory that each possessed a
separate grant of authority from God through its own covenant).
Following the traditional texts, the Sinai covenant can be
understood to have established the keter torah; the covenant with
Aaron, the keter kehunah; and the covenants with Abraham, Joshua
and David, the keter malkhut.
The immediate manifestations of the ketarim are easily apparent;
but each should also be understood to possess a larger
significance. The keter torah embodies the means whereby
programmatic expression is given to Israel's Divine
constitutional teaching; the keter kehunah the means whereby God
and the edah are brought into close proximity through shared
rituals and symbolic expressions; the keter malkhut constitutes
the vehicle whereby civil authority exercises power within the
edah. This unique tripartite division of authority allows the
Jewish polity to encompass far more than the narrow functions of
contemporary political systems. In effect, it embraces means of
governance that extend beyond the normal range of the modern
state. Through the three ketarim, the multifaceted character of
the Jewish people finds political as well as religious expression
-- and in a way which constitutionalizes power-sharing.
Moreover, each keter possesses a share in the governance of the
edah, through the institutions and officers that are empowered by
it.
A series of specific studies prepared under the auspices of the
Jerusalem Center has already demonstrated the rich extent of this
particular lode. It has been argued, for instance, that what
distinguishes the division of authority among the ketarim from
conventional separation of powers systems is that the ketarim
address themselves principally to the source, character and
purpose of authority, and only secondarily to issues of function
(e.g. executive, legislative, judicial). Each possesses distinct
prerogatives, but each also possesses discretionary powers which
entitle it to range beyond the strict boundaries of its own
functional demesne. Governmental functions, therefore, are
usually shared by two or more of the ketarim. From time to time,
the institutions which embody each interchange acquire a share in
more than one "crown," as a consequence of certain historical
circumstances; but the basic tripartite division constantly
reasserts itself. The matrix here presented suggests a means
whereby such changes might be identified and accounted for. It
also suggests a means whereby changes within each keter, and in
the relationships between ketarim can, at each level of Jewish
political organization, be related to simultaneous developments
of perspective and alignment throughout the Jewish political
world.11
One principal motor of such changes is located along the axes of the "Ideological" and "Party" divisions within the polity.
These are organizational categories which help to give generic
definition to the religious and political groupings which -- at
various times -- have competed for control of the governing
institutions of the edah. As such, they also serve to give
conceptual form to what would otherwise appear to be the random
(and sometimes maverick) variations in intra-Jewish political
tussles. The various constitutional issues which brought about
the emergence of such factions, and their changing compositions,
might also serve to refine various other points along the two
axes of the present matrix, and thereby reflect the enormously
rich texture of the Jewish political tradition in its entirety.
By viewing the struggle between the Sadducees and Pharisees of
Epoch VII, for instance (or, for that matter, between the
Rabbanites and Karaites of Epoch X; the Hassidim and mitnagdim of
Epoch XII; or the "nationalist" and "assimilationist" schools of
modernity) as distinct political expressions of an on-going
constitutional tension, we can broaden our perspectives of the
entire Jewish experience in times modern as well as ancient.
Thus observed, the Jewish people cease to be unidimensional and
tradition-bound, with predictable divisions and stagnant
concerns. Instead, they are revealed for what they in effect
have always been -- a vigorous, sensitive, and dynamic (even
populist) polity, with their own political traditions and
constitutional values.
The process of "interpretation" itself necessitates a degree of
communication between scholars. If their work is to be improved
(indeed, if it is ever to reach fruition) they need to be
provided with appropriate channels and forums, through and at
which they might take exploratory 'soundings' with their
colleagues and peers. These include:
2.1 A continuing workshop in Jewish political studies. Meeting at
regular intervals since 1981, the members of this forum
constitute a permanent body of scholars, who meet to survey
and evaluate research-in-progress and to map areas of
research to be undertaken.
2.2 Smaller working groups, meeting at irregular
intervals to pursue particular aspects of the work.
2.3 Conferences - larger gatherings, that include invited
scholars whose principal fields of expertise lie in fields
adjacent to Jewish political studies itself. The papers
delivered at these gatherings constitute springboards for
further debate, criticism, and investigation. Topics that
have been addressed to date through these gatherings include:
"Jewish Political Studies as a Field of Inquiry," "Modes of
Expression of the Jewish Political Tradition," "Critical
Issues in Jewish Political Life," "External and Internal
Influences on Modes of Jewish Political Expression,"
"Integrating Jewish Political Studies into the General
Political Science Curriculum," "The Influence of the Jewish
Political Tradition on the Modern State of Israel," and
"Jewish and General Influences on the Constitutional
Documents of Contemporary Jewry."
Most have been or will be published as special issues of this
journal.
III. Policy Application
It is by now a commonplace to talk of the political re-awakening
of the Jewish people during recent decades. Less frequently
articulated, because more obscure, are the implications of that
phenomenon and its bearings on the central issue of Jewish
identity in our times. Fundamental to the investigation of these
phenomena is a recognition of the remarkable efforts presently
being undertaken throughout the Jewish world to refashion and
reconstitute the edah. The post-modern epoch of Jewish
constitutional history has witnessed the emergence of new and
exciting modes of Jewish political organization, which have
themselves often been reflections of the coming of age of a new
Jewish political public. The revival of the political
aspirations of the Jews during the twentieth century has raised
anew the issue of Jewish identity in its entirety, and in so
doing has opened up novel modes of its expression and
enhancement.
The responsibilities which these developments impose upon Judaism
are no less awesome than the opportunities which they present.
Jewish communities throughout the world are now confronted with
the possibility that, unless they can sensitize themselves to
their root traditions and aspirations, they may fail to meet the
challenge of our generation and lose touch with the developing
sense of Jewish citizenship apparent throughout their various
domains. This is a task which awaits careful treatment by
leaders and citizens of the Jewish polity alike. Both sectors
need to develop a common sense of discourse, a mutual trust in
the efficacy of particular institutional arrangements, and a
reciprocal belief in the justice of power-sharing arrangements.
In order to accomplish all of that -- and at the same time to
preserve the unique attribute of their Jewishness -- they need
primarily to share an acquaintance with the Jewish political
tradition and its sources. Such an acquaintance might transmit
to them both a sense of civic responsibility and an agenda for
civic behavior. It will endow Jewish leaders (both voluntary and
professional) with an understanding of their functions and Jewish
citizens with and awareness of their own rights and duties.
Above all, it will bestow authenticity upon the entire enterprise
of Jewish political behavior and self-government.
While the successful culmination of Zionist endeavors (the
survival no less than the establishment of the State of Israel)
has undoubtedly constituted the single most important influence
on Jewish political development in recent times, it has not been
the only factor working for change. Equally pervasive, although
somewhat more attenuated, were the significant shifts in the
demographic and organizational bases of world Jewry during modern
times (trends whose pace was quickened by the Holocaust, but
whose inception antedated that tragedy). These, too,
necessitated the reconstitution of all Jewish life, which was
expressed -- even before 1948 -- by the emergence of various
multi-country associations (e.g. the Jewish Agency, the World
Jewish Congress, ORT) with worldwide Jewish agendas.12 As they
have become more politically self-conscious, Jews all over the
world have begun to ask fundamental questions regarding the
structure and dynamics of their communal life, the process of
decision-making and policy formation, and the ability of their
current leaders (religious and secular, lay and professional) to
govern and administer the polity wisely and responsibly.
In this connection, particular cognizance must be taken of
developments within the American Jewish community -- the largest,
richest, and often the most intellectually fecund of all
contemporary Jewish communities. Since the 1960s, especially,
that community has moved towards a new understanding of itself as
a polity: voluntary, ethnically, and religiously-based. It has
been this heightened self-awareness of American Jewish communal
organizations, particularly when allied to the compelling
political realia injected into all Jewish public life by the fact
of Israel's existence as a sovereign state, that has brought to
the fore new concerns relative to the Jewish public agenda in its
entirety.
Systematic discussion of these issues in a larger political
context is still in an embryonic stage. Nevertheless, some
conclusions articulated in this article are already being
tentatively accepted. Principal among these is the contention
that the Jewish people is what it is because being Jewish
involves both kinship and consent, both a sense of common
ancestry -- of family ties, as it were -- and the personal
commitment to being Jewish, to continuing the Jewish heritage as
a Jew's best expression of human values and pursuing a Jewish
vision. Were kinship sufficient to make Jews committed to their
Jewishness, it is unlikely that the questions referred to above
would be considered of interest -- or even posed at all. It is
precisely because being Jewish involves consent, and consenting
to something means recognizing its value, that Jews -- especially
in Israel and the United States -- are bothered by a whole range
of questions as to who they are and where they are going. The
issue of Israel-Diaspora relationships is but one of such
question; the fate of Russian Jewry is another; the proper
exercise of the "Jewish vote" in diaspora communities is yet a
third.
If these issues are to be tackled at all effectively, Jews need
to attain a better understanding of the necessary role of the
political dimension of Jewish life, both in Israel and the
diaspora, and the necessity to give it means for proper
expression. A republican polity cannot effectively function
unless its citizens are sensitive to its requirements and
purposes; neither can it effectively be administered unless its
leaders possess an understanding of its political dynamics and of
the political traditions by which it has been shaped. Not every
member of the commonwealth may require an equivalent exposure to
Jewish political studies, but all need some acquaintance with the
subject.
Appendix: Jewish Political Studies Publications of the Jerusalem
Center for Public Affairs/Center for Jewish Community Studies
A. Scholarly books and journals.
The publications program of the JCPA/CJCS can itself be
classified under various headings, each of which reflects the
opportunities which it offers for the presentation of various
stages of research conducted by its Fellows and Associates.
These include:
(i) "In house" papers, distributed by the Center itself, through
its various series: "Covenant Workshop Papers," "Policy Papers,"
and "Research Papers." Among the relevant titles which have
recently appeared in this series are:
Covenant Workshop Papers:
"The Almost-Covenanted Polity" by Daniel J. Elazar
"The Anarcho-Federalism of Martin Buber" by Bernard Susser
"The Concept of the Three Ketarim" by Stuart A. Cohen
"Covenant as a Utopian Concept" by Neal Riemer
"Covenant as the Basis of the Jewish Political Tradition" by
Daniel J. Elazar
"The Covenant Idea in Modern Jewish Thought" by Pinchas Rosenblit
(in Hebrew)
"The Covenant Idea in Politics" by Daniel J. Elazar
"The Covenant in the Bible - Collected Sources" by Ruth Gil (in
Hebrew)
"The Covenant in the Tannaitic Literature - Collected Sources" by
Ruth Gil and Yehiel Rosen (in Hebrew)
"The Covenant with the Devil" by Harold Fisch (in Hebrew)
"The Duality in the Covenant Idea and Its Relationship to the
Messianic Idea" by Ella Belfer (in Hebrew)
"Historical Interpretation and Political Ideology in Education in
the First and Second Temple Periods" by Ella Belfer (in
Hebrew)
"The History of the Political Judgement of the Jew" by Ismar
Schorsch (in Hebrew)
"Jewish Political Thought and Contemporary Politics" by Dan V.
Segre
"The Jewish Political Tradition as a Field of Inquiry" by Daniel
J. Elazar (in Hebrew)
"The Kehillah" by Daniel J. Elazar
"Kingdom, Covenant and Lineage" by Meir Kasirer (in Hebrew)
"The Language of Jewish Political Discourse" by Gordon M. Freeman
"Maimonidies on Political Leadership" by L. Berman (in Hebrew)
"Moral Basis and Symbols in Politics" by Charles Liebman (in
Hebrew)
"Notes on the Concept of Brit" by Ilan Greilsammer
"The People of Israel and the Kingdom of Heaven - Studies in
Jewish Theocracy" by Ella Belfer (in Hebrew)
"The Politics of Prayer" by Gordon M. Freeman
"Prolegomena to Jewish Political Theory" by Bernard Susser and
Eliezer Don-Yehiya
"The Rabbinic Understanding of Covenant as a Political Idea" by
Gordon Freeman
"Secularization, Denial and Integration: Perspectives and
Terminology of Orthodox Judaism in Socialist Zionism" by
Eliezer Don-Yehiya (in Hebrew)
"Some Preliminary Observations on the Jewish Political Tradition"
by Daniel J. Elazar
"Theocentricity in Jewish Law" by Emanuel Rackman
Policy Papers:
"Building Jewish Citizenship in the Emerging American Jewish
Community" by Daniel J. Elazar
"Kinship and Consent in the Jewish Community" by Daniel J. Elazar
"The Place of Jewish Political Studies on the Campus" by Daniel
J. Elazar
"The State of World Jewry: A Contemporary Agenda" by Daniel J.
Elazar
"Toward a Meaningful World Covenant" by Daniel J. Elazar
"Towards a Renewed Zionist Vision" by Daniel J. Elazar
"Who is a Jew: Some Political Reflections" by Charles Liebman
Research Papers:
"A Note on the Function of 'The Law of the Kingdom is the Law' in
the Medieval Jewish Community" by Gerald J. Blidstein
"Dimensions of Authority in the Contemporary Jewish Community" by
Charles S. Liebman
"Government in Biblical Israel" by Daniel J. Elazar
"The Kehillah: From the Beginning to the End of the Modern Epoch"
by Daniel J. Elazar
"Notes on Hefker Bet-Din in Talmudic and Medieval Law" by Gerald
J. Blidstein
"On the Study of Financing of Jewish Community Activities" by
A.A. Kessler
"The Reconstitution of Jewish Communities in the Post-War Period"
by Daniel J. Elazar
"Towards a General Theory of Jewish Political Interests and
Behavior" by Peter Y. Medding
(ii) Jewish Political Studies Review
As is the case in other disciplines, work on the various aspects
of the Jewish political tradition tend to be published
individually in a wide variety of journals. Nevertheless, in
order to better organize the field and at the same time quicken
interest in its development, the Jerusalem Center for Public
Affairs has launched the Jewish Political Studies Review.
Initially, two double issues of the Jewish Political Studies
Review will appear annually, and ultimately a quarterly
publication is planned. At least half the issues will focus on
specific themes, thereby building a collection of potential texts
for classroom use as well.
(iii) Book and Monograph Series
Several academic publishers have undertaken publication of longer
and more detailed monographs, designed to contain works of both
synthesis and specific case studies -- in some cases through the
efforts of the Jerusalem Center. The Center's "Jewish Communal
and Public Affairs" series, published by the Jewish Publication
Society of America, includes two titles to date, Community and
Polity: The Organizational Dynamics of the American Jewish
Community by Daniel J. Elazar and the Jews of Yugoslavia, A Quest
for Community by Harriet Pass Freidenreich. Fairleigh Dickenson
Press has published Pressure Without Sanctions: The Influence of
World Jewry on Israeli Policy by Charles S. Liebman and Existence
and Utopia: The Social and Political Thought of Martin Buber by
Bernard Susser.
Indiana University Press has its series in "Jewish Political and
Social Studies" which to date includes the following titles:
- Religion and Politics in Israel by Charles Liebman and Eliezer
Don-Yehiya
- The Jewish Polity - Jewish Political Organization from Biblical
Times to the Present by Daniel J. Elazar and Stuart Cohen
- Jewish Continuity and Change by Calvin Goldscheider
- Israel at the Polls, 1981 edited by Howard Penniman and Daniel
J. Elazar
- Israel: Building a New Society by Daniel J. Elazar
- Sacred Survival by Jonathan Woocher
- American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? by Steven M. Cohen
The JPCA's co-publication program with University Press
of America has a list of 15 titles as of 1989, including:
- The Balkan Jewish Communities edited by Daniel J. Elazar
- The Jewish Communities of Scandinavia edited by Daniel J.
Elazar
- The Heavenly Kingdom: Aspects of Political Thought in the
Talmud and Midrash by Gordon M. Freeman
- Kinship and Consent: The Jewish Political Tradition and its
Contemporary Uses edited by Daniel J. Elazar
- Federalism and Political Integration edited by Daniel J. Elazar
- Self Rule/Shared Rule: Federal Solutions to the Middle East
Conflict edited by Daniel J. Elazar
- Synagogue Havurot: A Comparative Study by Gerald B. Bubis and
Harry Wasserman with Alan Lert
- Partners and Pursestrings: A History of the United Israel
Appeal by Ernest Stock
- Project Renewal in Israel: Urban Revitalization Through
Partnership by Paul King, Orli HaCohen, Hillel Frisch, and
Daniel J. Elazar
The Kotler Institute for Judaism and Contemporary Thought,
associated with Bar-Ilan University, has devoted several of its
annual summer institutes to the Jewish political tradition,
beginning in 1975 with "The Jewish Political Tradition and Its
Contemporary Uses, which led to the publication of Kinship and
Consent: The Jewish Political Tradition and its Contemporary
Manifestations edited by Daniel J. Elazar. This volume brought
together some of the most informed discussions on the topic. Its
contents included:
"The Covenant as the Basis of the Jewish Political Tradition" by
Daniel J. Elazar
"The Rabbinic Understanding of the Covenant" by Gordon Freeman
"Prolegomena to Jewish Political Theory" by Bernard Susser and
Eliezer Don-Yehiya
"Maimonides on Political Leadership" by Lawrence V. Berman
"The Attitude Toward the State in Modern Jewish Thought Before
Zionism" by Eliezer Schweid
"The Transition from Tribal Republic to Monarchy in Ancient
Israel and its Impression on Jewish Political History" by
Moshe Weinfeld
"Political Conflict and the Use of Power in the World of the
Geniza" by Shlomo Dov Goitein
"On Power and Authority" Halachic Stance of the Traditional
Community and Its Contemporary Implications" by Menachem Elon
"Individual and Community in the Middle Ages" by Gerald Blidstein
"Patterns of Political Organization and Leadership in
Contemporary Jewish Communities" by Peter Y. Medding
"The Jewish Political Tradition as a Vehicle for Jewish
Auto-Emancipation" by Dan V. Segre
"Toward a General Theory of Jewish Political Interests and
Behavior in the Contemporary World" by Peter Y. Medding
"Moral and Symbolic Elements in the Politics of Israel-Diaspora
Relations" by Charles S. Liebman
"Halakhah as a Ground for Creating a Shared Political Dialogue
Among Contemporary Jews" by David Hartman
Other summer institutes included "Israel as a Jewish State" in
1976 and "Leadership in the Jewish Tradition" in 1977.
For a decade, literature of the field was identified on a regular
basis in the biennial article of the literature of Jewish Public
Affairs in the American Jewish Year Book. Estelle Burke, a
professional librarian, has prepared The Literature of Jewish
Public Affairs to assist librarians in classifying materials in
the field.
B. University Teaching
In recent years a growing group of scholars around the world has
been working together to develop the field of Jewish political
studies as a fully articulated element in the Jewish studies
constellation in their respective universities. Graduate and
professional courses in Jewish political theory, institutions and
behavior; Jewish political thought; and Jewish public policy have
been established at no less than 22 institutions of higher
education on five continents, beginning with Temple University in
1970. The full list of institutions includes Harvard University,
Brandeis University (in two separate departments), Brown
University, SUNY-Binghamton, City University of New York, New
York University, University of California at Berkeley, Syracuse
University, Jewish Theological Seminary, HUC-JIR, Hebrew
University, Bar-Ilan University (full program from B.A. through
Ph.D.), Haifa University (Chair in Jewish Political Studies), Tel
Aviv University, and the University of Paris. In addition, many
courses in Jewish history and sociology include materials on
Jewish political studies without actually identifying the courses
as being within that field.
Since 1969, there have been sessions in Jewish political studies
at the World Congress of Jewish Studies, now presented through an
organized subsection, and since 1979, there has been a Jewish
political studies interest section within the Association for
Jewish Studies.
The JCPA/CJCS Workshop in the Study and Teaching of Jewish
Political Studies has focused on this emerging field of academic
inquiry every summer since 1981, since 1983 in conjunction with
the International Center for University Teaching of Jewish
Civilization, headed by Professor Moshe Davis, under the auspices
of the President of Israel. Past workshops have been devoted to
"Jewish Political Studies as a Field of Inquiry," "Modes of
Expression of the Jewish Political Tradition," "Critical Issues
in Jewish Political Life," "External and Internal Influences on
Modes of Jewish Political Expression," "Integrating Jewish
Political Studies into the General Political Science Curriculum,"
"The Influence of the Jewish Political Tradition on the Modern
State of Israel," and "Jewish and General Influences on the
Constitutional Documents of Contemporary Jewry."
As a result of all this activity, there now exists both a need
and an opportunity to make available a series of textbooks,
student manuals and teachers' guides in the subject matter of the
fields.
While every teacher develops his or her own course syllabi, a
model introductory course based on the ideas presented in this
article could be helpful. The syllabus for such a course should
include:
1. Introduction - The Jewish People as a Political Community
2. The Units of Political Analysis: Kibbutz Medini, Medinah
and Am
3. The Edah: The Jewish People as a Body Politic
4. Brit: Covenant as the Basis of the Jewish Political Tradition
5. The Two Faces of Politics: Tzedek V'Otzmah
6. Authority and Power (Smakhut V'Otzmah)
7. The Three Ketarim (Crowns): The Basic Division of Powers
8. Individual and Community (Yahid VeTzibbur)
9. The Jewish Political Tradition
10. The Jewish Political Tradition and the State of Israel
11. The Constitutional Basis of Adat Bnei Yisrael
12. The Arenas of Political Organization: Edah, Medinah (Eretz),
Kehillah
13. Constitutional Epochs
14. The Epochs of the Bible (3,4,5)
15. The Epochs of the Compilation and Adoption of the Talmud
(6,7,8,9)
16. The Epochs of the Codes (10,11,12)
17. The Modern and Post-Modern Epochs
18. Basic Functions in the Political Framework of the Edah
19. The Processes of Governing: Attaining Office
20. Political Dynamics: Leadership
21. Political dynamics: Legislation and Adjudication
22. Political Dynamics: Camps and Parties
23. Political Dynamics: Political Contests Between Leadership
Groups
24. Israel and the Jewish Political Tradition: The Conflict of
Political Cultures
25. The Institutions of the State and the Jewish Political
Tradition
26. Israel and the Diaspora
27. Summarizing and Concluding Session
C. Participating Audiences among Jewish Leadership
The leadership of the Jewish people, political, civic (referred
to as voluntary in the United States and honorary in the other
English-speaking countries), and members of the professional
civil service, constitute a growing audience, many of whose
members occupy positions of crucial importance in the local,
state, and national arenas of Jewish public life. It is precisely
the content and perspective of Jewish political studies which
might break down these three components and provide a necessary
service to professional education, by showing the connection
between past and present Jewish experience and by relating both
to concrete issues of Jewish political organization, process, and
policy.
Programs in Jewish political organization and leadership might
consist of:
(i) A short historical introduction to the Jewish political
tradition, e.g.:
1. Covenanting with God: Abraham through David
2. Kings, Priests, Prophets: Solomon to the Hasmoneans
3. Rabbis and Rebels: From the Hasmoneans to the Rabbanites
4. Communities as Polities: Sepharad and Ashkenaz
5. Codifiers and their Critics: From Maimonides to Mendelssohn
6. The Jewish Political tradition and the Challenge of Modernity
and Post Modernity: From Mendelssohn to the 1980's and Beyond.
(ii) A short thematic introduction to the field, i.e.:
1. Covenant as the Basis of the Jewish Political Tradition
2. Power-Sharing in Jewish Life: The Three Ketarim
3. The Jewish Language of Politics
4. Formulating and Implementing Jewish Public Policy
5. Community and Polity: The Arena of Jewish Governance
6. The Future of the Jewish Political Tradition.
(iii) The exploration of specific "case studies," each of
which presents potential issues of intra-communal relations and
decision-making processes of contemporary relevance in terms of
the "constitutional principles" which implicitly govern the
contemporary Jewish polity (e.g. voluntarism, federalism,
consensualism, formal democracy, trusteeship, etc.), which can be
placed against the classic back drop of the principles and norms
of the entire course of Jewish political history.
The positive responses which each of the foregoing programs have
already generated justifies optimism concerning the future of
such efforts. They need to be employed to reach audiences that
have hitherto been deprived of an understanding of the traditions
which continue to shape the formation and implementation of
Jewish public policy.
Notes
1. The JCPA/CJCS is an appropriate vehicle for the implementation
of these tasks. Founded in 1970, as an institute, it unites
scholars from throughout the world, each of whom is committed to
the study of Jewish community organization, political thought and
public affairs, past and present, in Israel and the diaspora.
Moreover, through the medium of its various programs, the Center
has already been instrumental in training a wider cadre of
students and researchers, whose sensitivity to the importance of
the Jewish political tradition and its contemporary uses has been
heightened by acquaintance with the Center's publications and by
participation in its workshops and seminars.
2. Kinship and Consent: The Jewish Political Tradition and its
Contemporary Manifestations, edited by Daniel J. Elazar (Lanham,
Md: University Press of America, 1981). The Jewish Polity:
Jewish Political Organization from Biblical Times to the Present,
Daniel J. Elazar and Stuart A. Cohen, (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1985).
3. Daniel J. Elazar, "Confrontation and Reconstitution: Selections
from the Literature of Jewish Affairs 1969-1971," American Jewish
Yearbook (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1972); "The
Pursuit of Community: Selections from the Literature of Jewish
Public Affairs, 1965-1966," American Jewish Yearbook (1967); "The
Rediscovered Polity: Selections from the Literature of Jewish
Affairs, 1967-1968," American Jewish Yearbook (1969); Harold M.
Waller, "Reassessment and Retrenchment: Selections from the
Literature of Jewish Public Affairs, 1972-1974," American Jewish
Yearbook (1976); "Selections from the Literature of Jewish Public
Affairs, 1975-1976," American Jewish Yearbook (1978); Mala Tabory
and Charles S. Liebman, Jewish International Activity and
Annotated Bibliography (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 1985);
E.G. Burke, The Literature of Jewish Public Affairs
(Philadelphia: Jewish Community Studies Group, 1970).
4. The Study of Jewish Community Organization has resulted in the
following published works:
Books
The Balkan Jewish Communities: Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, and
Turkey - Daniel J. Elazar, Harriet Pass Friedenreich, Baruch
Hazzan, and Adina Weiss Liberles (1984)
Community and Polity: The Organizational Dynamics of American
Jewry - Daniel J. Elazar (1980)
Israel: Building a New Society - Daniel J. Elazar
Jewish Communities in Frontier Societies: Argentina, Australia,
and South Africa - Daniel J. Elazar with Peter Medding (1983)
The Jewish Communities of Scandinavia: Sweden, Denmark, Norway,
and Finland - Daniel J. Elazar, Adina Weiss Liberles, and Simcha
Werner (1984)
Jewishness in the Soviet Union: Report of an Empirical Study -
Benjamin Fain and Mervin Verbit (1984)
The Jews of Yugoslavia: A Quest for Community - Harriet Pass
Friedenreich (1979)
Maintaining Consensus: The Canadian Jewish Polity in the Postwar
World - Daniel J. Elazar and Harold M. Waller (1989)
The Other Jews: The Sephardim Today - Daniel J. Elazar (1988)
People and Polity: The Organizational Dynamics of World Jewry -
Daniel J. Elazar (1989)
Reports, Working Papers,
and Other separately Published Items
The Activity Spheres of the American Jewish Community - Daniel J.
Elazar (1972)
American Jewry and the Yom Kippur War: A First Assessment of the
Community Response - Daniel J. Elazar (1974)
The Canadian Jewish Community: A National Perspective - Harold M.
Waller (1977)
"Civil Judaism" in the United States - Jonathan S. Woocher (1978)
Decision-Makers in Communal Agencies: A Profile - Daniel J.
Elazar (1973)
The Decision Makers: Key Divisions in Jewish Communal Life -
Daniel J. Elazar (1973)
Decision Making in the American Jewish Community - Daniel J.
Elazar (1972)
The Democratization of a Community: The Case of French Jewry -
Ilan Greilsammer (1979)
French Jewry and American Jewry - Marc Salzburg (1971)
The Geography of American Jewish Communal Life - Daniel J. Elazar
(1973)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of Calgary - Harvey Rich
(1974)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of Edmonton - Jennifer K.
Bowerman (1975)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of Hamilton - Louis
Greenspan (1974)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of London - Alan M. Cohen
(1974)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of Montreal - Harold M.
Waller and Sheldon Schreter (1974)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of Ottawa - Zachariah Kay
(1974)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of Toronto - Yaakov
Glickman (1974)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of Vancouver - Edna
Oberman (1974)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of Windsor - Stephen
Mandel and R.H. Wagenberg (1974)
The Governance of the Jewish Community of Winnipeg - Anna Gordon
(1974)
The Jewish Community of Belgium - Adina Weiss (1970)
The Jewish Community of Bulgaria - Baruch Hazzan (1974)
The Jewish Community of Delaware - Adina Weiss and Joseph Aron
(1976)
The Jewish Community of Denmark - Adina Weiss (1977)
The Jewish Community of Finland - Adina Weiss (1977)
The Jewish Community of Greece - Adina Weiss (1974)
The Jewish Community of Iran - Daniel J. Elazar (1975)
The Jewish Community of Mexico - Seymur B. Liebman (1978)
The Jewish Community of Norristown, Pennsylvania - Adina Weiss
and Joseph Aron (1976)
The Jewish Community of Sweden - Adina Weiss (1977)
The Jewish Community of Turkey - Adina Weiss (1974)
Jewish Survival and American Jewish Leadership - Daniel J. Elazar
(1973)
The Jewries of Scandinavia - Daniel J. Elazar (1977)
The Jews of Norway - Simcha Werner and Adina Weiss (1977)
In the Absence of Hierarchy: Notes on the Organization of the
American Jewish Community - Ernest Stock (1970)
On the Study of International Jewish Political Organizations -
Charles S. Liebman (1978)
The Organization and Status of Contemporary Jewish Communities
5730 (1969-1970) - Daniel J. Elazar (1971)
Preliminary Bibliography for the Comparative Study of Jewish
Community Organization - Daniel J. Elazar (1970)
Sephardic Jewry in the United States: A Preliminary Instructional
Profile - Daniel J. Elazar et al. (1978)
Studying Jewish Communities: A Research Guide - Daniel J. Elazar
(1970)
Today's Sephardim in Perspective - Daniel J. Elazar (1982)
Trend Report on Jewish Social Research in Britain - Ernest Kraus
(1971)
Articles
"Building Jewish Citizenship in the Emerging American Jewish
Community," Daniel J. Elazar, Forum, no. 23 (Spring 1975), pp.
5-17.
"The Communal Organization of South African Jewry," Steven
Aschheim, Jewish Journal of Sociology, vol. 12, no. 1 (June
1970), pp. 201-231.
"Consensus and Community in Israel," Asher Arian, Jewish Journal
of Sociology, vol. 12, no. 1 (June 1970), pp. 39-53.
"A Contemporary Paradox: Israel and Jewish Peoplehood," Peter Y.
Medding, Forum, no. 26/1 (1977), pp. 5-16.
"How 'Durban' Reacted to Israel's Crises: A Study of an American
Jewish Community," Ernest Stock, Forum, no. 23/2 (1975), pp.
38-60.
"In the Absence of Hierarchy: Notes on the Organization of the
American Jewish Community," Ernest Stock, Jewish Journal of
Sociology, vol. 21, no. 2 (December 1970), pp. 195-200.
"Israel, American Jewry, and the Re-Emergence of a World Jewish
Polity," Daniel J. Elazar in Annual of Bar-Ilan Studies in
Judaica and the Humanities XVI-XVII (1979).
"The Institutional Life of American Jewry," Daniel J. Elazar,
Midstream, vol. 17, no. 6 (June/July 1971), pp. 31-50.
"Jewish Multicountry Associations," Ernest Stock, American Jewish
Year Book 1974-75, vol. 75, pp. 571-597.
"Jews of France: From Neutrality to Involvement," Ilan
Greilsammer, Forum, nos. 28-29 (Winter 1978), pp. 130-146.
"The Legal Status of American Jewry," Daniel J. Elazar and
Stephen R. Goldstein in American Jewish Year Book 1972, vol. 73,
pp. 3-94.
"The New Sadducees," Daniel J. Elazar, Midstream, vol. 24, no. 7
(August/September 1978), pp. 20-25.
"A Note on the Structural Dynamics of the American Jewish
Community," Daniel J. Elazar, Judaism, vol. 20, no. 3 (Summer
1971), pp. 335-340.
"On the Study of the Financing of Jewish Community Activities,"
A.A. Kessler, Jewish Journal of Sociology, vol. 12, no. 1 (June
1970), pp. 89-100.
"Patterns of Jewish Communal Participation," Daniel J. Elazar,
Congress Bi-Weekly, vol. 39 (March 24, 1972), pp. 7-9.
"The Political Tradition of the American Jew," Daniel J. Elazar
in Traditions of the American Jew, Stanley M. Wagner, ed. (New
York: Center for Judaic Studies of University of Denver, 1977),
chap. 5.
"The Reconstitution of Jewish Communities in the Post-War
Period," Daniel J. Elazar, Jewish Journal of Sociology, vol. 11,
no. 2 (December 1969), pp. 187-226.
"The State of World Jewry: A Contemporary Agenda," Daniel J.
Elazar, Forum, vol. 25, no. 2 (1976), pp. 51-62.
"The Sunset of Balkan Jewry," Daniel J. Elazar, Forum, vol. 27,
no. 2 (1977), pp. 135-141.
"Toward a Jewish Definition of Statehood for Israel," Daniel J.
Elazar, Judaism, vol. 27, no. 2 (Spring 1978), pp. 233-244.
"Towards a Renewed Zionist Vision," Daniel J. Elazar, Forum, vol.
26, no. 1 (1977), pp. 52-69.
Journals and Serial Publications
(1) Issues of Tefutsot Yisrael (Hebrew quarterly co-published by
the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the American Jewish
Committee) devogted to products of the study.
The American Synagogue: Its Uniqueness and Future (Summer 1982)
Israel-Diaspora Relations (Spring 1984)
The Jewish Communities in Scandinavia: Association and
Assimilation (March 1977)
The Jewish Community in Mexico and Central America (March 1978)
The Jewish Community in Montreal: Facing Quebec Nationalism (June
1977)
The Jewish Federation: "Kehillot" American Style (Spring 1982)
Jewish Life in Britain (Winter 1983)
The Jewish Population in the Diaspora/Demographic Analyses and
Forecasts (Winter 1980)
The Jews in Australia (June 1979)
The Jews of France in Troubled Times (Winter 1982)
The Organized Jewish Community in France (December 1978)
Pluralism and Equality/The Community Relations Agenda of American
Jewry (Summer 1981)
The Remnants of Balkan Jewry (March-April 1974)
(2) Jerusalem Letter/Viewpoints (An English language periodical
published twice monthly providing up-to-date and often
behind-the-scenes information on and analysis of significant
developments in Israel, the Jewish world, and the Middle East.)
JL7 "French Jewry and the French Elections--I," Ilan Greilsammer
(March 12, 1978)
JL8 "French Jewry and the French Elections--II," Ilan
Greilsammer (April 16, 1978)
JL11 "The Jews of Quebec and the Canadian Crisis," Daniel J.
Elazar (May 19, 1978)
JL25 "Soviet Jewry: Its Sources of Information and Images of
Israel," Dan Caspi (December 4, 1979)
JL27 "The Movement of M'sorati Judaism in Israel," Batya Stein
(February 19, 1980)
JL30 "American Jewish Political Activism in the 1980s: Five
Dilemmas," Jonathan S. Woocher (July 1, 1980)
JL33 "Jewish Religion and Politics in Israel," Daniel J. Elazar
(October 12, 1980)
JL37 "Jewishness in the Soviet Union: A Preliminary Report of
the First Independent Empirical Study," Benjamin Fain, Dan Caspi,
and Mervin F. Verbit (January 5, 1981)
JL44 "Jews on the Move: The New Wave of Jewish Migration and Its
Implication for Organized Jewry," Daniel J. Elazar (January 10,
1982)
JL46 "The Emerging European Jewish Community Structure," Ernest
Stock (March 14, 1982)
JL60 "Jews in Egypt--1983," Ernest Stock (June 15, 1983)
JL65 "American Jews and Israel: Pragmatic, Critical, But Still
in Love," Steven M. Cohen (September 18, 1983)
JL67 "Federation Allocations for Jewish Eduction and Other Local
Services: A Comparison," Alysa M. Dortort (November 24, 1983)
JL71 "Israeli Emigres and the New York Federation: A Case Study
in Ambivalent Policymaking for "Jewish Communal Deviants',"
Steven M. Cohen (June 19, 1984)
JL92 "New Zealand Jewry in Transition," Stephen Levine (February
23, 1987)
JL99 "Survivors of the Spanish Exile: The Underground Jews of
Ibiza," Gloria Mound (February 10, 1988)
JL101 "The Last Jews in India and Burma," Nathan Katz and Ellen
S. Goldberg (April 15, 1988)
JL103 "The New Status of the Italian Jewish Community," Yaakov
Andrea Lattes (June 15, 1988)
VP32 "Zionism as a Strategy for the Diaspora: French Jewry at
a Crossroads," Shmuel Trigano (April 5, 1984)
VP35 "The New Agenda of European Jewry," Daniel J. Elazar
(October 17, 1984
VP45 "Argentine Jewry Between Dictatorship and Democracy,"
Judith Laikin Elkin (December 31, 1985)
VP47 "Australian Jewry in the Asian Pacific Region," Isi J.
Leibler (February 24, 1986)
Unpublished Reports
"Argentine Jewry: Its History, Ethnicity, and Problems," Seymour
B. Liebman (Slightly different version pulished in Midstream,
vol. 21, no. 1 [January 1975], pp. 59-66.)
"Background Information on German Jewry" - Jesse Fried (1984)
"The Jewish Communities of the USSR" (1974)
"The Jewish Communities of Brazil" - Miriam Mundstock (1970)
"The Jewish Community of Colombia" - Thomas L. Price (1976)
"The Jewish Community of Costa Rica" - Thomas L. Price (1976)
"The Jewish Community of India" - Daniel J. Elazar (1976)
"The Jewish Community of Italy" - Henryk Zvi Geller (1973)
"The Jewish Community of Panama" - Thomas L. Price (1976)
"The Organized Jewish Community in France" - Marc Salzburg (1974)
(Ph.D. disssertaton)
"Rumanian Jewry 1945-1970" - Esther Oren (1974)
"The United Jewish Federation in Norfolk, Virginia" - Ephraim
Inbar (1981)
5. Works that indicate the possibilities in this field: Daniel J.
Elazar, Community and Polity: The Organizational Dynamics of
American Jewry (Philadelphia, 1976); and Stuart A. Cohen, English
Zionists and British Jews: The Communal Politics of Anglo-Jewry,
1895-1920 (Princeton, 1982).
6. Gordon M. Freeman, The Heavenly Kingdom: Aspects of Political
Thought in the Talmud and Midrash (Lanham, MD: Jerusalem Center
for Public Affairs and University Press of America, 1986).
7. On Jewish parties: E. Mendelsohn, The Jews of East Central
Europe between the World Wars (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana
University Press, 1983); Louis Finkelstein, Jewish
Self-Government in the Middle Ages (New York: Philip Feldheim,
1964); Salo W. Baron, The Jewish Community 3 vols.
(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1938-1942); S.A.
Cohen, English Zionists and British Jews: The Communal Politics
of Anglo-Jewry: 1895-1920 (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1982).
8. Ella Belfer, "The Jewish People and the Kingdom of Heaven,"
Jewish Political Studies Review 1:1-2 (Spring 5749/1989).
9. Arnold Jacob Wolf, ed. Rediscovering Judaism (Chicago:
Quadrangle Books, 1965); Eugene Borowitz, Choices in Modern
Jewish Thought (New York: Behrman, 1983); New Jewish Theology in
the Making (Philadelphia: Westminister, 1968); Understanding
Judaism (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1979);
Jakob J. Petuchowski, Ever Since Sinai (New York, 1961); John F.A.
Taylor, The Masks of Society, An Inquiry into the Covenants of
Civilization (New York: Appelton-Century-Crofts, 1966). See also
Harold Fisch, Jerusalem and Albion (New York: Schocken, 1964).
10. Max Kadushin, The Rabbinic Mind, 2nd ed. (New York,
1965); and Organic Thinking: A Study in Rabbinic Thought (New
York, 1938).
11. Stuart A. Cohen, "The Concept of the Three Ketarim: Its Place
in Jewish Political Thought and its Implications for a Study of
Jewish Constitutional History," Working Paper No. 18 (Jerusalem:
JCPA, July 1982); "Keter as a Jewish Political Symbol: Origins
and Implications," Jewish Political Studies Review 1:1-2 (Spring
5749/1989); O. Keel, The Symbols of the Biblical World: Ancient
Near Eastern Iconography and the Book of Psalms (New York, 1978),
pp. 259-280; T. Ishida, The Royal Dynasties in Ancient Israel
(Berlin-New York, 1977). See also "Keter ve-Atarah," in
Encyclopedia Mikra'it, vol. 4 (Jerusalem, 1962), clmns. 405-408.
12. Daniel J. Elazar, People and Polity: The Organizational
Dynamics of World Jewry (Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
1989).
13. Daniel J. Elazar, The Present Time and the Past (Ramat Gan:
Turtledove, 1982).
