Bøger af Daniel Gordis

Winner of the Jewish Book of the Year AwardThe first comprehensive yet accessible history of the state of Israel from its inception to present day, from Daniel Gordis, "one of the most respected Israel analysts" (The Forward) living and writing in Jerusalem.Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world’s attention, aroused its imagination, and lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future?We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel’s people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions. Though Israel’s history is rife with conflict, these conflicts do not fully communicate the spirit of Israel and its people: they give short shrift to the dream that gave birth to the state, and to the vision for the Jewish people that was at its core. Guiding us through the milestones of Israeli history, Gordis relays the drama of the Jewish people’s story and the creation of the state. Clear-eyed and erudite, he illustrates how Israel became a cultural, economic and military powerhouse—but also explains where Israel made grave mistakes and traces the long history of Israel’s deepening isolation. With Israel, public intellectual Daniel Gordis offers us a brief but thorough account of the cultural, economic, and political history of this complex nation, from its beginnings to the present. Accessible, levelheaded, and rigorous, Israel sheds light on the Israel’s past so we can understand its future. The result is a vivid portrait of a people, and a nation, reborn.

"Published on the country's seventy-fifth anniversary comes a nuanced and thoughtful examination of Israel's past, present, and future, from the two-time National Jewish Book Award-winning author of Israel In 1948, Israel's founders had in mind much more than creating a state. They sought not mere sovereignty but also the creation of a "national home for the Jewish people," where Jewish life would be transformed and where a "new Jew" would take root. Did they succeed? The state they created, says Daniel Gordis, is "the most hated nation in the world but also the most beloved," a place of extraordinary success and maddening disappointment, a story of both unprecedented human triumph and great suffering. Now, as the country marks its seventy-fifth anniversary, Gordis asks: Has Israel fulfilled the dreams of its founders? Using the country's Declaration of Independence as his measure, he provides a thorough, balanced perspective on the ways in which the Israel of today exceeds the country's original aspirations and also how it has fallen short. In a deft and multifaceted assessment, he discusses the often-overlooked reasons for Israel's creation, the flourishing of Jewish and Israeli culture, Israel's economy and its transformative tech sector, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the distinctly Israeli form of Judaism that has emerged in the Jewish state, Israel's complex relationship with the Diaspora, and much more. Gordis offers new angles of thinking about Israel that bring moderation and clarity to the prevailing discourse. And through weighing Israel's successes, critiquing its failures, and acknowledging its inherent contradictions, he ultimately suggests that-in ways its founders could not have foreseen-the Jewish state is a success far beyond anything they could have imagined"--

Why Israel's greatest weakness is its greatest strength, and what its supporters and enemies can learn from its successIsrael's critics in the West insist that no country founded on a single religion or culture can stay democratic and prosperous-but they're wrong. In The Promise of Israel, Daniel Gordis points out that Israel has defied that conventional wisdom. It has provided its citizens infinitely greater liberty and prosperity than anyone expected, faring far better than any other young nation. Israel's "magic" is a unique blend of democracy and tradition, of unabashed particularism coupled to intellectual and cultural openness. Given Israel's success, it would make sense for many other countries, from Rwanda to Afghanistan and even Iran, to look at how they've done it. In fact, rather than seeking to destroy Israel, the Palestinians would serve their own best interests by trying to copy it.* Takes many of the most compelling arguments against Israel and turns them completely on their heads, undoing liberals with a more liberal argument and the religious with a more devout argument* Puts forth an idea that is as convincing as it is shocking-that Iran's clerics and the Taliban should want to be more like Israel* Written by Daniel Gordis, the author of the National Jewish Book Award winner, Saving Israel* Daniel Gordis has been called "one of Israel's most thoughtful observers" (Alan Dershowitz) and "a writer whose reflections are consistently as intellectually impressive as they are moving" (Cynthia Ozick)Certain to generate controversy and debate, The Promise of Israel is one of the most interesting and original books about Israel in years.

In the summer of 1998, Daniel Gordis and his family moved to Israel from Los Angeles. They planned to be there for a year, but a few months into their stay, Gordis and his wife decided to remain in Jerusalem permanently, confident that their children would be among the first generation of Israelis to grow up in peace.Immediately after arriving in Israel, Daniel had started sending out e-mails about his life to friends and family abroad. These missives—passionate, thoughtful, beautifully written, and informative—began reaching a much broader readership than he'd ever envisioned, eventually being excerpted in The New York Times Magazine to much acclaim. An edited and finely crafted collection of his original e-mails, Home to Stay is a first-person, immediate account of Israel's post-Oslo meltdown that cuts through the rhetoric and stridency of most dispatches from that country or from the international media. This is must reading for anyone who wants to get a firsthand, personal view of what it's like for a family on the front lines of war.

Is Israel worth saving, and if so, how do we secure its future?The Jewish State must end, say its enemies, from intellectuals like Tony Judt to hate-filled demagogues like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even average Israelis are wondering if they wouldn't be better off somewhere else and whether they ought to persevere. Daniel Gordis is confident his fellow Jews can renew their faith in the cause, and in Saving Israel, he outlines how.* 2009 National Jewish Book Award winner* Addresses the most pressing issues faced by Israel-and American Jews-today, without recycling the same old arguments* Lays to rest some of the most pernicious myths about Israel, including: Jews could thrive without Israel; Israeli Arabs just want equality, and Palestinians just want their own state; peace will come, if Israel will just do the right things* "Morally powerful . . . from a writer whose reflections are consistently as intellectually impressive as they are moving. . . . Gordis addresses the exigencies of our time with the urgency they overridingly demand, and with the depth of feeling they inspire."-Cynthia OzickGordis has written many popular personal essays and memoirs in the past, but Saving Israel is a full-throated call to arms. Never has the case for defending-no, celebrating-the existence of Israel been so clear, so passionate, or so worthy of wholehearted support.

From National Jewish Book Award Winner and author ofIsrael, a bold reevaluation of the tensions between American and Israeli Jews that reimagines the past, present, and future of Jewish lifeRelations between the American Jewish community and Israel are at an all-time nadir. Since Israels founding seventy years ago, particularly as memory of the Holocaust and of Israels early vulnerability has receded, the divide has grown only wider. Most explanations pin the blame on Israels handling of its conflict with the Palestinians, Israels attitude toward non-Orthodox Judaism, and Israels dismissive attitude toward American Jews in general. In short, the cause for the rupture is not what Israelis;its what Israeldoes.These explanations tell only half the story.We Stand Dividedexamines the history of the troubled relationship, showing that from the outset, the founders of what are now the worlds two largest Jewish communities were responding to different threats and opportunities, and had very different ideas of how to guarantee a Jewish future.With an even hand, Daniel Gordis takes us beyond the headlines and explains how Israel and America have fundamentally different ideas about issues ranging from democracy and history to religion and identity. He argues that as a first step to healing the breach, the two communities must acknowledge and discuss their profound differences and moral commitments. Only then can they forge a path forward, together.

Reviled as a fascist by his great rival Ben-Gurion, venerated by Israel’s underclass, the first Israeli to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a proud Jew but not a conventionally religious one, Menachem Begin was both complex and controversial. Born in Poland in 1913, Begin was a youthful admirer of the Revisionist Zionist Ze’ev Jabotinsky and soon became a leader within Jabotinsky’s Betar movement. A powerful orator and mesmerizing public figure, Begin was imprisoned by the Soviets in 1940, joined the Free Polish Army in 1942, and arrived in Palestine as a Polish soldier shortly thereafter. Joining the underground paramilitary Irgun in 1943, he achieved instant notoriety for the organization’s bombings of British military installations and other violent acts.Intentionally left out of the new Israeli government, Begin’s right-leaning Herut political party became a fixture of the opposition to the Labor-dominated governments of Ben-Gurion and his successors, until the surprising parliamentary victory of his political coalition in 1977 made him prime minister. Welcoming Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to Israel and cosigning a peace treaty with him on the White House lawn in 1979, Begin accomplished what his predecessors could not. His outreach to Ethiopian Jews and Vietnamese “boat people” was universally admired, and his decision to bomb Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981 is now regarded as an act of courageous foresight. But the disastrous invasion of Lebanon to end the PLO’s shelling of Israel’s northern cities, combined with his declining health and the death of his wife, led Begin to resign in 1983. He spent the next nine years in virtual seclusion, until his death in 1992. Begin was buried not alongside Israel’s prime ministers, but alongside the Irgun comrades who died in the struggle to create the Jewish national home to which he had devoted his life. Daniel Gordis’s perceptive biography gives us new insight into a remarkable political figure whose influence continues to be felt both within Israel and throughout the world. This title is part of the Jewish Encounters series.

Israel is a tiny state, and yet since its creation, it has captured the world's attention, earned its admiration, and, often, been the object of its opprobrium. Why is so much of the international community focused on a small country like Israel? Why are Israelis so deeply divided on so many key issues? Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future?Weaving together historical documents, letters, and interviews with his own intimate knowledge of the country, Daniel Gordis tells the story of Israel: when the idea of a Jewish state originated, how the dream was transformed into reality, and how Israel's history has unfolded and why. Israel probes the soul of both a people and a country that have long triumphed over adversity, but which still face grave?some say insurmountable?challenges. Gordis guides us through the milestones of Israeli history and introduces the passionate and formidable personalities who pioneered the country and shaped its pivotal moments. He illustrates how Israel became a cultural, economic, and military powerhouse?but he also explains its grave mistakes and traces its long history of international isolation. Clear-eyed and authoritative, Gordis shows that above all else Israel's prime purpose?and its major accomplishment?has been the modern rebirth of the Jewish people.With Israel, Gordis offers us a brief but thorough history of this complex nation, from its beginnings to the present. Accessible, level-headed, and rigorous, Israel sheds light on Israel's past so we can understand its present and future. The result is a vivid portrait of a people, and a nation, reborn.

Is Israel worth saving, and if so, how do we secure its future?The Jewish State must end, say its enemies, from intellectuals like Tony Judt to hate-filled demagogues like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even average Israelis are wondering if they wouldn't be better off somewhere else and whether they ought to persevere. Daniel Gordis is confident his fellow Jews can renew their faith in the cause, and in Saving Israel, he outlines how.2009 National Jewish Book Award winnerAddresses the most pressing issues faced by Israel-and American Jews-today, without recycling the same old argumentsLays to rest some of the most pernicious myths about Israel, including: Jews could thrive without Israel; Israeli Arabs just want equality, and Palestinians just want their own state; peace will come, if Israel will just do the right things"e;Morally powerful . . . from a writer whose reflections are consistently as intellectually impressive as they are moving. . . . Gordis addresses the exigencies of our time with the urgency they overridingly demand, and with the depth of feeling they inspire."e;-Cynthia OzickGordis has written many popular personal essays and memoirs in the past, but Saving Israel is a full-throated call to arms. Never has the case for defending-no, celebrating-the existence of Israel been so clear, so passionate, or so worthy of wholehearted support.

Praise for Coming Together, Coming Apart"e;Interesting conversation is Israel's most ingratiating commodity, and this is an especially interesting one. To read Coming Together, Coming Apart is to be engaged in an ongoing dialogue with one of Israel's most thoughtful observers--an American who made Israel his home, despite its imperfections and dangers. Gordis's conversational narrative is irresistible."e;--Alan dershowitz, author of The Case for Israel"e;Whether describing a walk through Jerusalem in snow, a hike in the desert, or a farewell family drive to the Gaza settlements, Gordis manages to capture the essential details that tell us the larger meaning of our Israeli lives. There is much irony in this book, and also anger, especially against those who unfairly judge Israel in its most desperate and noble times. Most of all, though, this book is the chronicle of a love story--of an immigrant family in Jerusalem falling in love with Israel and, through that love, discovering the strength to cope with life on the front lines of a jihadist war. As a fellow Jerusalemite, I feel a profound debt to Gordis for explaining what it means to raise a family in the middle of a terror zone, and the courage that average Israelis instinctively display in maintaining the pretense of normal life. Those of us who share his passion are fortunate to be so well represented by this book."e;--Yossi Klein Halevi, Foreign Correspondent, The New Republic