UPDATED EVENTS:
ON THE NATION AND THE ŒJEWISH PEOPLE¹
By SHLOMO SAND
Published 31 January 2011
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LONDON EVENTS:
Thursday 10 February
1pm RSA Lunchtime lecture. Booking for this free event now open.
Booking and more details
here:http://www.versobooks.com/events/91-shlomo-sand-what-is-a-nation
7pm PLEASE NOTE ROOM CHANGE Talk with Gilbert Achcar at SOAS. More
details here:
http://www.versobooks.com/events/87-shlomo-sand-at-soas-on-the-nation-and-t
he-'jewish-people'
Friday 11 February
12pm Talk about the Palestinian national project with Omar Al-Qattan at
The Mosaic Rooms to complement the powerful Kai Wiedenhofer exhibition.
Booking and more details here:
http://www.versobooks.com/events/89-shlomo-sand-at-the-mosaic-rooms-what-is
-a-nation
7pm Talk with Brian Klug at the LRB Bookshop. Fully booked but more
details here:
http://www.versobooks.com/events/78-shlomo-sand-at-the-lrb-bookshop-on-the-
nation-and-the-'jewish-people'
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PRAISE FOR THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE AUJOURD¹HUI AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JEWISH QUARTERLY-WINGATE PRIZE 2010
³Shlomo Sand has written a remarkable book. In cool, scholarly prose he
has, quite simply, normalised Jewish historyŠAnyone interested in
understanding the contemporary Middle East should read this book.² Tony
Judt
³The Invention of the Jewish People is both a welcome and, in the case of
Israel, much needed exercise in the dismantling of nationalist historical
myth and a plea for an Israel that belongs equally to all its
inhabitants... A landmark.² Eric Hobshawm, Observer, Books of the year
³A formidable polemic.² Max Hastings, Sunday Times
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Shlomo Sand sparked a furious controversy across the world with his
bestseller The Invention of the Jewish People in which he claimed that the
Jewish people are not a biologically defined race with a shared common
origin. Most recently, Nature and the American Journal of Human Genetics
published Œnew¹ genetic findings, which The New York Times, Newsweek and
UPI reported as refuting Sand¹s thesis. In the new afterword to the
paperback edition, Sand responds:
³This attempt to justify Zionism through genetics is reminiscent of the
procedures of late nineteenth-century anthropologists who very
scientifically set out to discover the specific characteristics of
Europeans... It is a bitter irony to see the descendants of Holocaust
survivors set out to find a biological Jewish identity: Hitler would
certainly have been very pleased!²
The controversial historian now presents two classic lectures by a major
influence on his thought, Ernest Renan (1823-92), theorist of the nation,
historian, critic, and intellectual giant of late 19th century France,
emphasising the contemporary relevance of Renan¹s understanding of
nationalism as Israel now moves to consolidate its use of nationalist
narratives as well as exonerating him from long-standing accusations of
anti-Semitism that have tainted his legacy.
Sand¹s essay ŒThe Unclassifiable Renan¹ provides an illuminating
introduction to Renan¹s life, times and ideas. He engages with the
criticisms made by Edward Said, the celebrated Palestinian-American author
of Orientalism, in which Renan ³holds pride of place in the villains¹
gallery of historical figures,² agreeing with Said that Renan¹s first
major work, Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques
(1855), formed the ideological foundations of Eurocentric Orientalism, and
moreover, that it conferred a ³scientific dimension² on racism at this
early time.
However, Sand historicises Renan¹s thought against a rapidly-developing
backdrop of Europe¹s industrial take-off and its increasing economic
distance from the rest of the world as well as nascent Darwinism. Sand
traces the evolution of Œthe unclassifiable Renan¹ from the Renan of his
youthful early work, written at the age of 24 to his suspension as chair
of Hebrew at the Collége de for portraying Jesus as an ordinary human
being in Life of Jesus. He explicates the mature Renan¹s ³significant
retreat from the racialist conceptions that had haunted some of his
writings² and shows how his work influenced important thinkers such as
Raymond Aron and Ernest Gellner.
Two classic lectures by Renan are included in the book: ŒWhat is a
Nation?¹ argues that the foundation of nationhood lies outside of race,
religion, and language. The second, ŒJudaism as Race and Religion,¹
examines the concept of the Jewish Œpeople,¹ showing through historical
evidence that the Jews cannot be considered ³pure ethnos.²
Renan became an early ³media celebrity²; in his new fame, he
unsuccessfully stood for election to the Chambre des Députés as a liberal.
Sand tracks Renan¹s movement from initially liberal-conservative politics
towards ³the logic of democracy² that led to him becoming ³one of the
icons of the Third Republic.²
Sand¹s thesis on the origins of the Jewish people and the narrativization
of nationalism in Israel to obscure and mystify the real history of the
Middle East and its people started an international debate: it was branded
³baseless² by its critics and hailed as unequivocal evidence for a
one-state solution for Israel and Palestine by its champions. Sand, who
describes himself as Œpost-Zionist¹, believes that the state of Israel
needs to reform itself to become the state of all its citizens, both Jew
and Arab, directly challenging the proposed amendment to the Law of
Citizenship requiring all non-Jews to pledge loyalty to "the State of
Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.²
Sand is defiant in the face of Netanyahu¹s accusation that "there are many
today who tried to blur not only the unique connection of the Jewish
people to its homeland, but also the connection of the Jewish people to
its state." He writes for Ha'aretz that ³Benjamin Netanyahu is unsure of
his identity: His insecurity is behind his pointless demand for
Palestinian recognition of Israel as uniquely Jewish.²
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FURTHER PRAISE FOR THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE AUJOURD¹HUI AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JEWISH QUARTERLY-WINGATE PRIZE 2010
³Shlomo Sand has written a remarkable book. In cool, scholarly prose he
has, quite simply, normalised Jewish history. In place of the implausible
myth of a unique nation with a special destiny expelled, isolated,
wandering and finally restored to its rightful home he has reconstructed
the history of the Jews and convincingly reintegrated that history into
the general history of humankind. The self-serving and mostly imaginary
Jewish past that has done so much to provoke conflict in the present is
revealed, like the past of so many other nations, to be largely an
invention. Anyone interested in understanding the contemporary Middle
East should read this book.² Tony Judt
³Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People is both a welcome and,
in the case of Israel, much needed exercise in the dismantling of
nationalist historical myth and a plea for an Israel that belongs equally
to all its inhabitants. Perhaps books combining passion and erudition
don¹t change political situations, but if they did, this one would count
as a landmark² Eric Hobshawm, Observer, Books of the year
³A formidable polemic against claims that Israel has a moral right to
define itself as an explicitly and exclusively Jewish society in which
non-Jews, such as Palestino-Israelis, are culturally and politically
marginalised.² Max Hastings, Sunday Times
³[Sand's] quiet earthquake of a book is shaking historical faith in the
link between Judaism and Israel.² Rafael Behr, Observer
³Sand takes on a formidable tradition in claiming that moral validity in
the Middle East needs good history, and no discussion of the region any
longer seems complete without acknowledgement of his book.² Independent on
Sunday, Best History Books of 2009
³[O]ne of the bravest [books of the year].² Terry Eagleton, Times Literary
Supplement
³I am one of many Jews who would agree with Sand that a decisive factor in
the future of Israel will be its capacity to be far more attentive to the
narratives and rights of its Palestinian and other non-Jewish citizens.²
Jonathan Wittenberg, Guardian
³A string of firecrackers.² Stephen Howe, Independent, Book of the Week
³His book is a trip through a landscape of illusions which Sand aims to
explode, leaving the scenery freer for a Middle East built Š from the hard
bricks of truth.² Simon Schama, Financial Times
³One of the most fascinating and challenging books published here in a
long time² Tom Segev, Haaretz
³Shlomo Sand, historian and author of The Invention of the Jewish
People‹much reviewed and rebutted, and recently translated into English‹is
provoking the international community by arguing that Jews have never been
genetically or otherwise Œa people¹ Š Sand¹s larger point, that Israel
needs to become more like other Western democracies and less obsessed with
ethnic purity, is welcome.² Newsweek
³The translated version of his polemic has sparked a new wave of coverage
in Britain and has provoked spirited debates Š The book has been
extravagantly denounced and praised.² Patricia Cohen, New York Times
³Zionism¹s quest for a historical homeland is brilliantly excavated by
Shlomo Sand in his recent The Invention of the Jewish People.² Alexander
Cockburn, The Nation
³Tel Aviv University historian Shlomo Sand, in his remarkable book The
Invention of the Jewish People, marshals past and present academic work to
refute the Zionist historiography underlying this myth, and tells instead
a story of a religious minority and its creed, waxing and waning through
proselytizing and conversion, subject to the same social forces as any
other religious minority.² Harry Clark, Counterpunch
³No serious reader who is interested in Zionism or Israel‹whatever their
personal views‹can avoid being shaken up Š by Sand¹s impressive redrawing
of the major religious and Œracial¹ boundaries that are usually taken for
granted in most discussions of these subjects.² Bertell Ollman, MR Zine
³[Sand¹s] conclusion is that Israel has to become a democratic state of
all its citizens, including the 20 per cent who are Muslims and
Christians, not a state of all the Jews. This book must be as seen as a
milestone on that road.² The National
³His latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel¹s bestseller list
and that success has come to the history professor despite his book
challenging Israel¹s biggest taboo.² Jonathan Cook, Al Jazeera
³Shlomo Sand may well be remembered and very possibly within our
lifetime for knocking down the idol of ³the Jewish people² as did
Spinoza to classical rabbinic orthodoxy.² Mondoweiss
³Sand makes a very strong case against the neo-biblical story of the Jews
that has been used by both Christians and modern Jews, and forms the
religious underpinning of Zionism.² Colorlines
³An important book one that hammers another nail into Zionism's
ideological coffin.² Tony Greenstein, Weekly Worker
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SHLOMO SAND is a Jewish scholar and historian based at the University of
Tel Aviv. His book, The Invention of the Jewish People, has been
translated into more than a dozen languages and won a number of awards,
including France¹s coveted Aujourd¹hui Award.
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ISBN: 978 1 84467 462 6 /£9.99 / $16.95 / Paperback Original / 128 pages
ON THE NATION AND THE ŒJEWISH PEOPLE¹ is available from all good bookshops
and:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/521-521-on-the-nation-and-the-jewish-people
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