The Invention of the Jewish People
LC Class | DS143.S23 2008 Hebr (Hebrew 1st ed.) |
The Invention of the Jewish People (
An English translation of the book was published by Verso Books in October 2009.[13] The book has also been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French and Russian, and as of late 2009[update] further translations were underway.[14][15][16][17]
Book summary
Sand began his work by looking for research studies about forcible exile of Jews from the area now bordered by modern Israel, and its surrounding regions. He was astonished that he could find no such literature, he says, given that the expulsion of Jews from the region is viewed as a constitutive event in
Jewish origins
Sand argues that it is likely that the ancestry of most contemporary Jews stems mainly from outside the
According to Sand, the original Jews living in Israel, contrary to popular belief, were not exiled by the
Jewish peoplehood
Sand's explanation of the birth of the "myth" of a Jewish people as a group with a common, ethnic origin has been summarized as follows: "[a]t a certain stage in the 19th century intellectuals of Jewish origin in Germany, influenced by the folk character of German nationalism, took upon themselves the task of inventing a people "retrospectively," out of a thirst to create a modern Jewish people. From historian Heinrich Graetz on, Jewish historians began to draw the history of Judaism as the history of a nation that had been a kingdom, became a wandering people and ultimately turned around and went back to its birthplace."[18]
In this, Sand writes, they were similar to other nationalist movements in Europe at the time that sought the reassurance of a Golden Age in their past to prove they have existed as a separate people since the beginnings of history. Jewish people found theirs in what he calls "the mythical Kingdom of David". Before this invention, he says, Jews thought of themselves as Jews because they shared a common religion, not a common ethnic background.[18]
Return from exile, Zionism
Sand believes that the idea of Jews being obliged to return from exile to the
Overall intent of the book
Sand explained during a newspaper interview his reasons for writing the book: "I wrote the book for a double purpose. First, as an Israeli, to democratise the state; to make it a real republic. Second, I wrote the book against Jewish essentialism."[22]
Sand explained in the same interview that what he means by 'Jewish essentialism' is, in the words of the interviewer, "the tendency in modern Judaism to make shared ethnicity the basis for faith."[22] "That is dangerous and it nourishes antisemitism. I am trying to normalise the Jewish presence in history and contemporary life," Sand said.[22]
Reception
Sand's book has provoked a range of responses from different points of view.
As a work of history
Writing in
British historian Eric Hobsbawm selected Sand's book as one of his "Books of the Year" for 2009: "Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People (Verso) 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."[24]
In a commentary published in
In a review,
Evan R. Goldstein, editor at the
Historian Anita Shapira criticizes Sand for regularly "grab(bing) at the most unorthodox theory" in a field and then stretching it "to the outer limits of logic and beyond" during Sand's survey of three thousand years of history.[28] Shapira says that Sand's political program makes the book an attempt to "drag history into a topical argument, and with the help of misrepresentations and half-truths to adapt it to the needs of a political discussion."[28]
Carlo Strenger writes that Sand's book is "not a pure work of history" and argues that, "in fact, it has a clearly stated political agenda. ... It might come as a surprise to some who have not read the book that Sand's goal is to preserve Israel as a democracy with a Jewish character based on a Jewish majority."[12]
According to historian Shaul Stampfer, "even though it's a wonderful story", the mass conversion of Khazars to Judaism never took place.[29]
According to American writer Daniel Lazare, The Invention of the Jewish People is "messy polemic – helter-skelter, tendentious and ill-informed". According to Lazare, Sand "rightly insists on the relevance of the ancient past to contemporary politics, but his distortions are an obstacle to a full understanding of the modern Israeli-Palestinian predicament."[30]
Professor Michael Berkowitz from University College London wrote "With a little critical distance, it is possible to criticize this book as a far cry from a ‘real’ work of scholarship. It is flimsy, haphazardly built, slap-dash. There is no foundation in archival research, and Sand does not seem to have fully read (or understood) many of the secondary works on which his thesis relies. He apparently has never heard of Aviel Roshwald and George Mosse, who are among the first names that should spring to mind in any consideration of Jews and nationalism... Perhaps the fundamental problem with this book, which also applies to the above-mentioned works of Goldhagen, Piterberg, and Mayer, is that the thesis runs way ahead of the supposedly dispassionate investigation (despite Sand's protest to the contrary), and therefore the book assumes the character more of a legal brief than a scholarly monograph".[31]
As an argument about Jewish identity
Writing in The New Republic, Zionist literary critic Hillel Halkin calls assertions made in the book "the exact opposite of the truth" and goes on to say that "Believing Jews throughout the ages have never doubted for a moment that they belonged to an am yisra'el, a people of Israel—nor, in modern times, have non-believing Jews with strong Jewish identities. It is precisely this that constitutes such an identity. Far from inventing Jewish peoplehood, Zionism was a modern re-conceptualization of it that was based on its long-standing prior existence."[32] Halkin describes the book as "so intellectually shoddy that once, not very long ago, it would have been flunked as an undergraduate thesis by any self-respecting professor of history."[32]
In contrast, Israeli historian Tom Segev writes that Sand's book "is intended to promote the idea that Israel should be a 'state of all its citizens' – Jews, Arabs and others – in contrast to its declared identity as a 'Jewish and democratic' state."[20] Segev adds that the book includes "numerous facts and insights that many Israelis will be astonished to read for the first time".[20]
British historian Simon Schama, reviewing the book in the Financial Times, argues that Sand misunderstands Jews in the diaspora, specifically, that he thinks that "the Khazars, the central Asian kingdom which, around the 10th century, converted to Judaism have been excised from the master narrative because of the embarrassing implication that present day Jews might be descended from Turkic converts."[33] Schama states that, on the contrary, when he was a child, "the Khazars were known by every Jewish girl and boy in my neck of Golders Greenery and further flung parts of the diaspora, and celebrated rather than evaded."[33] Schama adds that "Sand's sense of grievance against the myths on which the exclusively Jewish right to full Israeli immigration is grounded is one that many who want to see a more liberal and secular Israel wholeheartedly share. But his book prosecutes these aims through a sensationalist assertion that somehow, the truth about Jewish culture and history, especially the 'exile which never happened,' has been suppressed in the interests of racially pure demands of Zionist orthodoxy. This, to put it mildly, is a stretch."[33]
Sand responded to Schama's critique on his website by summarising the methodology Schama had used: "One of the most effective techniques adopted to ridicule or marginalize one’s ideological opponents is to create a caricatured and extreme version of their thesis. Some Zionist historians have become past masters with such methods and Simon Schama seems to want to emulate them in his review of my book."[34]
British historian
As an argument about the position of "Jewish history" in Israeli universities
According to Ofri Ilani, historian and Haaretz columnist, most of Sand's book deals with the question of where the Jews come from, rather than questions of modern Jewish nationalism and the modern invention — according to Sand — of the Jewish people."[18] Therefore, some historians of Judaism have stated that Sand is dealing with subjects about which he has no understanding, and that he bases his book on work that he is incapable of reading in the original languages.[18]
Sand admits that he is "a historian of France and Europe, and not of the ancient period…"[18] and that he has "been criticized in Israel for writing about Jewish history when European history is my specialty. But a book like this needed a historian who is familiar with the standard concepts of historical inquiry used by academia in the rest of the world."[19] Sand claims that this cannot be found in university history departments in Israel, because of their putatively isolated nature. This isolation, Sand states, dates to a decision in the 1930s to separate history into two disciplines: general history and Jewish history. Jewish history was assumed to need its own field of study because Jewish experience was considered unique.
"There is no Jewish department of politics or sociology at the universities. Only history is taught this way, and it has allowed specialists in Jewish history to live in a very insular and conservative world where they are not touched by modern developments in historical research."[19]
Genetic evidence
Sand's book has occasionally been mentioned in the press in the context of studies in Jewish population genetics. This has been the case in June 2010, as the popular press reported on two studies in this field, (Atzmon et al., American Journal of Human Genetics and Beha et al., Nature).
Thus, Newsweek mentions Sand's book as having "revived" debate on the Khazar hypothesis.[5]
and the
… Shlomo Sand of Tel Aviv University in Israel argues in his book The Invention of the Jewish People, translated into English last year, that most modern Jews do not descend from the ancient Land of Israel but from groups that took on Jewish identities long afterward. Nevertheless, the study by Ostrer's group concluded that all three Jewish groups—Middle Eastern, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi—share genomewide genetic markers that distinguish them from other worldwide populations.[4]
Geneticist Harry Ostrer presented findings that were generally viewed as disproving Sand's notion that the Jewish people is an ex-post invention.[38][39] Ostrer said, "I would hope that these observations would put the idea that Jewishness is just a cultural construct to rest." Balter's article further cites Noah Rosenberg of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as saying that although the study "does not appear to support" the Khazar hypothesis, it "doesn't entirely eliminate it either."[4]
Shlomo Sand has contested the claim that his book has been contradicted by recent genetic research published in Nature journal and the American Journal of Human Genetics. In a new afterword for the paperback edition of The Invention of the Jewish People, Sand writes:
This 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. As of today, no study based on anonymous DNA samples has succeeded in identifying a genetic marker specific to Jews, and it is not likely that any study ever will. 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! And it is all the more repulsive that this kind of research should be conducted in a state that has waged for years a declared policy of "Judaization of the country" in which even today a Jew is not allowed to marry a non-Jew.[40]
Another study on European Jewish population genetics was published in 2012 (Elhaik et al.). According to his study's conclusions, European Jews derive from Caucasus and Mesopotamian populations,[8][41] findings which have been disputed by Ostrer and others.
On the publication of Elhaik's study, Haaretz reported comments by Sand, who took Elhaik's paper as a vindication of his ideas and seized the opportunity to criticize again "geneticists looking for Jewish genes", expressing the suspicion that the findings of prior geneticists may have been "adapted" for political reasons.[42] As in historical research so in genetics, he argues: "It is very easy to showcase certain findings while marginalizing others and to present your study as scholarly research."[43]
Some geneticists conducting studies in Jewish genetics have challenged Elhaik's methods. Michael Hammer, a geneticist at the University of Arizona, called one of Elhaik's underlying assumptions "unrealistic", reasoning that Armenians have Middle Eastern roots, which, he says, is why they appeared to be genetically related to Ashkenazi Jews in Elhaik's study. He described Elhaik and other proponents of the Khazarian hypothesis as "outlier folks ... who have a minority view that's not supported scientifically."[44]
Marcus Feldman, a geneticist at Stanford University and director of its Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies, agrees: "If you take all of the careful genetic population analysis that has been done over the last 15 years, ... there's no doubt about the common Middle Eastern origin" of the Jewish people.[44] Feldman added that Elhaik "appears to be applying the statistics in a way that gives him different results from what everybody else has obtained from essentially similar data.”[44]
Dan Graur, professor of molecular evolution at the University of Houston and Elhaik's doctoral supervisor, called Elhaik's conclusion that Ashkenazi Jews originated in the Caucasus region and not the Middle East "a very honest estimate" and said Elhaik "writes more provocatively than may be needed, but it's his style."[44]
Prize
In France, it received the "Prix Aujourd'hui", a journalists' award given to a non-fiction political or historical work.[45]
See also
References
- ^ Sela, Maya (12 March 2009). "Israeli wins French prize for book questioning origins of Jewish people". Haaretz. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
- ^ a b Hastings, Max (15 November 2009). "The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
- ^ a b Judt, Tony (7 December 2009). "Israel Must Unpick Its Ethnic Myth". The Financial Times. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
- ^ a b c Balter, Michael (3 June 2010). "Tracing the Roots of Jewishness". Science. Archived from the original on 6 June 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
- ^ a b Begley, Sharon (3 June 2010). "The DNA Of Abraham's Children". Newsweek. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
- ^ a b Wade, Nicholas (9 June 2010). "Studies Show Jews' Genetic Similarity". New York Times. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
- ^ Aderet, Ofer. "The Jewish people's ultimate treasure hunt". Haaretz. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
- ^ a b "Highlight: Out of Khazaria—Evidence for 'Jewish Genome' Lacking".
- ^ "Gene study settles debate over origin of European Jews". Archived from the original on 21 March 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
- PMID 24104924.
- ^ Tia Ghose (8 October 2013). "Surprise: Ashkenazi Jews Are Genetically European". Live Science. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
- ^ a b Carlo Strenge. "Shlomo Sand's 'The Invention of the Jewish People' is a success for Israel". Retrieved 18 February 2014.
- ^ The Invention of the Jewish People Archived 2009-08-21 at the Wayback Machine, English Edition (Verso Books, 2009)
- ISBN 978-3549073766.
- ISBN 978-8817044516.
- ^ "Livraria da Folha - Catálogo - A Invenção do Povo Judeu". Livraria.folha.com.br. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- ^ Sarah (11 November 2009). "BBC says Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People is "an international news story"". Inventionofthejewishpeople.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g Ilani, Ofri (21 March 2008). "Shattering a 'national mythology'". Haaretz. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
- ^ a b c Cook, Jonathan (6 October 2008). "Book refuting Jewish taboo on Israel's bestseller list". The National (Abu Dhabi). Retrieved 18 November 2009.
- ^ a b c Segev, Tom (29 February 2008). "An invention called 'the Jewish people'". Haaretz. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
- ^ a b c Goldstein, Evan R. (29 October 2009). "Where Do Jews Come From?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 November 2009.
- ^ a b c Shlomo Sand: an enemy of the Jewish people? [1]" Retrieved 2011-01-18.
- The Financial Times, December 7, 2009
- ^ Hobsbawm, Eric (22 November 2009). "Books of the Year, 2009". The Observer. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
- ^ a b Bartal, Israel (6 July 2008). "Inventing an invention". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 3 March 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
- ISBN 978-965-227-276-8.
- ^ Myths of the Exile and Return: The History of History, David Finkel, May–June 2010. [2]
- ^ S2CID 159553553. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
- ^ Aderet, Ofer (26 June 2014). "Jews are not descended from Khazars, Hebrew University historian says". haaretz.com. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
- ^ Lazare, Daniel (20 June 2013). "A Diverse Collection of Peoples". London Review of Books. 35 (12).
- ^ Berkowitz, Michael (October 2010). "The Invention of the Jewish People book review". Reviews in History. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
- ^ a b Indecent Proposal, Hillel Halkin, Jan. 9, 2010, The New Republic, [The Invention of the Jewish People. [3]
- ^ a b c Schama, Simon (13 November 2009). "The Invention of the Jewish People". Financial Times. Retrieved 17 November 2009.
- ^ Sand, Shlomo (21 November 2009). "Shlomo Sand responds to Simon Schama's review in the Financial Times". Retrieved 29 November 2009.
- ^ Steven Weitzman The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age., Princeton University Press, 2017 pp.206-207,320
- i24news24 June 2017
- ^ Shmuel Roser, Steven Weitzman, 'The Origins of the Jews exchange, part 2: On the gaps between the Jewish public and the scholars,', The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 5 July 2017
- ISBN 9780195379617.
- ^ Oransky, Oransky (15 May 2012). "Review: Geneticist Harry Ostrer's 'Legacy' Finds a Biological Basis for Jewishness". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
- ^ Sand, Shlomo (10 June 2010). "New York Times on Sand and Jewish Origins". inventionofthejewishpeople.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
- ^ Aderet, Ofer (28 December 2012). "The Jewish people's ultimate treasure hunt - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- ^ "Some people, historians and even scientists, turn a blind eye to the truth. Once to say Jews were a race was anti-Semitic, now to say they're not a race is anti-Semitic. It's crazy how history plays with us." Shlomo Sand cited Danielle Venton, 'Highlight: Out of Khazaria—Evidence for “Jewish Genome” Lacking,' in Genome Biology and Evolution, Vol.5, Issue 1, 2013 pp.75-6.
- ^ Ofer Aderet, 'The Jewish people's ultimate treasure hunt,' at Haaretz, 28 December 2012.
- ^ a b c d Rita Rubin, 'Jews a Race' Genetic Theory Comes Under Fierce Attack by DNA Expert,'. The Forward, 7 May 2013.
- ^ "Prix Aujourd'hui". Prix Litteraires.net. 12 February 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
External links
- The Invention of the Jewish People — Official web site of book, including reviews and discussion