Saturday, January 09, 2010

Sands, Invention of the Jewish People (Guardian review)

THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE by Shlomo Sands is reviewed by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg in the Guardian. He is not impressed. Excerpt:
Uncomfortable books, if they are good, can be important. National narratives do need deconstruction; they often blind us to different perceptions of the world and deafen us to the just claims of others. This is certainly true of the Middle East, and I 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.

But the book is a great disappointment. Its sweeping attempt to take apart the entire history of the Jewish people from its origins to present day Israel and prove it to be a wilful fabrication is marred by tendentious premises, the misreading of key events and the ignoring of central texts and institutions.
More reviews here.