The Nation: Boundaries and Definitions
From Ethnic Myth to Civil Imaginary
The Intellectual as the Nation’s “Prince”
2. MYTHISTORY: IN THE BEGINNING, GOD CREATED THE PEOPLE
The Early Shaping of Jewish History
The Old Testament as Mythistory
A Protonationalist View from the East
An Ethnicist Stage in the West
The First Steps of Historiography in Zion
The Earth Rebels against Mythistory
3. THE INVENTION OF THE EXILE: PROSELYTISM AND CONVERSION
Exile without Expulsion—History in the Twilight Zone
Against Its Will, the People Emigrate from the Homeland
“All Nations Shall Flow Unto It”
The Hasmoneans Impose Judaism on Their Neighbors
From Hellenistic Sphere to Mesopotamian Territory
Judaizing in the Shadow of Rome
How Rabbinical Judaism Viewed Proselytizing
Remembering and Forgetting the “People of the Land”
4. REALMS OF SILENCE: IN SEARCH OF LOST (JEWISH) TIME
Arabia Felix: The Proselytized Kingdom of Himyar
Phoenicians and Berbers: The Mysterious Queen Kahina
Jewish Kagans? A Strange Empire Rises in the East
Khazars and Judaism: A Long Love Affair?
Modern Research Explores the Khazar Past
The Enigma: The Origin of Eastern Europe’s Jews
5. THE DISTINCTION: IDENTITY POLITICS IN ISRAEL
The Scientific Puppet and the Racist Hunchback
“Jewish and Democratic”—An Oxymoron?
Ethnocracy in the Age of Globalization
Preface to the English-Language Edition
This book was originally written in Hebrew. My mother tongue is actually Yiddish, but Hebrew has remained the language of my imagination, probably of my dreams and certainly of my writing. I chose to publish the book in Israel because initially my intended readers were Israelis, both those who see themselves as Jews and those who are defined as Arabs. My reason was simple enough: I live in Tel Aviv, where I teach history.
When the book first appeared in early 2008, its reception was somewhat odd. The electronic media were intensely curious, and I was invited to take part in many television and radio programs. Journalists, too, turned their attention to my study, mostly in a favorable way. By contrast, representatives of the “authorized” body of historians fell on the book with academic fury, and excitable bloggers depicted me as an enemy of the people. Perhaps it was this contrast that prompted the readers to indulge
