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Pan-Jewish Solidarity and the Jewish Significance of Modern Israel: The 1958 “Who Is a Jew?†Affair Revisited

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  • Ofer Shiff
  • David Barak-Gorodetsky

Abstract

The focus of this article is the 1958 “Who is a Jew?†controversy and David Ben-Gurion’s inquiry into Jewishness leading intellectuals from Israel and the Diaspora regarding how to register a child born to a non-Jewish mother in the Israeli identity card. The article’s main claim is that this correspondence must be understood not only as reflecting a continuous struggle between diaspora and Israeli Jews or between Jews of various religious persuasions, but rather as reflecting a built-in tension between pan-Jewish solidarity and Israeli Jewish sovereignty. This built-in tension seems to prevail today as well, and thus our analysis of the 1958 event may enable a more complex understanding of the continuous and seemingly unresolved tensions within today’s Jewish world.

Suggested Citation

  • Ofer Shiff & David Barak-Gorodetsky, 2019. "Pan-Jewish Solidarity and the Jewish Significance of Modern Israel: The 1958 “Who Is a Jew?†Affair Revisited," Contemporary Review of the Middle East, , vol. 6(3-4), pages 266-279, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:crmide:v:6:y:2019:i:3-4:p:266-279
    DOI: 10.1177/2347798919872829
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