Does Taglit-Birthright Israel Foster Long-Distance Nationalism?

Sasson, Theodore; Shain, Michelle; Hecht, Shahar; Wright, Graham; Saxe, Leonard

doi:10.1080/13537113.2014.969149

Cited by 27 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The programme had a quite marginal impact on the political views of the participants. The conclusion of the study is straightforward: ‘the program has been able to encourage homeland attachment, predicated upon shared diaspora‐homeland Jewish identity, without promoting the ethnonationalist projects of the Israeli right’ (Sasson : 451), thus calling into question Anderson's assumption that there is a propensity for people living outside the homeland to indulge in intense political radicalism.…”

Section: The Jewish Diaspora and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Jewish diaspora and Israel: belonging at distance?

Dieckhoff

2017

Nations and Nationalism

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The involvement of diasporas in the advent of modern nationalism is not a new phenomenon: already in the 19th century some diasporas wanted to ‘normalise’ their national existence by building a state of their own. However, with the growing globalisation trend in the 199'0s , especially in the areas of transportation and communication, Benedict Anderson put forward the idea of long‐distance nationalism (LDN), as a new way of linking diasporas and the national project and thus creating a more intense sense of belonging. LDN has been characterised by him as having two main features: its unaccountability which allows for intense political radicalism, and its instrumental function for strengthening ethnic identity in the diaspora and thus a sense of belonging. I will test those hypotheses in the case of the archetypal Jewish diaspora.

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Section: The Jewish Diaspora and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the Jewish diaspora is rightly seen as an archetypal diaspora, the refutation of Anderson's assumptions calls into question the generalisability of his thesis. It has to be relativised, as some scholars have already done (Jaffrelot and Therwath 2007;Sasson 2014b).…”

Section: Beyond the Jewish Casementioning

confidence: 99%

The Jewish diaspora and Israel: belonging at distance?

Dieckhoff

2017

Nations and Nationalism

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“…Theoretically, the relationship between these two dominating national narratives and how they are communicated to participants in tours can be seen as fundamentally antagonistic. Historically, little to no tourism practices have existed where the two narratives have been able to meet or coexist (Sasson, Shain, Hecht, Wright, & Saxe, 2014). As we will see later on in the article, alternative tours have emerged during later years, which are guided by diametrically different logics, yet sharing the basic foundation of juxtaposing different narratives, often with two or more guides telling different groups’ narratives in tandem, conveying a more heterogeneous understanding of history.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Prospects for Agonistic Encounters in Conflict Zones: Investigating Dual Narrative Tourism in Israel/Palestine

Strömbom

2019

Alternatives: Global, Local, Political

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This article contributes to the emerging literature on possibilities to disseminate agonistic narratives in seemingly deadlocked conflict settings. In this context, conflict parties’ existence is often perceived as being under threat, which makes it demanding to question the current societal order. However, even in the most protracted of conflicts, narratives exist that challenge concurring understandings of identity. Efforts to communicate alternative narratives of identity and memory are the focus of this study, which has two foci: First, it creates a theoretical understanding of agonistic narratives as challenging antagonistic memory constructions in conflicted societies. These agonistic narratives are seen as potentially destabilizing boundary constructions in understandings of the past. Second, it performs an empirical excavation into a contemporary practice of such boundary rupture. It presents results from a study with interviews and participatory observation with guides working within alternative tourism in Israel and Palestine who try to present alternative narratives of the conflict to their audience. The case study thus investigates agonistic elements in these encounters, underlining the mixed logics underpinning the existence of alternative narrative tours in intractable conflicts. Furthermore, it delves into facilitating and inhibiting conditions for carrying out alternative narratives in settings of intractable conflict.

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“…This special issue focused on the differences between the Cohen and Kelman (2007, 2010: 287) hypothesis that non-orthodox American Jews are “growing more distant from Israel” and that of Sasson et al (2010), who argued instead that the distancing varies by lifecourse: as Jews age, they become more attached to Israel. Sasson et al have been prolific on this topic (Sasson, 2010; Sasson et al, 2012, 2014). At the time, this topic took on added political significance when Peter Beinart (2010) referenced the Cohen and Kelman hypothesis in his influential work about Jews, Israel, and Zionism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contradictions of Diaspora: A reflexive critique of the Jewish Diaspora’s relationship with Israel

Baron

2017

Journal of International Political Theory

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This article explores a question that is often assumed but rarely addressed: What does Israel provide ideationally for Diaspora Jews that serves as the basis for Diaspora/Israel relations and justifies the importance of Israel for Jewish identity? Whereas past literature on this topic has either assumed an answer to this question or debated survey results and demographics, this article takes a different approach by not assuming an answer to this question. The article argues that Diaspora Jews’ relationship with Israel is best understood phenomenologically. The significance of Israel for Diaspora Jews is found in a type of obligation that is political but is not based in sovereignty or law but instead in meaning that serves as a form of authority and functions as part of the phenomenological structure characterizing Jewish being-in-the-world in the age of Israel. Using a combination of personal reflection, empirical research, and theoretical investigation, the article concludes by suggesting that critique serves as an activity that reveals the normative character of Israel’s meaningful authority, but that Israel’s authority in this phenomenological sense needs to be undermined if it will be possible to move beyond the increasingly polarizing role that Israel is having in Jewish communities today.

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Does Taglit-Birthright Israel Foster Long-Distance Nationalism?

Abstract: Taglit-Birthright Israel has brought hundreds of thousands of diaspora

Cited by 27 publications

References 3 publications

The Jewish diaspora and Israel: belonging at distance?

The Jewish diaspora and Israel: belonging at distance?

Exploring Prospects for Agonistic Encounters in Conflict Zones: Investigating Dual Narrative Tourism in Israel/Palestine

The contradictions of Diaspora: A reflexive critique of the Jewish Diaspora’s relationship with Israel

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