Judah Magnes

The Prophetic Politics of a Religious Binationalist

David Barak-Gorodetsky, Merav Datan

• Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780827618824
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

This comprehensive intellectual biography of Judah Magnes—the Reform rabbi, American Zionist leader, and inaugural Hebrew University chancellor—offers novel analysis of how theology and politics intertwined to drive Magnes's writings and activism—especially his championing of a binational state—against all odds. Like a prophet unable to suppress his prophecy, Magnes could not resist a religious calling to take political action, whatever the cost. In Palestine no one understood his uniquely American pragmatism and insistence that a constitutional system was foundational for a just society. Jewish leaders regarded his prophetic politics as overly conciliatory and dangerous for negotiations. Magnes's central European allies in striving for a binational Palestine, including Martin Buber, credited him with restoring their faith in politics, but they ultimately retreated from binationalism to welcome the new State of Israel. In candidly portraying the complex Magnes as he understood himself, David Barak-Gorodetsky elucidates why Magnes persevered, despite evident lack of Arab interest, to advocate binationalism with Truman in May 1948 at the ultimate price of Jewish sovereignty. Accompanying Magnes on his long-misunderstood journey, we gain a unique broader perspective: on early peacemaking efforts in Israel/Palestine, the American Jewish role in the history of the state, binationalism as political theology, an American view of binationalism, and the charged realities of Israel today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1
• 1. The Importance of Being Earnest
• 2. “Palestine or Death”
• 3. Prophetic Socialism and the Social Gospel
• 4. The Religious Mission of Pacifism
• Part 2
• 5. The High Holy Days in Jerusalem
• 6. Hebrew University and Brit Shalom
• 7. The Prophetic Model
• 8. Nationalism and Binationalism
• 9. Binationalism as Theological Politics
• 10. Magnes and the Theopolitics of Buber
• 11. Faith and Skepticism in the Binational Cause
• Part 3
• 12. Existential Theology and Moral Politics
• 13. Religion Overrides Nationalism
• 14. The Sacred Land and the Negation of the State
• 15. The Confederation Plan between Hope and Despair
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About David Barak-Gorodetsky