Books

From the reviews of the book:

“A Brief History of Israeliness’ is a big book. Big in its ambition – to distill the meta-challenges of Israeliness today from a long historical perspective, and along the way to deliver a long series of excellent lessons in history and Tanakh, in a language and manner that require almost no prior knowledge. It is also big in the impressive wealth of ideas it contains, some of them surprising and innovative, that could have sustained several books…

The book is divided into six parts. In the first two parts Elinson sketches the basic characteristics of the people of Israel and the Land of Israel: a people born in exile, which received as its inheritance a strip of land in which it is nearly impossible to establish a flourishing, defensible civilization. With convincing, sweeping writing, Elinson establishes in this part the anomaly of the great Israeli story, from the very beginning of history. In the third part Elinson seeks to present the great dichotomy of our time, the global left-right divide, as the root of the dispute that tears Israeli society into ‘Israelis’ and ‘Jews’.

These first three parts form a kind of introduction or foundation for the three parts that follow – the fourth, which deals with the tribes; the fifth, which deals with modern Judaism; and the sixth, which deals with today’s Israel.

The book’s good spirit, its love of the people and the land, make it a book that must not be ignored. Its many innovations will place it, I believe, not only in the arena of books that stir reactions but also in the arena of books that coined conceptual innovations and insights that will stay with us in the years to come.

(Dr. Yoav Sorek, publicist and author of “The Israeli Covenant”, from the journal ‘Hashiloach’)

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Generally speaking, I don’t like the phrase “A Brief History of…”; it fills me with a dread of shallowness. But after I finished reading this book, I am inclined to forgive Netanel for choosing it as the title for the thesis he presents. He sums up the many characteristics of this soil on which the people returned to plant its destiny in the 20th century. His analysis taught me quite a bit – how, throughout Jewish history, each tribe led the people in its turn and brought

with it, along the way, the expression of its traits and uniqueness in the politics, the thought, and the economic and social emphases of the period.

In any case, I very warmly recommend reading Netanel Elinson’s book. Planted within it is a great love for the Land of Israel and the people of Israel. It contains many things that will be new to many readers, and another important voice that should be raised in our days.

(Prof. David Passig, futurist and author of the bestsellers ‘Israel 2048’ and ‘The Future Code’)

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One could see “A Brief History of Israeliness” as yet another book calling for bridging and finding “common ground” among
the different Israeli-Jews who live here; the tribes, in the book’s language. But there is more to this book than that.
There is a broad “intentionality” to it. It expresses sectoral dilemmas and describes differences between different religious streams within Judaism, but it does not deal with an intra-religious question alone. A certain inspiration rests upon this book, and it may well be interesting even to those without a headscarf or a kippah. Elinson belongs to that handful of people who truly want to make a difference, and he has the special, sweeping energy of those who aspire to lead, to teach, to improve – equipped for that purpose with a solid worldview.

The book travels a long road, from the Exodus from Egypt to the present. It is strewn with pieces of Jewish and general history and folklore that Elinson manages to present in a living, breathing way, with a lucid connection between things, without weighing us down with an overload of insights. But naturally the most interesting chapter, and the last, is the one dealing with the destructive generation of the present, “Israel, a Third Time”.

The book surveys the revolutions that swept over the Jews of Europe in recent centuries, beginning with Sabbateanism in the 17th century (the story of the messiah Shabbetai Zvi and his aide-prophet Nathan of Gaza is described here so vividly that it is tempting to take their exploits and turn them into a Hollywood film)

Elinson’s Judaism is constantly asking questions; it is a state of multi-voiced conversation, of discussion between different conceptions – always deliberating, searching, restless, with ants in its pants and its nose pointed forward. Laboring endlessly on connecting opposite ends… In a book of some 440 pages he tries to explain the background to this meaning, and he does so with interest, with fluency and even with the charm of a believing man who works outside his own furrow. One can argue about how sincere this declared inquisitive openness really is, but there is no doubt that this alert, energetic engagement is nourished by a sense of mission.

(Boaz Izraeli, from the literary supplement of the “Haaretz” newspaper)

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This book, which is not from my field, happened to fall into my hands, and from the moment I held it, the content and the accessible, eye-level language would not let me put it down until the end. A fascinating book about your identity. Where we came from and where we are going. Just as the beautiful cover shows.

It begins with the question of how a people is formed, and continues with the role of a chosen people in a chosen land – a meeting point.

It speaks of right and left as far back as the Tanakh: Judah and Joseph. Have you ever thought of Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel as right and left? He sharpens the point that every tribe has a period in which it holds the leadership of the people. The main conclusion: unity, not uniformity.

A highly recommended book, written at eye level and raising points you may never have thought of!

(Noa Segev, Simania website)