Part One: Outlining the Study
Prologue
1. Theocratic Democracy and Cultural Conflicts
2. Religion, Politics and Haredim in Israel
3. Methodology: How Information Was Collected
4. The Printed Media: Making News - Constructing Realities
Part Two: Haredi Non-Conformity and Deviance
5. Illustrative Events and Affairs
6. Theocratic Underground Groups
7. Themes of Deviance and Unconventionality
Part Three: Culture Conflict in the Media
8. Life as It Should Be, The Right of the People Not to Know and
Conspiracies of Silence
9. Examining 50 Years of Haredi Deviance
Part Four: Discussion and Conclusions
10. Discussion: The Doctrine of Mutual Responsibility,
Nonconformity and Deviance vs. Cultural Change and Stability
11. Concluding Summary and some Global Observations
Nachman Ben-Yehuda is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and a former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
"Theocratic Democracy is an excellent and deeply researched study
of dissident religious subcultures, focusing on Israel's growing
communities of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The book is hugely significant
for understanding the future of the state of Israel, and of Judaism
more generally. It also tells us much about the politics of
religion and the nature of religious violence. This is a really
impressive achievement."--Philip Jenkins, Edwin Erle Sparks
Professor of Humanities, Pennsylvania State University
"No one who reads this book will come away with an unchanged
impression of Israel and its future. Theocratic Democracy provokes
as it dissects Israel's ultraorthodox communities--their
authoritarianism, deviant lifestyles, riotous violence, and, above
all, political influence. The tension of religious-secular
coexistence is now managed by a combination of police control and
negotiation, but the orthodox population and its sway grow
rapidly.
Ben-Yehuda's analysis confronts the reader with a momentous
question: will Israel's religious zealots dominate, fall,
accommodate, or settle into perpetual conflict with secular
society? For anyone concerned with the
clash of tradition and modernity, whether inside or outside Israel,
this brilliant book is a must-read."--Barry Schwartz, Professor
Emeritus of Sociology, University of Georgia
"With consummate skill, Ben-Yehuda excavates the secular and Haredi
press to expose what the self-righteous do in the name of the
Almighty. Contemptuous of Israel's laws, the ultra-orthodox follow
their own code; secretive, they cover up their crimes and protect
their own. Ben-Yehuda offers a fascinating, wide-ranging tour
through a bewildering array of Haredi wrongdoing. I recommend this
book to anyone intrigued by how a tiny democracy in the Middle
East
juggles the demands of its many factions, cults, sects, and
interest groups. The answer is, not well--but effectively enough.
Reading Theocratic Democracy is an eye-opening experience."--Erich
Goode,
Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Stony Brook University, SUNY
"Theocratic Democracy charts significant and enduring patterns of
ultra-orthodox religious violence in Israel. Ben-Yehuda thereby
opens the door to a broad cultural and organizational analysis of
religious in supposedly secular societies, even as he shows that
the mainstream press constructs a religious minority as the "Other"
that secular society must control and suppress." --John R. Hall,
Professor of Sociology, University of California, Davis
"Ben-Yehuda examines 50 years of verbal and nonverbal violence,
from intimidation to arson, as the Haredi push for a more
theocratic state." --University of Chicago Magazine
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