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A Small Place in Galilee: Religion and Social Conflict in an Israeli Village

Zvi Sobel
A Small Place in Galilee: Religion and Social Conflict in an Israeli Village
ISBN: 978-0-8419-1342-4
$25.00
1993/253 pages/LC: 93010994
Distributed for Holmes & Meier Publishing

"Sharp prose, rich description and far-reaching analysis.... enlightening and thought provoking [with regard to] the broader questions of Judaism and the Israeli society at large."—Religious Studies Review

"Lyrical prose, rich in description and penetrating analysis.... Sobel is a master ethnographer."—Contemporary Sociology

"Brilliantly written and enormously perceptive, Zvi Sobel's book on 'a small place in Galilee' is about much more than a tiny town in the north of modern-day Israel. Through the prism of one particular place, Sobel captures much of the texture and tensions of contemporary Israel—and beyond just Israel, this book illuminates in an original way the conflict between religious fundamentalism and ideological secularism in a modern nation-state."—David Biale, author of Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History and Eros and the Jews

DESCRIPTION

Zvi Sobel's absorbing book draws readers into the world of Yavneel, a small Israeli village that is home to several diverse communities: the established core of settler-farmers, new immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East, and, since 1986, the ultraorthodox Bratslav Hasidim. Yavneel has become a microcosm of Israeli society at large, reflecting the country's social, religious, economic, ethnic, and ideological conflicts and also the competing claims to its national identity and founding myths. A Small Place in Galilee brings into bold relief the dynamic interactions within this complex society.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Zvi Sobel is professor emeritus of sociology at Haifa University. His publications include Hebrew Christianity: The Thirteenth Tribe and Migrants from the Promised Land.

CONTENTS

A Small Place in Galilee.
And Prophecy Departed From Israel: Yavneel's Religion.
A City of Bratslav: The Hasidic Invasion.
Whatever Happens Here Will Happen in the Whole Country: It’s Not What We Hoped For.