After analyzing the new strategic landscape over a period of 30 years in a number of his works – including, in 2015, Quinze ans de solitude. Juifs de France, 2000-2015 (Berg International) -, Shmuel Trigano draws a set of conclusions for the future of the Jewish people, which has entered the era of political sovereignty with the State of Israel and is facing a fundamental redefinition of its existence and identity. Political Zionism’s sole ambition was to correct the shortcomings of Jewish emancipation. It had conceived of itself as “self-emancipation”. And therein lies the problem, for while modernity opened individuals up to a career of honors, it was profoundly deficient in its ability to ensure the life and continuity of the Jews as a people. This weakness was reflected in political Zionism, in which the link to Jewish history and identity remained in abeyance. This is the central problem not only of Israeli society today, but also of its state in a world where modernity is in decline. Strictly political sovereignty is undermined by the failure to integrate the symbolic sovereignty of eternal Israel. But just what is this symbolic sovereignty? What is it made of? How can it be built in convergence with political sovereignty? At the cost of what social, intellectual, religious, political and international reforms and undertakings?
Translations of The New Jewish State
In Hebrew, Editions Carmel, 2019
Hamedina Hayehudit, meever la normaliout
המדינה היהודית, מעבר לנורמליות