The Jewish Political Tradition: Membership

This thought-provoking second volume of The Jewish Political Tradition is concerned with the theme of membership. The book brings together the most important texts on membership topics from 3,000 years of Jewish history, many newly translated or translated for the first time. Commentaries from modern religious and secular scholars, representing a range of viewpoints on the right and the left, accompany the texts. Among the contributors are Arthur Isak Applbaum, Ruth Gavison, Moshe Halbertal, Martha Minow, David Novak, Ilana Pardes, Steven B. Smith, and Nomi Maya Stolzenberg. They deal with some of the most controversial issues in Jewish life, not only in the past but also right now.

Who is a Jew? How are the boundaries of a community drawn, and how are they policed? How does one join the community? How does one leave? The volume also takes up the question of degrees of membership: What kinds of hierarchies exist among Jews? In the final chapter, the book deals with "others," gentiles, because the boundaries of Jewish membership cannot be understood without asking who stands on the other side.