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“The Legacy of Religious Violence in Judaism” – Lecture by Gideon Aran

“The Legacy of Religious Violence in Judaism”

Lecture by Gideon Aran at The Graduate Institute, Geneva

Tuesday 29 April 2014, 18:30 – 20:00

The lecture discusses the Jewish case of religious violence. This by no means implies that Judaism is more (or less) violent than any other religion. In fact, we witness an impressive legacy of non-, or, anti-violence in Judaism.

Gideon Aran
Gideon Aran

However, I will rather focus on the dialectical relationship between religious tradition and violence in Jewish history and mythology, and in the contemporary Jewish world, particularly in the Jewish State. My argument regarding Jewish violence implies a general theoretical model of religious violence that can be applied in a comparative context.

This lecture offers a partial survey of the components of Jewish tradition relating to violence while analyzing and illustrating their development and influence along three Millennia from biblical times, through the middle ages and modernity to these very days.

I’ll analyze the various transformations that these violent motifs have undergone, their linkage to ever-changing social and cultural circumstances, their social-political roots and implications, and their relationship to other Jewish traditions.

I’ll trace how ancient motifs have emerged and been processed over time, and observe present day violent behavior in the light of ancient motifs. Along the way, I will explicate the dynamics that characterizes the Jewish violence tradition and its paradoxical natureby clicking here

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ON RELIGIOSITY AND SUPER RELIGIOSITY – Preface

My work on Super-Religiosity consists of two parts. The present essay which is theoretical and methodological in nature presents a thesis on radical religion and discusses the measures of religion. The next essay (Numen, forthcoming 2013) presents an empirical “case” to which the analytic model of Super-Religiosity is applied. The first essay may serve as a conceptual and analytic introduction to the second, while the latter one may serve as an illustration and test of the former. 

Written By Gideon Aran

The religious group at the empirical focus of the two essays is the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox in contemporary Israel, known as Haredim. More precisely, the work on Super-Religiosity depicts and analyzes the hard core of the Haredi society that manifests religious extremism. The discussion of the Haredi world is harnessed to the effort to deconstruct and reevaluate the prevalent concepts of tradition and fundamentalism, and suggest new perspective on scaling religiosity and on high-scale religiosity. Continue reading ON RELIGIOSITY AND SUPER RELIGIOSITY – Preface

 

Zaka’s Active Key Role In The Middle Eastern Suicide Terrorism Scene

Anyone who has viewed footage of a suicide attack in Israel will have seen bizarre bearded men busily working at the center of the gruesome site. At a certain moment they turn their fluorescent safety vests inside out. Previously the orange side, emblazoned “medic” was on display. The reversed side is yellow and bears the word “Zaka”, a Hebrew acronym that stands for Identifying Disaster Victims.

Notes by Prof. Gideon Aran

Zaka is an organization of Jewish Ultra-Orthodox (haredi) volunteers that has gained a monopoly on managing the deaths of victims of terrorism in Israel. It operates a network of a few hundred well-trainee and well-equipped personnel throughout the country. These men can arrive at any terrorism site rapidly, offer first aid, and then turn to their central task—carrying for the bodies of the dead in strict obedience to Jewish religious (halakhic) ritual norms and in keeping with traditional Jewish respect for the dead. Continue reading Zaka’s Active Key Role In The Middle Eastern Suicide Terrorism Scene

 

Gideon Aran: On Religiosity And Super Religiosity – Abstract

 On Religiosity and Super Religiosity essay submits a thesis on radical religion, discusses the measures of religion and proposes the concept of Super-Religiosity. It will be followed by a second essay (in an upcoming issue of Numen, 4, 2013) that presents a contemporary “case” to which the analytic model of Super-Religiosity is applied.

Prof. Gideon Aran
Prof. Gideon Aran

Written By Prof. Gideon Aran

Though the two essays systematically relate to each other and are complementary, they can be read independently of one another.

The theoretical core of the essay addresses the issue of the measurability of religiosity. It supports the recent claim that religion in general and religious extremism in particular, is not so much a matter of belief or experience but rather it is essentially a matter of performance of the self and the group. It then argues that advancing our understanding of religious extremism requires turning the spotlight from a performance oriented towards religion’s environment to religious inward-facing performance. Continue reading Gideon Aran: On Religiosity And Super Religiosity – Abstract

 

Prof. Gideon Aran – Academic Study And Precipitants Of Suicide Terrorism

I trace a surprisingly hitherto unchallenged tendency of academic study to focus either on the precipitants of suicide terrorism or on its consequences.

Notes by Prof. Gideon Aran

Prof. Gideon Aran
Prof. Gideon Aran

The literature looks, on the one hand, at what preceded and ostensibly led to the attack (i.e. the HB’s psychological and social profile, his motivations and the organization’s ideology, the recruitment and indoctrination of the HB, the structure of the terrorist cell, the socioeconomic conditions that give rise to ST, the policies and military actions that elicit it, and the culture that embraces ST and praise the HB). Continue reading Prof. Gideon Aran – Academic Study And Precipitants Of Suicide Terrorism