A01=Samuel C. Heilman
Author_Samuel C. Heilman
bearded men
beliefs
black kerchiefs
caftans
Category=JBSR
Category=QRJ
children with earlocks
contemporary fundamentalist community
contemporary landscape
contemporary world
education
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
haredim
israel
israeli politics
jewish past
lifestyle
marriage
orthodox jews
relic from the past
religious practices
sexual ethics
stockings
tradition
women in long dresses
Product details
- ISBN 9780520221123
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 11 Jan 2000
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In this first in-depth portrait of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel today, Samuel Heilman introduces a community that to many may seem to be the very embodiment of the Jewish past. To outsiders who stumble upon these neighborhoods and find bearded men in caftans, children with earlocks, and women in long dresses, black kerchiefs and stockings, it may appear that these people still hold fast to every tradition while turning their backs to the contemporary world. But rather than being a relic from the past, ultra-Orthodox Jews, or haredim, are very much part of the contemporary landscape and are playing an increasingly prominent role in the Jewish world and in Israeli politics. "Defenders of the Faith" takes us inside the world of this contemporary fundamentalist community, its lifestyle and mores, including education, religious practices and beliefs, sexual ethics, and marriage. Heilman explores the reasons why this group is more militant and extreme than its pre-Holocaust brethren, and provides insight into the worldview of this small but influential sector of modern Jewry.
Samuel Heilman holds the Harold M. Proshansky Chair in Jewish Studies and Sociology at Queens College, City University of New York. He is the author of Synagogue Life (1976), The Gate Behind the Wall (1984), A Walker in Jerusalem (1986), Cosmopolitans and Parochials (1989), The People of the Book (1993), and Portrait of American Jews (1995).
