Search results for ""Author Marta F. Topel""
University Press of America Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents: Religious Dissidence in Contemporary Israel
In this book, Marta T. Topel utilizes anthropological research to analyze both macro and micro social processes among secular and Orthodox Jews in Israel. She covers such complex issues as the tensions between the two groups and the radicalization of Israeli Jewish Orthodoxy in the last thirty years. The book also delves into micro social processes such as the long and tortured journey of Israeli religious dissidents and the role of non-governmental organizations in helping these dissidents adapt to secular society. In addition, she discusses the symbolic and ritual paraphernalia that dissidents must become familiar with in order to be successful in their new lives as secular Jews. Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents approaches the phenomenon of religious dissidence within the Jewish Israeli Orthodoxy through the lens of the inverse phenomenon: religious conversion to Jewish Orthodoxy. This outlook is based on theoretical ground as both events constitute a radical change of the ideology of both the social actors and the social structures they have abandoned.
£37.00
Oxford University Press Inc The Sacred and the Impure in Judaism
The Sacred and the Impure in Judaism examines the radicalization of certain Orthodox Jewish groups through the lens of kashrut, or Jewish dietary laws. Mata F. Topel begins with a historical look at chumratization--the tendency among rabbis toward more rigorous interpretations of Jewish law--beginning in Hungary in the late 19th century and on through the nascent radicalization of Israeli Orthodox Jews in the 1950s. Then, drawing on Orthodox kashrut manuals and interviews with kashrut supervisors, ritual butchers, and a diverse group of Orthodox men and women, Topel shows how changes to dietary laws have had a profound effect on the ritual density of everyday life in these communities. Detailed descriptions of the difficulties that Orthodox housewives have in carrying out preparations for the Jewish Passover reveal a certain obsession with following the commandments and customs mandated by authorities. Contrasting medieval practices with current ones, Topel shows that the number of rul
£22.85
