The National Socialist regime was, generally speaking, not interested in an outright levelling of social differentiation patterns, as they were present within the German society around 1933. On the contrary: old hierarchies were to be fought and new ones were to be established--both according to the Nazi administration's social ideology and,…

The Gur-Ze'ev/McLaren interchange covered a wide range of issues that are important for twenty-first century socialists. In this article, the author concentrates on two of them: first, Gur-Ze'ev's charge that critical pedagogy is part of the "new anti-Semitism"; second, his critique of McLaren's support for Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian…

Can poetry be Diasporic? Can poetry free itself from the shackles of conformism? Can it be independent and divergent, and not seek a home? Is it capable of mustering its inner strengths and living without being enlisted by a collective that accords it power? This article argues that poetry is essentially dialectic. It has little vitality without…

This article is about teachers working at the bilingual integrated schools in Israel. The study allows us to problematise and critically approach cross-cultural encounters on the basis of contact theory, which posits understandings regarding social interaction across cultural-political boundaries. It exposes potential differences between the…

The history of transcendence and nomadism in face of the call for "home-returning" is marked figuratively by four milestones: (1) the "era" of immanence and dwelling in total harmony as a manifestation of self-sustained holiness; (2) the "era" of relating to holiness by mediation of God, especially in the monotheistic religions; (3) the "era" of…

The later Horkheimer presents mature Critical Theory as a Jewish Negative Theology. This change carries major educational implications hegemonic critical pedagogy has not yet dared to address until now and much less in the present era of the new anti-Semitism as the meta-narrative of the progressive circles. In Horkheimer's work the change from a…

Is it possible that the essence of peace is negated in peace education? And is it possible that even against its own will peace education calls for the negation of its negation? In peace education no serious attempts have been made to elaborate its most central concepts. "Pacifism", "violence", "counter-violence" and "emancipation", "culture of…

A new critical language is possible yet its becoming is not guaranteed. Its roots and sources should be diverse, universal and Diasporic. Jewish negative theology is ultimately Diasporic and could become one of its edifying sources. Diaspora is not only an intellectual state, not necessarily collective but communal. One of the things that makes…

Human life begins in the middle, in the midst, and sometimes in the darkness. Or even in the woods. In the woods--you're in the middle and if you are always in the middle there is no home, or refuge or cave--a sure space that you have access to. It means then that the best we can do is to somehow try to strengthen our armor on the Socratic…

Edward Said the refugee could not easily allow himself to join in the celebration of demythologizing nationalism. His Palestinianism had to coexist, uncomfortably, with his universalism. Time made this necessary coexistence an asset, not a liability, and this in fact was his political legacy for the future: Jews and Palestinians would have to…

Exilic thought is a kind of uprooted thought developed away from "home" under conditions of displacement and uncertainty, often in a different mother tongue, language tradition and culture. Exilic thought is sometimes the self-imposed discipline of the "stranger" who develops his or her identity as an "alien" or immigrant against the conventions…

Under current historical conditions, as Israelis, Jews are structurally almost prevented from facing the possibility of living in light of the Messianic impetus, as the world's universal moral, intellectual, and creative vanguard. This special Jewish mission was made possible by the Jews' unique homelessness--a Diasporic existence as a realized…

This article deals with the nexus between biographical experiences in political extraordinary times of crisis, disaster and terror and their influence on political orientations. At the centre of interest is the reconstruction of political orientations related to two different historical-political groups of Jewish Germans who had immigrated or…