The Book of the People : : The Hebrew Encyclopedic Project and the National Self / / Dan Tsahor.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2023 Part 1
• VerfasserIn: Tsahor, Dan,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Studia Judaica : Forschungen zur Wissenschaft des Judentums , 117
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (X, 218 p.)

Hebrew encyclopedias have an intriguing history. The genre, which began as modest initiatives to disseminate general knowledge and strengthen literacy among Russian Jews, quickly became the most popular in modern Hebrew literature, with tens of thousands of subscribers to publications such as Encyclopaedia Hebraica and Encyclopaedia Biblica.The makers of these vast bodies of knowledge hoped to demonstrate Hebrew’s mimetic power and the vitality of newly created Jewish research institutions. They also hoped that the encyclopedias would be an essential tool in shaping and reshaping Zionist national culture and nurturing an ideal national persona. Thus, the printed pages of the encyclopedias give us unique access to what Zionists were saying about themselves, how they perceived their neighbors, and what they were hoping for the future, thereby going beyond the official Zionists documents, newspaper articles, and the writings of intellectuals that have been used extensively by historians to narrate national consciousness.By bringing to the fore these unique texts, The Book of the People presents common perceptions of memory and collective identity that often do not fit with the narratives offered by historians of Zionism. In doing so, the book also exposes ethical codes that regulated the production of Zionist knowledge and endowed the encyclopedias with a rare status as a bona fide source for truths by people from diverse political and social backgrounds.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgment -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter One Amass: Knowledge in the Making of a Nation -- Chapter Two Introspection: Creating Singularity at the Outset of the Zionist Movement -- Chapter Three Decentralization: The Breakdown of the National Utopia -- Chapter Four Normality: The Migration of Knowledge to Palestine -- Chapter Five Omnipotence: Making the Israeli Canon -- Aftermath Zionist Historiography from a Bird’s Eye View -- Bibliography -- Index