This volume explores the distribution of the rural population in Palestine from the late Ottoman period (1870-1917) to the British Mandate period (1917-1948). The book focuses on demography, specifically migrations, population size, density, growth, and the pattern of distribution in rural Palestine before the inception of Jewish settlement (1882). Grossman traces little-known Muslim ethnic groups who settled in Palestine's rural areas, primarily Egyptians, but also Algerians, Bosnians, and Circassians. The author argues that the Arab populations in the zones occupied by Jews after 1882 was about one-third that of the decline in per-capita rural Arab farmland was mainly due to overall population growth, not displacement of Arabs; economic development suffered largely because of violent disturbances and natural disasters; the pattern of growth of Egyptian and other Muslim groups was similar to that of the Jews. The main conclusions of this study note that the size of the rural Arab population in the zones occupied by Jews after 1882 was about one-tenth of that which occupied the Arab core zones; most Egyptian settlement areas coincided with those of the Jewish zones; between 1870 and 1945, the decline of Arab farmland was mainly due to Arab population growth rather than Jewish land acquisitions; and most migrants (Jewish and Muslim) settlement zones were leftovers characterized by some form of resource disability.

L’occasion de consacrer un numéro de Perspectives à Theodor Herzl nous a été naturellement offerte, cette année, par la célébration du cent cinquantième anniversaire de sa naissance. Bien des questions se posaient.Comment cet homme si étroitement lié à la société et à la culture viennoises a-t-il pu devenir le concepteur et le fondateur d’un Etat juif ? Comment cet homme d’imagination, longtemps préoccupé par la réalisation de ses ambitions littéraires en est-il venu à poursuivre obstinément une seule et unique ambition : donner un pays aux juifs ? Fallait-il penser que l’Affaire Dreyfus eut un rôle déterminant dans ce changement d’orientation ? Fallait-il supposer d’autres causes ? Nous avons pensé que le creuset viennois eut son rôle à jouer. De quelle manière ? C’est ce que dira l’ensemble des articles réunis ici. L'aube du sionisme JAQUES LE RIDER - Theodor Herzl, austro-hongrois jusqu'au des ongles: réflexions à partir de son journal présionisme STÉPHANE ENCEL - Herzl et sa lecture de la Bible: le passé pour l'avenir GEORGES YITSHAK WEISZ - Aux origines du sionisme de Herzl RITA THALMANN - Du sens de l'honneur viril ay malaise identitaire du judaïsme viennois PHILLIPE OLIVIER - De l'opérette a Un Survivant de Varsovie. Regards croisés sur Theodor Herzl et la musique viennois De la fiction à la réalité CYRIL ASLANOV - L'indifférence de Theodor Herzl vis-à-vis de la langue hébraïque: causes et conséquences MARTIN RODAN - Theodor Herzl: itinéraire d'un Juif viennois de Paris à Jérusalem DENIS CHARBIT - Herzl, le judaïsme et le rabbins: entre respect et méfiance YEHUDA MORALY - Rêves viennois: antisémitisme et anticipation Échos et regards BÉATRICE GONZALÉS-VANGELL - Theodor Herzl, un portrait brosse par ses contemporains viennois GÉRARD HUBER - Herzl et Freud: au-delà de l'exclusion réciproque SOPHIE NORDMANN - Les philosophes juifs allemands face au sionisme THIERRY ALCOLOUMBRE - Une histoire de famille à Vienne. Autour d'un portrait de Klimt Hommage à un ami STÉPHANE MOSÈS - Cyrano de Bergerac

The first comprehensive academic study of the architectural planning of the kibbutzim and the moshavim, the utopian agricultural settlements that were created in Eretz-Israel during the 20th century. The book discusses the connection between the ideology and the architecture of these settlements in the broad historical context of the orientations intent on creating utopian societies and planning ideal settlements to house them. It presents the ideas on the architectural planning of ideal settlements that appear in the writings of social visionaries such as the prophet Ezekiel, Plato, Fourier, Owen, Marx and Engels, and of architects such as Vitruvius, Ledoux and Le Corbusier, and examines the extent of their creative imagination and their influence on the ways of thinking of the fathers of Zionist settlement such as Tabenkin and Eliezer Yaffe and architects of the kibbutzim and the moshavim, such as Kauffmann, Sharon and Bickels. The book presents an analysis of the spatial layouts of settlement models as related to the various social ideological movements that existed in Eretz-Israel. It surveys the development of these settlement models in light of the extreme political, economic and technological changes that took place in the world and in Israel in the course of the century, and examines the influences of the changes in the ideology on the changes in the spatial layouts of the settlements. The authors, Bracha and Michael Chyutin, are leading Israeli architects who have won numerous architectural competitions. They have been responsible for the construction of a number of iconic public buildings, among them the Court of Law Building in Haifa, the Givatayim Theater, and university buildings such as the Senate Building at Beer Sheva University and the Students Center at Haifa University. They have been awarded prestigious prizes, among them the Rechter Prize (twice) and the Israel Design Award (twice), for buildings they have planned.

History of Jewish War Against the Romans is a description of Jewish history from the capture of Jerusalem by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 164 BC to the fall and destruction of Jerusalem in the First Jewish-Roman War in AD 70. The book was written in about 75, originally in Josephus's "paternal tongue", probably Aramaic, though this version has not survived. It was later translated into Greek, probably under the supervision of Josephus himself. Josephus' account of a war marked by treachery and atrocity is a superbly detailed and evocative record of the Jewish rebellion against Rome between AD 66 and 70. Originally a rebel leader, Josephus changed sides after he was captured to become a Rome-appointed negotiator, and so was uniquely placed to observe these turbulent events, from the siege of Jerusalem to the final heroic resistance and mass suicides at Masada . His account provides much of what we know about the history of the Jews under Roman rule, with vivid portraits of such key figures as the Emperor Vespasian and Herod the Great. Often self-justifying and divided in its loyalties, " History of Jewish War Against the Romans " nevertheless remains one of the most immediate accounts of war, its heroism and its horrors, ever written. This publication is a new translation, and includes an extensive introduction about Josephus and his historical writings, notes, appendices, maps, and illustrations, Family trees and sketches.

This second volume in Judaism of the Second Temple Period considers why the Book of Daniel was the only apocalyptic work incorporated in the biblical canon. It further addresses the fact that while it is the only apocalyptic book composed before the destruction of the Second Temple, it nonetheless describes events subsequent to the revelation at Sinai.

Reinventing a Nation: Palestinian Intellectuals in Israel , focuses on a comparison of three generations of Palestinian intellectuals and idea producers and disseminators in Israel. The book displays the ways that these intellectuals struggled to make meaning and contextualizing of their national catastrophes (Nakba) and to cope with it by building some alternative social and political identities, while also attempting to preserve their relative elite and preferential positions. The research is based on qualitative content analysis of the works of major writers, poets, journalists and essay writers - from 1948 and onward - who were active in Israel, at least for a part of their lives.

The Katchalsky brothers, Aharon and Ephraim, were already a well-known phenomenon in the far-off days before statehood. In this book, Professor Ephraim Katzir unfurls his personal tale as well as his family's story; both tales intertwine with the saga of the "Yishuv", the state of Israel, and the Jewish people. Throughout all the stages of his life – in high school, as a university student, as a member of the 'Haganah', as a commander of the military's science corps ("Hemed"), at the Weizmann Institute and at other scientific institutions, and as president of Israel – Ephraim Katzir left a deep impression. In this riveting autobiography, A Life's Tale, Katzir's personal story blends with the stories of the state of Israel and its science in the second half of the twentieth century. Katzir is one of very few people who successfully combined a life devoted both to science and to the state of Israel, and is indeed one of the most distinguished examples of such a duality. This book has also been translated into English and is for sale on our website.

This book deals with the arrival of modernity in the Holy Land in the form of the 86 km Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway. Befitting the completion of such a substantial undertaking, the inauguration, in September 1892, was a grand affair, attended by representatives of the Ottoman Empire, consuls, religious leaders, and foreign delegations. The tracks approached Jerusalem from the southwest through the Judean Mountains, taking advantage of the deep, winding river bed of the Soreq Valley. This afforded the least steep route, though even then the grades were a challenge for the locomotives. Since the tracks were of narrow meter-gauge they could easily follow the natural contours of the land on the ascent to Jerusalem, the highest point, at about 700 meters above sea level. . The railroad was the largest civil engineering project ever undertaken in the modern Holy Land. It was built to exploit the tremendous growth of pilgrim traffic and tourism during the second half of the nineteenth century. Though several proposals had been put forward since the 1850s, it was only in the 1880s that two young Jewish entrepreneurs, Joseph Navon of Jerusalem and Joseph Amzalak of Jaffa, backed by the Protestant banker Johannes Frutiger, were enabled to take the first steps leading to the acquisition of a license from the Ottoman government for laying down the iron rails. Unable to raise sufficient capital in Europe, Navon sold the license to a group of Catholic businessmen in Paris, who established the Société du Chemin de Fer Ottoman de Jaffa à Jérusalem et Prolongements. When the first locomotive was tested on a short length of track at Jaffa half the population turned up to witness the event, such was the novelty of the sight and sounds of the horse of fire and iron. Despite difficulties due to the low cost of construction and poor traffic during the early years, the railroad opened up Jerusalem to modern tourism, brought greater numbers of pilgrims, and contributed to the growth of the city. It also delivered fresh water in times of drought. This is the most thoroughly researched publication ever to appear on the first railroad in the Holy Land. Moreover, it relies extensively on the one resource that best captures the spirit of the Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway: magnificent photographs, mainly taken between 1891 and 1914. These early photographs, gathered from archives in Israel, the United States, England and Germany, are supplemented with those taken by British forces from December 1917 on, from Israel, Australia and England, and a number of color images dating from the mid-1980s. Details of locomotives and rolling stock, maps, tables of statistics, track plans, extensive notes, a bibliography, and index are included. The intended audiences, apart from general readers and railway enthusiasts, are historical geographers, historians of the Holy Land in modern times, and transport and tourism historians.

André Chouraqui fut-il un traducteur, un « passeur », un homme politique, un poète ? Sans doute fut-il tout cela, mais peut-être aussi et surtout « un homme qui aidait à vivre » comme l’aurait dit Camus qu’il connaissait bien. Perspectives a tenu à lui rendre hommage, un an après sa disparition, en s’arrêtant à chacune des grandes étapes d’un itinéraire hors du commun.