Enlivening the Public Sphere: Jewish Sociability in the 1920s

2007 ◽  
pp. 116-138
Author(s):  
Nadia Malinovich

This chapter describes the expansion of Jewish associational life over the course of the 1920s. It talks about the growth of a whole variety of youth movements that created unprecedented opportunities for young Jews to educate themselves about Jewish history and culture. It also examines the meaning of Jewish identity in the modern world. The chapter mentions the first national youth movement and the religiously oriented Chema Israël that aimed to provide an institutional structure of educational and recreational activities in order to transmit Judaism to future generations. It includes the Union Universelle de la Jeunesse Juive (UUJJ), which reached the height of its popularity and influence in the mid-1920s in the hope of appealing to as wide a range of Jewish youth as possible and to build bridges between different communities.

Slavic Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 907-930
Author(s):  
Igor Fedyukin

This article uses the materials of the Drezdensha affair, a large-scale investigation of “indecency” in St. Petersburg in 1750, to explore unofficial sociability among the Imperial elite, and to map out the institutional, social, and economic dimensions of the post-Petrine “sexual underworld.” Sociability and, ultimately, the public sphere in eighteenth century Russia are usually associated with loftier practices, with joining the ranks of the reading public, reflecting on the public good, and generally, becoming more civil and polite. Yet, it is the privately-run, commercially-oriented, and sexually-charged “parties” at the focus of this article that arguably served as a “training ground” for developing the habits of sociability. The world of these “parties” provides a missing link between the debauchery and carousing of Peter I's era and the more polite formats of associational life in the late eighteenth century, as well as the historical context for reflections on morality, sexual licentiousness, foppery, and the excesses of “westernization.”


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 289-305
Author(s):  
Leopold Ringel

Abstract Accounts of why rankings are pervasive features of the modern world focus mostly on their properties as valuation devices that, upon entering the public sphere, exert pressure on the ranked. In doing so, however, research tends to overlook the important role played by the different types of organizations that produce rankings. To remedy this, the article draws from a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews with members of these organizations to show that they put a great deal of effort into addressing and responding to different kinds of criticism. Working towards building and maintaining the credibility of rankings is thus revealed to require constant attention by their producers, who devise multiple procedures and rhetorical strategies to this end.


Author(s):  
Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber

This essay offers a review of ongoing media analysis of the kidnapped Yemenite Babies Affair in light of recent changes in public awareness since the emergence of social media and the more recent formal governmental recognition. It argues that the government’s efforts to silence this affair over decades would not have been possible without the media’s full cooperation. Moreover, the public denial of this affair contributes to the ongoing intra-Jewish rift and racism in Israeli society today. Questions regarding the reconciliation and remembrance of this affair in the public sphere will strongly influence the identity formation of Yemenite and Mizrahi children of future generations.  


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hugh Eldred-Grigg

<p>The origin of the phrase ‘let them eat cake’ is obscure. Conversely, it is widely understood that the woman whose name is most associated with the phrase, Marie Antoinette, the last pre-revolutionary Queen of France, never said it. But despite its lack of veracity the phrase demonstrates neatly the degree of disdain and anger directed at the Queen to the point where hatred becomes a useful term. This hatred was not unique to Marie Antoinette. While there is no phrase to highlight her role in the public eye, Alexandra Fedorovna, the last Czarina of Russia, was the focus of parallel disdain. Despite the timescale their situations are strikingly similar. The French and Russian revolutions form the backdrop for the close of these two women’s lives. Political historians de-emphasise the role of individual actors in shaping events, but the events of individual lives – or more precisely, the way in which those events are interpreted in the public sphere – can provide an insight into the impersonal events that constitute noteworthy targets of analysis. This study identifies a common dynamic that explains the reason why Marie Antoinette and Alexandra Fedorovna were both the target of such intense hatred during the revolutions that overthrew the systems they were part of and contributed collectively and individually to the shaping of the modern world.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
M Mujibuddin ◽  
Rina Zuliana

<p>This article explores the phenomenology of post-secularism in Indonesia. Populist Islamic movement strike for islamization public sphere as a sign of post-secularism in Indonesia. The islamization proceeded both in government dan the public sphere. These phenomena show that the community of urban Muslims can’t leave religious aspects in the public sphere. This research uses the qualitative-description method and library research models. The first result of this research shows that Islamic populism is coming from the urban Muslim middle class who have access to the modern world. Second, the populist Islamic movement who did islamization of the public sphere shows the strengthening of religion's role in the public sphere.</p><p> </p><p> </p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hugh Eldred-Grigg

<p>The origin of the phrase ‘let them eat cake’ is obscure. Conversely, it is widely understood that the woman whose name is most associated with the phrase, Marie Antoinette, the last pre-revolutionary Queen of France, never said it. But despite its lack of veracity the phrase demonstrates neatly the degree of disdain and anger directed at the Queen to the point where hatred becomes a useful term. This hatred was not unique to Marie Antoinette. While there is no phrase to highlight her role in the public eye, Alexandra Fedorovna, the last Czarina of Russia, was the focus of parallel disdain. Despite the timescale their situations are strikingly similar. The French and Russian revolutions form the backdrop for the close of these two women’s lives. Political historians de-emphasise the role of individual actors in shaping events, but the events of individual lives – or more precisely, the way in which those events are interpreted in the public sphere – can provide an insight into the impersonal events that constitute noteworthy targets of analysis. This study identifies a common dynamic that explains the reason why Marie Antoinette and Alexandra Fedorovna were both the target of such intense hatred during the revolutions that overthrew the systems they were part of and contributed collectively and individually to the shaping of the modern world.</p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 0067205X2199315
Author(s):  
Desmond Manderson

In Australia, a technocratic minimalist approach to constitutional interpretation leaves little space for what has recently been described as a ‘democratic’ or ‘social’ ‘constitutional imaginary’. The ‘big picture’ of what a constitution is, and why it matters, is systematically reduced to a ‘strict and complete legalism’ that shows little interest in the social and cultural functions of a constitution in the modern world. The ‘dual citizenship’ cases (2017–18), concerning s 44 of the Australian Constitution, provide an exceptional case study. The High Court of Australia’s narrow positivism shielded it from criticism, but at a high cost to Australia’s democratic and social fabric. This article argues that, at a time when the rule of law and the public sphere is under threat as never before, we can and should expect more of our peak legal institutions. A constitutional court without a broader commitment to constitutionalism imperils the legitimacy of the whole constitutional order and of the public sphere.


2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Anderson

This article argues that the technological structure of the modern world has reshaped drastically the role of political scientists as purveyors of information. Only a few decades ago, scholars were still central to the development, collection and dissemination of knowledge. But the transformation in the availability of data due to the proliferation of social media and research engines creates a new environment in which scholars can no longer claim to be the erudite carriers of hard-to-get facts. In order to play a constructive role in this quickly changing setting, political scientists need to invent a new identity for themselves as active practitioners engaged in a dynamic dialogue with students and policymakers.


1998 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Charney

Theorists of democracy emphasize the importance of a public sphere, distinct from the apparatus of the state, where citizens can freely associate, deliberate, and engage in collective will formation. Discourse ethicists and deliberative democrats locate the public sphere within civil society and the manifold associations that comprise it. For Seyla Benhabib, the public sphere is constituted by the anonymous “public conversation” of civil society. By contrast, John Rawls has a much more limited conception of the public sphere. For Rawls, public reason, which establishes norms for democratic discourse, applies to a limited domain. I defend Rawls's view against the charge that it depends upon an untenable distinction between the public and nonpublic spheres. I argue that Rawls's more limited “liberal” conception better guarantees the heterogeneity of associational life in civil society. I then argue that Rawls violates his own principles by partially collapsing the public-nonpublic distinction with potentially illiberal consequences.


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