The Jewish Conundrum in World History

"A Russian-educated linguist and cultural anthropologist, Alexander Militarev offers in this elegantly written study a novel approach to address the conundrum posed by the prominence of the Jews in the unfolding of humanistic cosmopolitan culture. With prodigious erudition, yet with manifest humanity and no small measure of humor, he probes the deep structures of what he calls the Adamic universalism inscribed in the biblical lexicon and worldview and which, he argues, continue to inform the cognitive reflexes and ethical sensibilities of Jewish intellectuals."

Autorentext

Alexander Militarev is a linguist, lecturer, University educator, and researcher in comparative Semitic and Afroasiatic linguistics, Jewish, Biblical, Near Eastern, African studies and the application of linguistic methods to ethno-cultural history. Militarev is the author of, among many publications, the Comparative and Historical Lexicon of Afroasiatic Languages and the Semitic Etymological Dictionary and a professor of History and Philology of the Ancient East at the Institute of Oriental and Classic Studies of the Russian State University for the Humanities and Head of the Center for Hebrew and Related Ethno-Linguistic Studies in the Institute of Linguistics of the same University. Since 2001, he has served as the head of the Semitic and Afroasiatic section of the American-Russian Project "Evolution of Human Languages" in The Santa Fe Institute (Santa Fe, NM); from 1994 to 2009 he was also President of the Jewish University in Moscow.

Klappentext

Following what may be conventionally called the Jewish ethno-cultural model and tracing its performance throughout history, Alexander Militarev's book is the first scholarly attempt to apply a synthetic, comprehensive approach to the Jewish phenomenon-an alternative to the metaphysical and religious ones-and to evaluate it in a comparative context. In highlighting the unique and disproportionately great Jewish contributions, and the recent Russian Jewish contribution in particular, to human civilization, it poses as its main question: "Why the Jews?" Militarev dedicates his book to the analysis of the Jewish phenomenon, its manifold reasons and consequences. Laying bare the "kitchen" of scholarly research, Militarev embarks on a scholarly adventure akin to a film-noir who-dunnit, complete with intrigue, the need for stringent self-control, inexorable doubts, and the thrill of the chase after the enigma's solution.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations. Foreword and Acknowledgements. Preface. Introduction. The Crisis of Modern Jewry. Being Jewish: Religion or Nationality? Jewish Identity in Russia. Jews and the Russian Intelligentsia. "Universal Values" and Their Biblical Roots. Anthropocentrism. "Adamism." Monotheism. Common Task. Ethics. Life After Death and the Biblical "Agnosticism." Foundation of Ethics. The Principle of Personal Responsibility and Freedom of Choice. "Feel of History" and the Concept of Progress. Canon as the Foundation for "Cultural Construction." Cognition as a Value and Claims to "Theo-Parity." Antinomy as a Tool of Cognition. The Categories of the Abstract and Absolute. How Deep are the Biblical Roots and How Old are the Jews? The Unique Nature of the Jewish Phenomenon in History. Why the Jews? Persecution of the Jews and Anti-Semitism. Tradition of the Book. The Factor of Genetics. The Jewry as a Civilization and the Debatable Issue of Jewish Uniqueness. The Diaspora. The Myth of the Chosen People and Its Mission. The Myth of the Eternal Exile and the Promised Land. Common Semitic and Afrasian Cultural Legacy. The Random Factor: Etymopoesis. A Chain of Random Events or a Pattern of Historical Behavior? The Jews and the Strategy of the Species' Survival. A Chance Congruence of Factors or a Design of Mother Nature? The Meaning of the Holocaust? Anti-Semitism. Conclusion. Appendix 1: Etymology of Selected Hebrew Terms Related to Intellectual / Spiritual Culture. Appendix 2: The Significance of Etymology for the Interpretation of Ancient Writings: From the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament. Appendix 3: The Genealogical Tree of World Languages. Conventional Signs. Notes. Appendix 4: the Genealogical Tree of Afrasian (Afroasiatic Languages). Transcription Signs and Conventions. Bibliographic Abbreviations. Index of Subjects. Index of Names.