Born in Warsaw, Poland and the youngest child of a cultured, Zionist family of Ashkenazi Jews, he is a survivor of Bergen-Belsen. He arrived in Palestine in 1945 and passed there in 2001. He was an Israeli professor of organic chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Holocaust survivor, an intellectual of liberal political bent, and a civil-rights advocate and activist on behalf of both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). For twenty years, he headed the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights (1970–90) and was a public critic of the policies of the governments of Israel.
Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel (Pluto Press, 2004), examines the history and consequences of Jewish fundamentalism in Israel. Essential to fully understand the way religious extremism has affected the political development of the modern Israeli state. Traces the history and development of Jewish fundamentalism. They place the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin in the context of what they see as a tradition of punishments and killings of those Jews perceived to be heretics.
Gore Vidal called this author the “latest – if not the last – of the great prophets”.
Softcover, 176pp, Index. €10.
Jewish History, Jewish Religion. The Weight of Three Thousand Years. Pluto Press, 1988. Soft cover, 127pp. Library copy, underlining – this book was read.
Drawing on the Talmud and rabbinical laws,Israel Shahak embarks on a provocative study of the extent to which the secular state of Israel has been shaped by religious orthodoxies of an invidious and potentially lethal nature. There is a lot of interesting historical content that goes against the usual narrative of events in Spain.
€5.
