David Ohana
Biographic Data
| ID | 1601206 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Ohana |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Ohana |
| SIGNATURE | OHANA D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9300-5879 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Restorative Memory in the Writings of Saul Friedländer
This article illuminates memory from the perspective of the historical writings of Saul Friedländer. The theoretical term I coined for this phenomenon is restorative memory, which describes the functional adjustment of the frequently changing plasticity of memory which essentially inflects our attitude toward our past experiences. This is especially evident when details and events related to our past are reconstructed and adapted to the current c…
Introduction (with Yehuda Bauer)
Birth-Throes of the Israeli Homeland
Restorative Utopias
The attitude to the Bible is a seismograph for scrutinizing the attitude of Zionism, in general, and that of the settlers, in particular, to their ideological and political worldview. To where in the Bible are the settlers returning? To the Land of Canaan, to the land of the Patriarchs, or perhaps to the Kingdom of David? And what is the meaning of this return? It is not only the land that is basic to this question, but the relationship of the La…
Amos Oz
The article examines Amos Oz’s political and social outlook through four topoi that constitute his books, articles and correspondence: The first concerns his dialectics with Israel’s Mediterranean character, from his affinity to Albert Camus to his treatment of Ashdod as a metaphor for Mediterraneanism; the second is the Zionist-crusader analogy in the literature and poetry of his contemporaries, and particularly A. B. Yehoshua and Dahlia Ravikov…
Fascist Temptation
Birth-Throes of the Israeli Homeland
The Intellectual Origins of Modernity
The Intellectual Origins of Modernity explores the long and winding road of modernity from Rousseau to Foucault and its roots, which are not to be found in a desire for enlightenment or in the idea of progress but in the Promethean passion of Western humankind. Modernity is the Promethean passion, the passion of humans to be their own master, to use their insight to make a world different from the one that they found, and to liberate themselves f…
Carl Schmitt’s Legal Fascism
Carl Schmitt, the supreme jurist of the Third Reich, bestowed legal legitimacy on Hitler's dictatorial rule. A genealogy of his primary writings of the German jurist shows that his romance with the Nazis was not the result of an historical accident, and proves that there is a thread running from his early theoretical writings to his juridical position and his radical political activity during the thirties. Schmitt is a member of the ‘nihilist ord…
Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology
Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology is the first book to explore the impact of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work on the formation of Jewish political theology during the first half of the twentieth century. It maps the many ways in which early Jewish thinkers grappled with Nietzsche’s powerful ideas about politics, morality, and religion in the process of forging a new and modern Jewish culture. The book explores the stories of some of the most impo…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Promethean Chains
Modernity and Enlightenment are on a perpetual axis of mutual tension. The paths of modernity are tortuous, and its roots are not to be found in a desire for enlightenment or in the idea of progress but in the Promethean passion of Western man to be his own master, to use his insight to make a world different from the one that he found. The passion that enabled modern man to break free from his ancient chains was the same passion that created the…
New Horizons
Albert Camus and the Critique of Violence
"Singapore Malays subscribe to mostly traditional rather than modern interpretations of Islam. Singapore state officials, however, wish to curb the challenges such interpretations bring to the country's political, social, educational and economic domains. Thus, these officials launched a programme to socially engineer modern Muslim identities amongst Singapore Malays in 2003, which is ongoing. Negotiating Malay Identities in Singapore documents a…
Albert Camus and the Critique of Violence
The Shaping of Israeli Identity
The Million Plan’
This article analyses Israel's first prime minister's plan for a Jewish fast mass immigration to Palestine during World War II. The ‘Million Plan’, as it was named later, envisioned an imaginary transfer of a million Jews to Palestine in a year and a half. It was formulated with the help of a big team of experts, professionals and scientists in what is known as the Planning Committee. We will attempt to analyze the Million Plan from several inter…
Modernism and Zionism
Part of Palgrave's Modernism and ... series, Modernism and Zionism explores the relationship between modernism and the Jewish national ideology, the Zionist movement, which was operative in all areas
Funeral at the edge of a cliff
David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, passed away on 1 December 1973, weeks after the Yom Kippur War. His funeral reflected his unique political and symbolic standing as the "father of the nation," as well as his wish to express national pioneering values. Buried on the cliff overlooking Wadi Zin, near his kibbutz home in the Negev desert, Ben-Gurion "forced" the Israeli leadership to follow a ritualistic pilgrimage path leading from J…
A Bridge over Troubled Water
I srael is a Mediterranean society in the making. The shift it underwent from being a society that had to fight for its existence to one engaged with some of its neighbors in political, economic, and cultural dialogue has raised questions about Israel’s collective identity and the character of its emerging culture. The old choice between the “Middle Eastern” or the “global village” options would today be more arbitrary than ever. Having to choose…
Israel and Its Mediterranean Identity
This book is a detailed and comprehensive work which reviews the origins of Israel's Mediterranean identity, starting with its Zionist ideological origins and tracing the path up to the present, as Is
Ambiguous Messianism
In this article I will exmine the complex attitude of Martin Buber (1878-1965) to Messianism in the prism of political theology in Israel. Buber's intellectual and scholarly interest in Messianism was intense and it can also be said to have been methodical. Messianism and its universal essence were the very foundation of his thought. His methodical treatment of Messianism encouraged the idea that his dialogic approach to philosophical enquiry was…
Political Theologies in the Holy Land
This book examines the role of messianism in Zionist ideology, from the birth of the Zionist movement through to the present. Is shows how messianism is not just a religious or philosophical term but a very tangible political practice and theology which has shaped Israeli identity. The author explores key issues such as: the current presence of messianism in the Israeli public sphere and the debates with jewish settlers in the occupied territorie…
J.L. Talmon, Gershom Scholem and the price of Messianism
Gershom Scholem wrote his famous article, “Redemption through sin”, in 1937, and J.L. Talmon gained the inspiration for his first book, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, in the years 1937–1938 at the time when the Moscow trials revealed to the world the bitter reality of what was happening in the Soviet Union. Scholem and Talmon were contemporaries and witnesses of the transformation of communism in the Soviet Union from a vision of egalitar…
The Mediterranean Option in Israel
The writer and essayist Jacqueline Kahanoff (1917–79) was the forerunner of the Mediterranean option in Israel. Her early polyphonic voice represented a radical challenge to the crystallizing Israeli hegemonic ideology and culture. She should therefore be considered a unique example of a woman providing an avant-garde voice in the public sphere, and fostering debates regarding both Mediterranean and gender issues
Mediterranean humanism
The Mediterranean writers Albert Camus, Albert Memmi, Tahar Ben-Jelloun, Jorge Semprún, Najib Mahfouz and Edmond Jabès are exemplars and intellectual seismographs of the Mediterranean humanist current. The case studies presented here reveal the views that they share and the context of alienation that influenced their work on uprooting, racism, multiculturalism, and dialogue
Mediterranean humanism
The Mediterranean writers Albert Camus, Albert Memmi, Tahar Ben-Jelloun, Jorge Semprún, Najib Mahfouz and Edmond Jabès are exemplars and intellectual seismographs of the Mediterranean humanist current. The case studies presented here reveal the views that they share and the context of alienation that influenced their work on uprooting, racism, multiculturalism, and dialogue
The Million Plan’
This article analyses Israel's first prime minister's plan for a Jewish fast mass immigration to Palestine during World War II. The ‘Million Plan’, as it was named later, envisioned an imaginary transfer of a million Jews to Palestine in a year and a half. It was formulated with the help of a big team of experts, professionals and scientists in what is known as the Planning Committee. We will attempt to analyze the Million Plan from several inter…
J.L. Talmon, Gershom Scholem and the price of Messianism
Gershom Scholem wrote his famous article, “Redemption through sin”, in 1937, and J.L. Talmon gained the inspiration for his first book, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, in the years 1937–1938 at the time when the Moscow trials revealed to the world the bitter reality of what was happening in the Soviet Union. Scholem and Talmon were contemporaries and witnesses of the transformation of communism in the Soviet Union from a vision of egalitar…
The Mediterranean Option in Israel
The writer and essayist Jacqueline Kahanoff (1917–79) was the forerunner of the Mediterranean option in Israel. Her early polyphonic voice represented a radical challenge to the crystallizing Israeli hegemonic ideology and culture. She should therefore be considered a unique example of a woman providing an avant-garde voice in the public sphere, and fostering debates regarding both Mediterranean and gender issues
Kfar Etzion
THE ESTABLISHMENT, DEFENSE AND FALL of the four settlements of Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc) in 1948 was one of the major episodes of the State of Israel-in-the-making and played a significant role in the formation of the collective memory of the Israelis. In the period between the War of Independence and the Six-Day War, the Community of Memory of the sons of Kfar Etzion nurtured the myth of Gush Etzion of which, according to one of the women co…
Zarathustra in Jerusalem
Georges Sorel and the rise of political myth
Carl Schmitt’s Legal Fascism
Carl Schmitt, the supreme jurist of the Third Reich, bestowed legal legitimacy on Hitler's dictatorial rule. A genealogy of his primary writings of the German jurist shows that his romance with the Nazis was not the result of an historical accident, and proves that there is a thread running from his early theoretical writings to his juridical position and his radical political activity during the thirties. Schmitt is a member of the ‘nihilist ord…
Nietzsche and Ernst Jünger
(1989). Nietzsche and Ernst Junger: From nihilism to totalitarianism. History of European Ideas: Vol. 11, No. 1-6, pp. 751-758
Nietzsche and Ernst Jünger
(1989). Nietzsche and Ernst Junger: From nihilism to totalitarianism. History of European Ideas: Vol. 11, No. 1-6, pp. 751-758
Georges Sorel and the rise of political myth
The shaping of Israeli identity
A dozen essays document the evolution of national myths in Israel as the heroic figures and events of independence and survival transmute into blind fanaticism, great-power manipulation, and traditional colonialism and genocide. Without passing any judgement on the changes, they delve into the meani
Zarathustra in Jerusalem
Kfar Etzion
THE ESTABLISHMENT, DEFENSE AND FALL of the four settlements of Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc) in 1948 was one of the major episodes of the State of Israel-in-the-making and played a significant role in the formation of the collective memory of the Israelis. In the period between the War of Independence and the Six-Day War, the Community of Memory of the sons of Kfar Etzion nurtured the myth of Gush Etzion of which, according to one of the women co…
Mediterranean humanism
The Mediterranean writers Albert Camus, Albert Memmi, Tahar Ben-Jelloun, Jorge Semprún, Najib Mahfouz and Edmond Jabès are exemplars and intellectual seismographs of the Mediterranean humanist current. The case studies presented here reveal the views that they share and the context of alienation that influenced their work on uprooting, racism, multiculturalism, and dialogue
The Mediterranean Option in Israel
The writer and essayist Jacqueline Kahanoff (1917–79) was the forerunner of the Mediterranean option in Israel. Her early polyphonic voice represented a radical challenge to the crystallizing Israeli hegemonic ideology and culture. She should therefore be considered a unique example of a woman providing an avant-garde voice in the public sphere, and fostering debates regarding both Mediterranean and gender issues
J.L. Talmon, Gershom Scholem and the price of Messianism
Gershom Scholem wrote his famous article, “Redemption through sin”, in 1937, and J.L. Talmon gained the inspiration for his first book, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, in the years 1937–1938 at the time when the Moscow trials revealed to the world the bitter reality of what was happening in the Soviet Union. Scholem and Talmon were contemporaries and witnesses of the transformation of communism in the Soviet Union from a vision of egalitar…
Political Theologies in the Holy Land
This book examines the role of messianism in Zionist ideology, from the birth of the Zionist movement through to the present. Is shows how messianism is not just a religious or philosophical term but a very tangible political practice and theology which has shaped Israeli identity. The author explores key issues such as: the current presence of messianism in the Israeli public sphere and the debates with jewish settlers in the occupied territorie…
A Bridge over Troubled Water
I srael is a Mediterranean society in the making. The shift it underwent from being a society that had to fight for its existence to one engaged with some of its neighbors in political, economic, and cultural dialogue has raised questions about Israel’s collective identity and the character of its emerging culture. The old choice between the “Middle Eastern” or the “global village” options would today be more arbitrary than ever. Having to choose…
Israel and Its Mediterranean Identity
This book is a detailed and comprehensive work which reviews the origins of Israel's Mediterranean identity, starting with its Zionist ideological origins and tracing the path up to the present, as Is
Ambiguous Messianism
In this article I will exmine the complex attitude of Martin Buber (1878-1965) to Messianism in the prism of political theology in Israel. Buber's intellectual and scholarly interest in Messianism was intense and it can also be said to have been methodical. Messianism and its universal essence were the very foundation of his thought. His methodical treatment of Messianism encouraged the idea that his dialogic approach to philosophical enquiry was…
Modernism and Zionism
Part of Palgrave's Modernism and ... series, Modernism and Zionism explores the relationship between modernism and the Jewish national ideology, the Zionist movement, which was operative in all areas
Funeral at the edge of a cliff
David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, passed away on 1 December 1973, weeks after the Yom Kippur War. His funeral reflected his unique political and symbolic standing as the "father of the nation," as well as his wish to express national pioneering values. Buried on the cliff overlooking Wadi Zin, near his kibbutz home in the Negev desert, Ben-Gurion "forced" the Israeli leadership to follow a ritualistic pilgrimage path leading from J…
The Shaping of Israeli Identity
The Million Plan’
This article analyses Israel's first prime minister's plan for a Jewish fast mass immigration to Palestine during World War II. The ‘Million Plan’, as it was named later, envisioned an imaginary transfer of a million Jews to Palestine in a year and a half. It was formulated with the help of a big team of experts, professionals and scientists in what is known as the Planning Committee. We will attempt to analyze the Million Plan from several inter…
New Horizons
Albert Camus and the Critique of Violence
"Singapore Malays subscribe to mostly traditional rather than modern interpretations of Islam. Singapore state officials, however, wish to curb the challenges such interpretations bring to the country's political, social, educational and economic domains. Thus, these officials launched a programme to socially engineer modern Muslim identities amongst Singapore Malays in 2003, which is ongoing. Negotiating Malay Identities in Singapore documents a…
Albert Camus and the Critique of Violence
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Promethean Chains
Modernity and Enlightenment are on a perpetual axis of mutual tension. The paths of modernity are tortuous, and its roots are not to be found in a desire for enlightenment or in the idea of progress but in the Promethean passion of Western man to be his own master, to use his insight to make a world different from the one that he found. The passion that enabled modern man to break free from his ancient chains was the same passion that created the…
Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology
Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology is the first book to explore the impact of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work on the formation of Jewish political theology during the first half of the twentieth century. It maps the many ways in which early Jewish thinkers grappled with Nietzsche’s powerful ideas about politics, morality, and religion in the process of forging a new and modern Jewish culture. The book explores the stories of some of the most impo…
The Intellectual Origins of Modernity
The Intellectual Origins of Modernity explores the long and winding road of modernity from Rousseau to Foucault and its roots, which are not to be found in a desire for enlightenment or in the idea of progress but in the Promethean passion of Western humankind. Modernity is the Promethean passion, the passion of humans to be their own master, to use their insight to make a world different from the one that they found, and to liberate themselves f…
Carl Schmitt’s Legal Fascism
Carl Schmitt, the supreme jurist of the Third Reich, bestowed legal legitimacy on Hitler's dictatorial rule. A genealogy of his primary writings of the German jurist shows that his romance with the Nazis was not the result of an historical accident, and proves that there is a thread running from his early theoretical writings to his juridical position and his radical political activity during the thirties. Schmitt is a member of the ‘nihilist ord…
Birth-Throes of the Israeli Homeland
Restorative Utopias
The attitude to the Bible is a seismograph for scrutinizing the attitude of Zionism, in general, and that of the settlers, in particular, to their ideological and political worldview. To where in the Bible are the settlers returning? To the Land of Canaan, to the land of the Patriarchs, or perhaps to the Kingdom of David? And what is the meaning of this return? It is not only the land that is basic to this question, but the relationship of the La…
Political science (20 works) · Law (18 works) · Philosophy (18 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (16 works) · History (15 works) · Politics (15 works) · Law (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Theology (10 works)