Shlomo Sand

Evaluates the national myth of the Jewish exile from the promised land in the first century A.D., arguing that the myth had its origins in the nineteenth century, when Jewish historians reconstituted an imagined people in order to model a future nation.

The Invention of the Jewish People

Evaluates the notions of a Promised Land to explain why Israel has become the site of the longest running national struggle of the twentieth century, posing a controversial argument that the concept of a "Land of Israel" facilitated colonization and is threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.

The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland

A historical tour de force that demolishes the myths and taboos that have surrounded Jewish and Israeli history, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a new account of both that demands to be read and reckoned with. Was there really a forced exile in the first century, at the hands of the Romans? Should we regard the Jewish people, throughout two millennia, as both a distinct ethnic group and a putative nation—returned at last to its Biblical homeland? Shlomo Sand argues that most Jews actually descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered far across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The formation of a Jewish people and then a Jewish nation out of these disparate groups could only take place under the sway of a new historiography, developing in response to the rise of nationalism throughout Europe. Beneath the biblical back fill of the nineteenth-century historians, and the twentieth-century intellectuals who replaced rabbis as the architects of Jewish identity, The Invention of the Jewish People uncovers a new narrative of Israel’s formation, and proposes a bold analysis of nationalism that accounts for the old myths. After a long stay on Israel’s bestseller list, and winning the coveted Aujourd’hui Award in France, The Invention of the Jewish People is finally available in English. The central importance of the conflict in the Middle East ensures that Sand’s arguments will reverberate well beyond the historians and politicians that he takes to task. Without an adequate understanding of Israel’s past, capable of superseding today’s opposing views, diplomatic solutions are likely to remain elusive. In this iconoclastic work of history, Shlomo Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel’s future.

اختراع الشعب اليهودي

How the work of Israeli writers today reflects the foundation myths of a Jewish state. The idea of the Jewish nation was conceived before the organization of the Zionist movement in the nineteenth century and continued long after the creation of the state of Israel. In The Words and the Land, post-Zionist Israeli historian Shlomo Sand examines how both Jewish and Israeli intellectuals contributed to this process. One by one, he identifies and calls into question the foundation myths of the Israeli state, beginning with the myth of a people forcibly uprooted, a people-race that began to wander the world in search of a land of asylum. This was a people that would define itself on a biological and “mythological-religious” basis, embodied in words that today feed Israeli political, literary, and historical writing: “exile,” “return,” and “ascent” (Alyah) to the land of its origins. Since 1948, most intellectuals in Israel have continued to accept this ethno-national image and embrace an exclusive state identity to which only Jewish people can belong. The first challenges to this dominant idea didn't appear in Israel until the 1980s, in the innovative work of the “post-Zionist” historians, who were bent on dismantling the nationalist historical myth and arguing for a state that would belong equally to all its citizens. Analyzing how Israeli intellectuals positioned themselves during the Gulf War and in the new era of communication technologies, Sand extends his analysis globally, looking at the status of intellectuals in all societies.

Israeli Intellectuals and the Nationalist Myth

The Words and the Land

¿Qué es una patria?, ¿cómo y cuándo se transfigura en un «territorio nacional»? ¿Por qué multitudes enteras han estado dispuestas a inmolarse por tales lugares a lo largo del siglo XX? ¿Cuál es la esencia de la Tierra Prometida? Tras el escándalo desatado por su obra anterior, La invención del pueblo judío, el historiador israelí Shlomo Sand examina ahora esa enigmática tierra sagrada que se ha convertido en el solar donde acontece la lucha nacional más longeva de la modernidad. La invención de la tierra de Israel desmonta las antiguas leyendas que envuelven Tierra Santa y los prejuicios que continúan asfixiándola. Sand disecciona el concepto de «derecho histórico» e indaga en la concepción moderna de la «Tierra de Israel» formulada por cierto protestantismo evangélico del siglo XIX y por el sionismo. Esta invención que, a su juicio, hizo posible la colonización de Oriente Próximo y la creación del Estado de Israel, constituye ahora una seria amenaza a su propia existencia como hogar nacional judío.

De Tierra Santa a madre patria

La invención de la tierra de Israel

Geremy Forman

From Holy Land to Homeland

The Invention of the Land of Israel

En este valiente y apasionado libro, Shlomo Sand demuestra que el mito nacional de Israel hunde sus orígenes en el siglo XIX, no en los tiempos bíblicos en los que muchos historiadores –judíos y no judíos– reconstruyeron un pueblo imaginado con la finalidad de modelar una futura nación. Sand disecciona con la minuciosidad de un forense la historia oficial y desvela la construcción del mito nacionalista y la consiguiente mistificación colectiva.

La invención del pueblo judío

"Supportant mal que les lois israéliennes m'imposent l'appartenance à une ethnie fictive, supportant encore plus mal d'apparaître auprès du reste du monde comme membre d'un club d'élus, je souhaite démissionner et cesser de me considérer comme juif".

Un regard israélien

Comment j'ai cessé d'être juif

Charting the decline of the French intellectual, from the Dreyfus Affair to Islamophobia The best-selling author of The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the troublesome figure of the French intellectual. Revered throughout the Francophile world, France’s tradition of public intellectual engagement stems from Voltaire and Zola and runs through Sartre and Foucault to the present day. The intellectual enjoys a status as the ethical lodestar of his nation’s life, but, as Sand shows, the recent history of these esteemed figures shows how often, and how profoundly, they have fallen short of the ideal. Sand examines Sartre and de Beauvoir’s unsettling accommodations during the Nazi occupation and then shows how Muslims have replaced Jews as the nation’s scapegoats for a new generation of public intellectuals, including Michel Houellebecq and Alain Finkielkraut. Possessing an intimate knowledge of the Parisian intellectual milieu, Sand laments the degradation of a literary elite, but questions the value of that class at the best of times. Drawing parallels between the Dreyfus Affair and Charlie Hebdo, while mixing reminiscence with analysis, Sand casts a characteristically candid and mordant gaze upon the intellectual scene of today.

From Zola to Houellebecq

The End of the French Intellectual

A man who grew up in Palestine with his Jewish mother discusses what he sees as the Israeli exploitation of the “chosen people” and what he calls the “holocaust industry” and searches for an alternate secular identity beyond Zionism.

How I Stopped Being a Jew

The acclaimed and controversial historian turns his critical gaze on the writing of history today Drawing on his four decades as a professional historian, Shlomo Sand interrogates the academic discipline of history, whose origin lay in the need for a national ideology. In the last few decades, traditional history has begun to fragment, yet only to give rise to a new role of historians as priests of official memory. Working in Israel has sharpened Sand's perspective, since the role of history as national myth is particularly salient in a country where the Bible is treated as a history book. He asks such questions as: Is every historical narrative ideologically marked? Do political requirements and state power weigh down inordinately on historical research and teaching? And, in such conditions, can there be a morally neutral and 'scientific' truth? Despite his trenchant criticism of academic history, Sand would still like to believe that the past can be understood without myth, and sees pointers for this in the work of Weber and Sorel.

Twilight of History

Le cinéma est aussi un des instruments d'élaboration des mémoires collectives : le film historique raconte le passé en le posant en concurrant effronté des agents "agrées" et institutionnels. A travers une centaine d'oeuvres occidental, l'auteur analyse les modes de représentations audiovisuelles des grandes questions qui ont animé et bouleversé le XX è siècle : la formation des démocraties, la déclaration de la Première Guerre mondiale, la naissance du communisme, l'avènement des crises économiques, la montée du fascisme et du nazisme, les affrontements de la Guerre froide et du colonialisme ainsi que la décolonisation ...

Le XXe siècle à l'écran

Shlomo Sand was born in 1946, in a displaced person’s camp in Austria, to Jewish parents; the family later migrated to Palestine. As a young man, Sand came to question his Jewish identity, even that of a “secular Jew.” With this meditative and thoughtful mixture of essay and personal recollection, he articulates the problems at the center of modern Jewish identity. How I Stopped Being a Jew discusses the negative effects of the Israeli exploitation of the “chosen people” myth and its “holocaust industry.” Sand criticizes the fact that, in the current context, what “Jewish” means is, above all, not being Arab and reflects on the possibility of a secular, non-exclusive Israeli identity, beyond the legends of Zionism.

Les mots « terre d’Israël » renferment une part de mystère. Par quelle alchimie la Terre sainte de la Bible a-t-elle pu devenir le territoire d’une patrie moderne, dotée d’institutions politiques, de citoyens, de frontières et d’une armée pour les défendre ? Historien engagé et volontiers polémiste, Shlomo Sand a, à grand bruit, dénoncé le mythe de l’existence éternelle du peuple juif. Il poursuit ici son œuvre de déconstruction des légendes qui étouffent l’État d’Israël et s’intéresse au territoire mystérieux et sacré que celui-ci prétend occuper : la « terre promise », sur laquelle le « peuple élu » aurait un droit de propriété inaliénable. Quel lien existe-t-il, depuis les origines du judaïsme, entre les juifs et la « terre d’Israël » ? Le concept de patrie se trouve-t-il déjà dans la Bible et le Talmud ? Les adeptes de la religion de Moïse ont-ils toujours aspiré à émigrer au Moyen-Orient ? Comment expliquer que leurs descendants, en majorité, ne souhaitent pas y vivre aujourd’hui ? Et qu’en est-il des habitants non juifs de cette terre : ont-ils – ou non – le droit d’y vivre ?

De la Terre sainte à la mère patrie

Comment la terre d'Israël fut inventée

An autobiographical essay on Jewish identity from the acclaimed author of The Invention of the Jewish People. Shlomo Sand was born in 1946, in a displaced person’s camp in Austria, to Jewish parents; the family later migrated to Palestine. As a young man, Sand came to question his Jewish identity, even that of a “secular Jew.” With this meditative and thoughtful mixture of essay and personal recollection, he articulates the problems at the center of modern Jewish identity. How I Stopped Being a Jew discusses the negative effects of the Israeli exploitation of the “chosen people” myth and its “holocaust industry.” Sand criticizes the fact that, in the current context, what “Jewish” means is, above all, not being Arab and reflects on the possibility of a secular, non-exclusive Israeli identity, beyond the legends of Zionism.

The acclaimed and controversial historian turns his critical gaze on the writing of history today On its publication in 2009, Shlomo Sand’s book The Invention of the Jewish People met with a storm of controversy. His demystifying approach to nationalist and Zionist historiography provoked much criticism from other professional historians, as well as praise. The furore gave him a privileged position to consider his academic discipline, which he reflects on here in Twilight of History. Drawing on four decades in the field, Sand takes a wider view and interrogates the study of history, whose origin lay in the need for a national ideology. Over the last few decades, traditional history has begun to fragment, yet only to give rise to a new role for historians as priests of official memory. Working in Israel has sharpened Sand’s perspective, since the role of history as national myth is particularly salient in a country where the Bible is treated as a source of historical fact. He asks such questions as: Is every historical narrative ideologically marked? Do political requirements and state power weigh down inordinately on historical research and teaching? And, in such conditions, can there be a morally neutral and “scientific” truth? Despite his trenchant criticism of academic history, Sand would still like to believe that the past can be understood without myth, and finds reasons for hope in the work of Max Weber and Georges Sorel.

Gehört Israel den Juden? Was bedeutet überhaupt Israel? Wer hat dort gelebt, wer erhebt Ansprüche auf das Land, wie kam es zur Staatsgründung Israels? Shlomo Sand, einer der schärfsten Kritiker der israelischen Politik gegenüber den Palästinensern, stellt den Gründungsmythos seines Landes radikal in Frage. Überzeugend weist er nach, dass entgegen der israelischen Unabhängigkeitserklärung und heutiger Regierungspropaganda die Juden nie danach gestrebt haben, in ihr "angestammtes Land" zurückzukehren, und dass auch heute ihre Mehrheit nicht in Israel lebt oder leben will. Es gibt kein "historisches Anrecht" der Juden auf das Land Israel, so Sand. Diese Idee sei ein Erbe des unseligen Nationalismus des 19. Jahrhunderts, begierig aufgegriffen von den Zionisten jener Zeit. In kolonialistischer Manier hätten sie die Juden zur Landnahme in Palästina und zur Vertreibung der palästinensischen Bevölkerung aufgerufen, die dann nach der Staatsgründung 1948 konsequent umgesetzt wurde. Nachdrücklich fordert Sand die israelische Gesellschaft auf, sich von den Mythen des Zionismus zu verabschieden und die historischen Tatsachen anzuerkennen.

Mythos und Wahrheit

Die Erfindung des Landes Israel

Internationally acclaimed Israeli historian Shlomo Sand made his mark with books such as The Invention of the Jewish People and The Invention of the Land of Israel. Returning here to an early fascination, he turns his attention to the figure of the French intellectual. From his student years in Paris, Sand has repeatedly come up against the "great French thinkers." He has an intimate knowledge of the Parisian intellectual world and its little secrets, on which he draws to overturn certain myths attaching to the figure of the "intellectual" that France prides itself on having invented. Mixing reminiscence and analysis, he revisits a history that, from the Dreyfus Affair through to Charlie Hebdo, seems to him that of a long decline. As a long-time admirer of Zola, Sartre and Camus, Sand is staggered to see what the French intellectual has become today, in such characters as Michel Houellebecq, Eric Zemmour and Alain Finkielkraut. In a work that gives no quarter, and focuses particularly on the Judeophobia and Islamophobia of the elites, he casts on the French intellectual scene a gaze that is both disabused and mordant.

Shlomo Sand

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