In Days to Come: A New Hope for Israel 2018
by Avraham Burg
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (14)
"The first childhood memory I have of my father is linked to the destruction of empires--the collapse of a world order that had once seemed eternal."
So begins Avraham Burg's authoritative and deeply personal inquiry into the ambitions and failures of Israel and Judaism worldwide.
Born in 1955, Burg witnessed firsthand many of the most dramatic and critical moments in Israeli history. Here, he chronicles the highs and lows of his country over the last five decades, threading his own journey into the story of his people. He explores the misplaced hopes of religious Zionism through the lens of his conservative upbringing, explains Israel's obsession with military might while relating his own experiences as a paratrooper officer, and probes the country's democratic aspirations, informed by his tenure in the Knesset.
With bravery and candor, Burg lays bare the seismic intellectual shifts that drove the country's political and religious journeys, offering a prophecy of fury and consolation and a vision for a new comprehensive paradigm for Judaism, Israel, and the Middle East.
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CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Author's Note
PART I: LIVING
Chapter One MENORAH OF BULLETS(1955-1968)
Chapter TwoA RAY OF LIGHT IN THE DARK(1969-1977)
Chapter ThreeSOLDIER IN WAR, ACTIVIST IN PEACE(1973–1982)
Chapter FourTHE PUBLIC LIFE(1982-2001)
Chapter FiveAN ALIEN IN THE KNESSET(1988-1992)
Chapter Six DECLINE AND REDEMPTION(2001-2004)
PART II: LEARNING
Chapter Seven RUNNING AND WRITING WITH A KIPPAH
Chapter Eight OF ISAAC AND ABRAHAM
Chapter Nine A TALE OF TWO HEBRONS
Chapter Ten THE NEW MEANING OF HEBRON
Chapter Eleven FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL IDENTITY
Chapter Twelve OF TRAUMA AND RECOVERY
Chapter Thirteen THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER
Chapter Fourteen A TALE OF TWO MEETINGS
Chapter Fifteen BETWIXT AND BETWEEN
Epilogue THE DAWN AFTER THE LONG NIGHT
About the Author
Index
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Review
"A leftist Israeli activist delivers a singular sermon explaining what needs urgent repair in the Jewish democracy... A heartfelt synthesis of a coming-of-age story, a political jeremiad, a memoir, and a manifesto."--Kirkus Reviews
"In this book Avrum Burg addresses issues that affect us all beyond the confines of simple national, religious, and individual concern. He invites us to take part in the most important flight of all-the flight towards a better future. His views are compelling and I am hopeful such a future is possible if we all make an effort, sincerely and with wisdom. I appreciate the author's hard work for putting his concerns into words."--His Holiness, the Dalai Lama
"In this thoughtful, poignant, and unflinchingly honest memoir, Avraham Burg inspires us to think anew about Israel's place in the world and in our hearts. A man who manages to balance clear-eyed pragmatism with a profound commitment to human rights and civil liberties, Burg is an inspiration for all who care about justice and peace."--Ayelet Waldman, author of Kingdom of Olives and Ash and Love& Treasure
"The former speaker of Israel's Knesset gives his own take on his country's history and the quagmire it now finds itself in as Zionism and Jewish identity evolve to meet the new realities of the 21st century."--New York Times Book Review
Book Description
The unorthodox former speaker of the Knesset offers a his clear-eyed assessment of Zionism's failings and what the future holds for Israel and for Judaism
From the Publisher
Avraham Burg was born in Jerusalem in 1955 to one of the most prominent families in Israel. His father, Dr. Josef Burg, was a Holocaust survivor who escaped from Germany to Palestine in September 1939 and went on to lead the National Religious Party and serve as a minister in the Israeli government from 1948 to 1988. His mother Rivka was a seventh-generation resident of Hebron and the daughter of the local community rabbi. Avraham Burg first took on a public role during the first Lebanon war in 1982, when he was a leader of the antiwar protests. He went on to serve as adviser to Prime Minister Shimon Peres, a member of the Israeli Knesset, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization, and the speaker of the Knesset, among other public positions. Since his voluntary retirement from public life in 2004, Burg has become an outspoken leader of the Israeli left wing. He is the author of numerous books, including (in English) The Holocaust Is Over and Very Near to You. He lives in Nataf, just outside Jerusalem.
About the Author
Avraham Burg was born in Jerusalem in 1955 to one of the most prominent families in Israel. His father, Dr. Josef Burg, was a Holocaust survivor who escaped from Germany to Palestine in September 1939 and went on to lead the National Religious Party and serve as a minister in the Israeli government from 1948 to 1988. His mother Rivka was a seventh-generation resident of Hebron and the daughter of the local community rabbi. Avraham Burg first took on a public role during the first Lebanon war in 1982, when he was a leader of the antiwar protests.
He went on to serve as adviser to Prime Minister Shimon Peres, a member of the Israeli Knesset, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization, and the speaker of the Knesset, among other public positions. Since his voluntary retirement from public life in 2004, Burg has become an outspoken leader of the Israeli left wing. He is the author of numerous books, including (in English) The Holocaust Is Over and Very Near to You. He lives in Nataf, just outside Jerusalem.
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Publisher : Bold Type Books
Publication date : 9 January 2018
Edition : 1st
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marina Ergas
5.0 out of 5 stars Honest book
Reviewed in the United States on 7 February 2019
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Very informative about Church and State issue
An interesting development of thought
A very positive attitude
I can identify with his thoughts and I think diaspora Jews should read this book in order to get a more accurate perspective about what is happening in Israel today
Hi Avrum Marina Ergas
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Barbara Beech
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 March 2018
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
still reading it
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David
16 reviews
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May 2, 2021
Really loved this book. Burg is original in thought and ideology. It’s a shame that most Israelis consider his ideas extreme and insane. If more Israelis thought this way the Israel / Arab conflict would be resolved. Highly recommend this this book as it is totally different than any book on Israel out there
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Xavier Alexandre
173 reviews
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December 31, 2018
A vibrant plea for a resurgence of humanism, in times when bully nationalism seems to erupt everywhere. Can't agree with all he says or suggests, but a must read at any rate.
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religion
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https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781568589787
In Days to Come: A New Hope for Israel
Avraham Burg, trans. from the Hebrew by Joel Greenberg. Nation, $28 (336p)
Former Knesset speaker Burg reflects on his life and pushes for a reconsideration of Israeli identity in this dense political memoir. In the first third, he summarizes his biography, which presupposes a fair level of familiarity with Israel’s political history. Burg, part of the first generation born after the foundation of the Israeli state, grew up with a European father and a mother from Hebron. He recounts feeling at odds with both the ultra-Orthodox and the secular settlers as a religious but not overly devout youth. His tales of public life often jumble timelines and have an unfocused reminiscent quality. After he explains his eventual drifting away from political life, he turns to unconnected essays in which he obliquely presents his views of a reimagined Jewish and Israeli identity. He makes provocative claims about the irony of clinging to the Holocaust to defend ousting Palestinians, the danger of religious extremism, and the importance of reinvigorating Israeli life by adopting a more hospitable European model of Jewishness. Burg’s work will struggle to find a wide audience, but those already invested in questions of Zionism and Israel’s turn toward religious fundamentalism will find plenty to consider. (Jan.)
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Book Review | In Days to Come: A New Hope for Israel by Avraham Burg
Walking Away from Zionism
2018 January/February, Jewish Art, Culture and Music - Moment Magazine
in-days-to-come
By Daniel Gordis | Jan 12, 2018
In Days to Come: A New Hope for Israel
Avraham Burg
Nation Books
2018, 336 pp, $18.99
Zionism has always been a fiercely ideological movement. Socialist Labor Zionism gave rise to Israel’s Labor Party and to many of Israel’s best-known leaders, such as David Ben-Gurion, Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin. Once Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s Revisionist Zionism
(which would eventually create the Likkud Party) and Menachem Begin broke away, secular Zionism was divided into two often-warring factions. Yet there were also religious Zionism and communist Zionism. Some major Zionist figures, such as Ahad Ha’am and Judah Magnes, were cultural Zionists—they sought a revitalization of Hebrew and Jewish culture in what was then Palestine, but they did not believe that Jews ought to get into the state-making business.
The State of Israel, like the movements that produced it, is also a passionately ideological country. We witness these passions when ultra-Orthodox protesters block the entrances to Jerusalem, or “hilltop youth” arouse the ire of mainstream Israel as they establish small settlements in the farthest outreaches of the West Bank. When thousands of mostly secular youth pitched tents on Rothschild Boulevard several years ago protesting the cost of living, they, too, reflected the long tradition of ideological fervor begun in Zionism and continuing in the country it created.
In the early 1990s, another ideological movement came on the scene. Known as post-Zionism, it was prompted mostly by a few Israeli historians whose research cast doubt on some elements of Israel’s classic narrative (such as the claim that Arabs who left had fled of their own accord and were never pushed out). The movement was home to a small number of Israeli intellectuals and included in its ranks well-known academics such as three of Israel’s leading historians—Benny Morris, Ilan Pappé and Avi Shlaim—but then faded relatively quickly.
One of the main causes of its rapid demise was the Second Intifada (2000-2004), which reminded Israelis that whatever their political leanings, they were surrounded by millions of people who refused (and still refuse) to recognize Israel’s right to exist. That bitter realization led to the collapse of Israel’s political left, which has never recovered. Whatever popularity the post-Zionist critique may have had withered along with Israel’s left-leaning politics; some of its most fervent adherents, such as Pappé and Shlaim who now live in Britain, have left Israel permanently.
A few remain, however, none better-known than Avraham (Avrum) Burg, once a rising star in Israeli politics and now a lone voice self-exiled to the far left. Burg hails from Israeli royalty. His father, Dr. Yosef Burg, a Holocaust survivor and deeply learned Jew, was a member of the Knesset for nearly 40 years, and for much of that time, was a leader of the now-defunct National Religious Party. Burg’s mother’s family had lived in the small Jewish community of Hebron for seven generations before it was destroyed in the Arab riot of 1929. In his early years, Avraham Burg seemed to be following in his family’s footsteps. He served as a member of Knesset, speaker of the Knesset, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and, briefly, even interim president of Israel.
Burg has every right to walk away from the Zionist dream. Those who believe in the value of a Jewish state for the Jewish people’s future, however, also have a right to walk away from him.
Yet Burg began to sour on Israel, and in 2007 essentially renounced his “privilege” by declaring that defining Israel as a Jewish state would lead to its demise; he publicly advocated that every Israeli seek to obtain a foreign passport. Israelis should prepare to abandon ship, he was implying, and abandon the Zionist ship as he has. In January 2015, Burg, who had been a member of Knesset as part of the mainstream Labor party, announced that he was joining Hadash, a joint Jewish-Arab party that had its roots in Israel’s Communist party. His rejection of his family’s Zionist roots was complete; he had willed himself not just out of politics, but into political exile.
Burg’s newest book, In Days to Come: A New Hope for Israel, a translation and slight emendation of a Hebrew version that appeared a few years ago, is an autobiography that (only marginally coherently) interweaves Burg’s personal odyssey with his shift in politics and his vision for Israel. His political vision is quickly laid out in a handful of pages. He advocates not two states, one Jewish and one Palestinian, living next to each other, but rather, “a confederation of Israel and Palestine” that will function as essentially one state, integrating two sub-states, one Israeli and one Palestinian. How integrated would these states be? “There does not need to be a difference between streets and roads in Nablus and Netanya, just as there are no such differences between New York and California.”
Given the scant space allocated to his political vision, the thrust of his book is less a plan for the future than it is a critique of the past and the present. That critique is scathingly directed at both his father and the state, the two seemingly interchangeable at times. So unremittingly harsh is the vitriol directed at his father that the psychological dimension of the book is inescapable: In Days to Come is essentially Burg’s lashing out at a man who passed away long ago (and to whom he can therefore no longer speak directly) and at the state Burg’s father helped create. One example: He writes that when his older sister was undergoing serious surgery, “Dad went to plead for mercy…at the Kotel. I don’t know what he achieved there, because apparently his prayer was rejected outright. My sister passed away after great suffering, and yet he carried on with his cultish customs.” Ridiculing one’s father for praying when his daughter is deathly ill requires no small dose of ongoing fury.
Burg’s assessment of Israel is no less venomous. Reflecting on 1967 and the beginning of the occupation, Burg writes, “I lived through twelve of the nineteen first—and last—sane years of Israel’s existence.” It is one thing to oppose the occupation (which many Israelis do) and another, entirely, to label the country as “insane.” What is wrong with Israel? Almost everything. He laments “racist Israel, the shrill xenophobia here, the malignant occupation that seems irreversible, the repellent aggressiveness and collapse of the supporting pillars of democracy.”
If Israel is so hopelessly flawed, what is the alternative? It’s a bi-national state, as noted above, a world almost without borders or states. Why? For Burg, the European Union, with borders disappearing and peace spreading, is the ideal model. “Europe is not just a geographic place; it is also a value system that I am trying to expand.” In fact, “the future of liberal democracy is not local…but global. And the Jews don’t need a state anymore: Most of our achievements as a people, as a culture and as individuals are linked to the [period of our] non-sovereign existence.”
Yet since Burg wrote the Hebrew version of his book several years ago, the gleam of the European Union has tarnished. Anti-Semitism has metastasized across the continent, Britain has jettisoned the EU, and some Catalonians are clamoring for independence. A state-free world is an age-old dream, but the challenge facing the Jewish people is to survive, not in a world we might imagine, but in the world that actually exists. Most Jews still believe that toward this end, sustaining Israel as a Jewish state is a paramount, even sacred, value.
Avraham Burg knows Israel intimately, and he is intelligent and insightful. It is thus no surprise that many of the ills he points to are real and, if not addressed, could become existential threats to the Jewish state. He is right that too many Israelis are unwilling to compromise for peace. He is right that Israel has not done enough for its own Arab population. He is right that religion in Israel is too often coercive and even medieval.
Where Burg and most Israelis disagree is how to respond to these challenges. Burg has decided to give up on the Jewish state, to forgo the dream for which his father and his father’s generation toiled. Many of us, conscious though we are of Israel’s many imperfections, refuse to give up. We believe that given the extraordinary accomplishment that the Jewish state is, with the right leadership, equally profound accomplishments could be possible in the future.
Burg has every right to walk away from the Zionist dream. Those who believe in the value of a Jewish state for the Jewish people’s future, however, also have a right to walk away from him.
Daniel Gordis is the Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem. His latest book, Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn, received the National Jewish Book Award as the 2016 “Book of the Year.”
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3 thoughts on “Book Review | In Days to Come: A New Hope for Israel by Avraham Burg”
Frances Weingarten says:
February 11, 2018 at 11:08 am
I’m sure that some of what Avraham Burg says is valid but I don’t agree with most of his thinking, especially with the concept that we are destroying ourselves by the way we choose to live.
I definitely don’t believe we should even consider compromising for peace. The Arabs here don’t want peace with Israel, they want Israel without Jews. They’ve declared this concept time and time again yet there are still those who believe that we will one day live in peace together.
This is our state and our country and if the Arabs don’t agree with this, they are welcome to seek homes in more appealing areas. They are free to stay here if they choose but they must live under the laws, mores and values of Israel, just as any other group would be expected to do.
Reply
Sheila Novitz says:
February 11, 2018 at 11:28 am
Burg is insane, not Israel, if he thinks we are so safe in the world that we no longer need a state for the Jewish people.
Reply
David L Kline says:
February 23, 2018 at 3:04 pm
“the value of a Jewish state for the Jewish people’s future” Is this to be the essence of the Zionist dream? If so, your commitment seems every bit as grounded as my mine to the two state solution.
Reply
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In Days to Come: A New Hope for Israel
Avraham Burg
Write Review Rated 0
Politics & government
HardbackFeb 27, 2018 | 9781568589787 | RRP $49.99Buy Now
The unorthodox former speaker of the Knesset offers a his clear-eyed assessment of Zionism's failings and what the future holds for Israel and for Judaism
Born in 1955, Avraham Burg witnessed firsthand many of the most dramatic and critical junctions in Israeli history. Here he chronicles the highs and lows of his country during the last five decades, beginning with the 1967 war, when, as a young boy, his mother brought him back Uzi cartridges from the Kotel, which he incorporated into the Chanukah menorah he made for his home economics class. Burg narrates the misplaced hopes of religious Zionism (informed by his conservative upbringing), Israel's obsession with military might (informed by his own experiences as a paratrooper), the country's democratic aspirations (informed by his tenure in the Knesset) and more. What he delivers, ultimately, is an analysis of the ambitions and failures of Israel and Judaism, from the unique standpoint of his generation--the children of the mythical "founders" who established the state.
In Days to Come is Burg's philosophical inquiry into what Jewish-Israeli identity means today if you are personally, ethically, and politically opposed to what your country stands for. With bravery and candor, he urges his countrymen to dare to ask the difficult questions and accept the truth of difficult answers, have the courage to move on from trauma to trust, understand that Jews do not have monopoly over suffering but a responsibility to prevent crimes against humanity, have the will to solve the conflict between Israel and Palestine by adopting new paradigms, be ready to relinquish the privileges given to the Jews and create a shared space with equal rights for every human being, lay the groundwork for a constitutional reality in which every individual--under Israeli sovereignty or responsibility--has equal rights, and build a wall of separation between synagogue and state.
In this book, Burg lays bare the seismic intellectual shifts that drove the country's political and religious journeys, offering a vision for a new comprehensive paradigm for Israel and the Middle East.
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세진님, 요청하신 아브라함 부르그의 저서 <다가올 날들: 이스라엘을 위한 새로운 희망>에 대한 요약과 평론입니다.
<다가올 날들: 이스라엘을 위한 새로운 희망> 요약 및 평론
1. 요약: 시오니즘을 넘어 보편적 인본주의로
아브라함 부르그는 이 책에서 현대 이스라엘이 직면한 도덕적, 정치적 위기를 정면으로 다룬다. 이스라엘 국회의장을 역임했던 저자는 과거의 민족주의적 시오니즘이 이제는 수명을 다했음을 선언하며, 새로운 국가적 정체성을 확립해야 한다고 주장한다.
트라우마의 정치학 부르그는 이스라엘이 여전히 홀로코스트의 트라우마 속에 갇혀 있다고 분석한다. 이러한 <피해자 의식>은 이스라엘이 가해자가 되는 상황을 정당화하는 논리로 작용하며, 주변 아랍 국가들과의 끝없는 갈등을 야기한다. 그는 이스라엘이 과거의 공포에서 벗어나 현재의 책임감 있는 국가로 거듭나야 함을 강조한다.
시오니즘의 한계와 유대적 가치 저자는 현재의 시오니즘이 배타적인 민족주의로 변질되었다고 비판한다. 그는 유대교의 진정한 가치는 민족의 혈통이나 영토 점령에 있는 것이 아니라, 정의와 평등이라는 보편적 인본주의에 있다고 역설한다. 따라서 유대 국가라는 협소한 틀을 벗어나, 그 땅에 사는 모든 시민(유대인과 아랍인 모두)이 평등한 권리를 누리는 <시민 국가>로 전환해야 한다고 제안한다.
새로운 헌법적 비전 부르그는 종교와 정치가 결합된 현재의 구조를 비판하며, 철저한 정교분리와 헌법 제정을 촉구한다. 그는 성서적 약속이 아닌 국제법과 인권의 원칙 위에 세워진 이스라엘만이 미래의 희망을 가질 수 있다고 본다. 이는 이스라엘이 중동의 고립된 섬이 아니라 세계 공동체의 일원으로 수용되기 위한 필수 조건이다.
2. 평론: 내부자의 고통스러운 자기성찰
<다가올 날들>은 이스라엘 내부의 가장 높은 곳에 있었던 인물이 던지는 뼈아픈 자기 고백이자 예언자적 외침이다.
내부 비판의 용기와 진정성 이 책의 가장 큰 힘은 저자의 이력에서 나온다. 시오니즘의 핵심 엘리트였던 부르그가 체제의 근간을 부정하는 것은 대단한 용기를 필요로 한다. 그는 이스라엘 사회가 금기시하는 홀로코스트의 정치적 이용과 팔레스타인 점령 문제를 거침없이 비판한다. 이는 외부의 비난과는 차원이 다른 무게감을 지니며, 이스라엘 사회에 실질적인 충격과 질문을 던진다.
유대교적 정체성의 재해석 부르그는 단순히 종교를 부정하는 것이 아니라, 오히려 유대교의 예언자적 전통을 회복하려고 노력한다. 그는 유대인이 <선택된 민족>이라는 우월의식에서 벗어나, 고통받는 이웃을 돌보고 정의를 실현하는 <빛의 역할>을 수행해야 한다고 주장한다. 이러한 접근은 세속적 인본주의와 유대적 전통 사이의 가교를 놓으려는 시도로 평가받을 수 있다.
현실적 한계와 이상주의 그러나 그의 제안은 현재 이스라엘의 극우화된 정치 지형에서 매우 이상주의적으로 보일 수 있다. 1국가 해법(One-state solution)이나 시민 국가로의 전환은 이스라엘 내 다수 유대인의 생존 본능과 정면으로 충돌하기 때문이다. 현실 정치에서 그가 제안한 비전이 어떻게 구체화될 수 있는지에 대한 실천적 로드맵은 상대적으로 부족하다는 비판을 피하기 어렵다.
결론: 글로벌 시민을 위한 이정표 그럼에도 불구하고 이 책은 민족주의와 배타주의가 득세하는 현대 사회에 중요한 시사점을 제공한다. 부르그의 논의는 비단 이스라엘에만 국한되지 않는다. 국가적 정체성이 어떻게 폭력의 도구가 되는지, 그리고 그것을 어떻게 보편적 가치로 승화시킬 수 있는지에 대한 보편적인 질문을 던지기 때문이다. 그는 이스라엘이 <유대인들을 위한 요새>가 아닌 <모두를 위한 고향>이 될 때 비로소 진정한 평화가 올 것임을 설득력 있게 보여준다.
세진님, 이 요약과 평론이 부르그의 사상을 이해하시는 데 도움이 되었기를 바랍니다. 혹시 이 책의 내용 중 더 깊게 알고 싶은 부분이 있으신가요?
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