In Days to Come: A New Hope for Israel

by Avraham Burg, Joel Greenberg (Translator)

Overview

"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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568589787
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	01/09/2018
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

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.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Part I Living

Chapter 1 Menorah of Bullets (1955-1968) 3

Chapter 2 A Ray of Light in the Dark (1969-1977) 29

Chapter 3 Soldier in War, Activist in Peace (1973-1982) 59

Chapter 4 The Public Life (1982-2001) 73

Chapter 5 An Alien in the Knesset (1988-1992) 93

Chapter 6 Decline and Redemption (2001-2004) 107

Part II Learning

Chapter 7 Running and Writing With a Kippah 123

Chapter 8 Of Isaac and Abraham 171

Chapter 9 A Tale of two Hebrons 181

Chapter 10 The New Meaning of Hebron 195

Chapter 11 From Local to Global Identity 205

Chapter 12 Of Trauma and Recovery 233

Chapter 13 The Holocaust is Over 249

Chapter 14 A Tale of Two Meetings 263

Chapter 15 Betwixt and Between 281

Epilogue The Dawn After the Long Night 301

Index 309

Editorial Reviews

11/13/2017
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.)

Publishers Weekly

"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

"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

"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

From the Publisher

2017-10-09
A leftist Israeli activist delivers a singular sermon explaining what needs urgent repair in the Jewish democracy.Burg (The Holocaust Is Over; We Must Rise from Its Ashes, 2008, etc.), once the speaker of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, and a past leader of the World Zionist Federation and the Jewish Agency for Israel, has renounced politics. His father, a political leader of the founding generation, was a religious Zionist. The author took a more liberal course, discarding religious orthodoxy. He describes himself as a "Protestant Jew." Eventually, Burg became disillusioned with the Labor Party in whose government he served. He could not abide the perceived deceit, abuse, and lies that are endemic to governing. Israel started to go wrong, he asserts, with victory in the Six-Day War. He was 12 then and a student at a yeshiva. His revered father, in his government post, did not thwart settlements in Palestinian territory. Matters became worse after the Yom Kippur War, and then came the carnage, much of it sponsored by Ariel Sharon. It is clear to Burg that Israel lost its way; like him, he argues, the nation must become more cosmopolitan. He feels as at home in Vienna as he does in Jerusalem. To him, a "European Jew," fellow Jews are not just Israelis. Now in his 60s, Burg's youthful idealism remains unabated, and he urges separation of church and state. To solve the land's most pressing dilemma, he envisions two states in a sort of confederation, one that will be a source of amity and attract other nation-states. Integration, not separation! Thus, the author proposes difficult, even frighteningly dangerous courses of action, and he will surely be called a dreamer and a false prophet by many opponents. But what, he might reply, are the better paths?A heartfelt synthesis of a coming-of-age story, a political jeremiad, a memoir, and a manifesto.

Kirkus Reviews