Abstract
Anyone who thought that Simon Sebag Montefiore’s magnificent work Jerusalem: the biography was the last word on the city will be quickly disabused by this compilation of academic papers on its history, culture and significance.
While many deal with practical aspects within its boundaries – such as the effects on the landscape and infrastructure of the transition from Jordanian to Israeli rule after the Six-Day War in 1967 – one of the most religiously significant papers is on the impact of the four words that end the annual Passover meal of Jews throughout the world: Next year in Jerusalem.
It shows how liturgy is often at the mercy of changing political and social currents. This line was based on the longing by Jewish exiles to return from Babylon so poignantly expressed in Psalm 137 and then again after the Roman exile. When the Passover prayer book, the Haggadah, began to include translations into the vernacular, for many centuries those words were kept only in the Hebrew text. Initially, this was to avoid accusation of treason and a desire to leave their host country, even if persecution made that a very attractive choice. Later, when Jews became integrated into society, they remained in the Hebrew lest it smacked of dual loyalty.
Once the state of Israel was established in 1948 and the pious hope became a real proposition, an ambivalent attitude prevailed. Many editions introduced the translation and garlanded the section with flags of Israel or illustrations of kibbutzniks, signalling the new reality. Others were opposed to Zionists pre-empting God’s restoration of Jerusalem in messianic times and preferred to hold onto its spiritual symbolism, rendering the text as ‘May the coming year witness the redemption’.
Awareness of the plight of Soviet Jewry in the 1970s, trapped without any human and religious rights, led to the line becoming a rallying cry for their release, almost a slogan, with texts carrying depictions of imprisoned refuseniks. Meanwhile, there were also editions focusing on the struggle for black rights in America, with the line kept in Hebrew but changed in English to ‘Next year in a world of freedom’. In the following decade, the problems between Israelis and Palestinians led to affirmative translations such as ‘May Jerusalem become a beacon of brotherhood and sisterhood’.
Subsequent texts, influenced by feminist and more spiritual perspectives, internalized the concept and rendered the Hebrew as ‘Next year in Jerusalem or wherever your Jerusalem lies’. Thus, each generation used – some might say abused – the four words for itself, using the powerful imagery of Jerusalem for its own agenda.
Another paper stays within the city limits and charts the religious controversies that arose with the development of cantorial music in Jerusalem as the small and depressed Jewish community gradually expanded in the 1920s and began to hire professional cantors. One demand was that they should use the Sephardi pronunciation of the Hebrew, not the Ashkenazi version more associated with diaspora life. When the more successful cantors began to give performances in concert halls, some objected to hearing sacred songs in secular venues. The debate heightened when cantors broadcast on the radio, bringing the fear that individuals may be listening to liturgical music in very non-religious settings. There was also the fear that it would encourage people to listen from the comfort of their home rather than attend services. Many will find these arguments very familiar!
The collection of other papers is immense, ranging from how Jerusalem is reflected in poetry to British attempts to create a ‘New Jerusalem’ architecturally during the Mandate period, partly inspired by William Blake’s vision of Albion. The perspective of Palestinian Jerusalemites is present too, including a paper on the tension they faced after 1967 between the necessity of accommodating to Israeli rule and maintaining a passive form of resistance by keeping their identity alive.
The book makes no attempt at building an overall narrative but is content to alight on random topics, something also reflected in the 35 book reviews it contains on widely disparate topics, not all of which involve Jerusalem. Once this haphazard theme is accepted, the book proves highly enriching.