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Zusatztext “Konner’s examination of the Jewish body ranges from the implications of Jewish genes to visions of master mystics crawling in thedense curls of God’s black beard—a brief metaphorical corporeality—and spans the ages from ancient Israel to Israel reborn. This range allows us fresh views of Jewish identity and self-identity from a committed and thoughtful author.” — Jewish Book World In praise of Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews by Melvin Konner “A poignant and highly accessible account of an ongoing story that transcends all telling.” –Harold Bloom! author of The Western Canon and Jesus and Yahweh “Certainly the best one-volume overview of Jewish history and identity available.: –Sander L. Gilman! author of The Jew’s Body and Jewish Self-Hatred “This sweeping study of the Jews feels so fresh and alive . . . [It is] nothing less than inspiring.” – The New York Times Book Review Informationen zum Autor Melvin Konner Klappentext A history of the Jewish people from bris to burial, from "muscle Jews" to nose jobs. Melvin Konner, a renowned doctor and anthropologist, takes the measure of the "Jewish body," considering sex, circumcision, menstruation, and even those most elusive and controversial of microscopic markers-Jewish genes. But this is not only a book that examines the human body through the prism of Jewish culture. Konner looks as well at the views of Jewish physiology held by non-Jews, and the way those views seeped into Jewish thought. He describes in detail the origins of the first nose job, and he writes about the Nazi ideology that categorized Jews as a public health menace on par with rats or germs. A work of grand historical and philosophical sweep, The Jewish Body discusses the subtle relationship between the Jewish conception of the physical body and the Jewish conception of a bodiless God. It is a book about the relationship between a land-Israel-and the bodily sense not merely of individuals but of a people. As Konner describes, a renewed focus on the value of physical strength helped generate the creation of a Jewish homeland, and continued in the wake of it. With deep insight and great originality, Konner gives us nothing less than an anatomical history of the Jewish people. Part of the Jewish Encounter series Leseprobe PREFACE There is an illustration, an informative chart in fact, reprinted in a book called Kike! A Documentary History of Anti-Semitism in America. The chart was first published in 1888 in a book called The Original Mr. Jacobs, by the noted author “Anon.” It consists of nine small pen-and-ink drawings of body parts, with a helpful legend keyed to them. It is called “How We May Know Him,” and the legend says: Fig. 1 Restless suspicious eyes. Fig. 2 Curved nose and nostrils. Fig. 3 Ill-shapen ears of great size like those of a bat. Fig. 4 Thick lips and sharp rat’s teeth. Fig. 5 Round knees. Fig. 6 Low brow. Fig. 7 Long clammy fingers. Fig. 8 Flat feet. Fig. 9 Repulsive rear view. Figure 2 is a classic side view of the Jewish nose, Figure 4 displays the rat’s teeth between fleshy lips, Figure 7 looks more like a claw than a hand, and Figure 9, a rear view of the subject, shows just huge ears and a hairy neck. The Nazi view of Jewish anatomy would actually be much more subtle and scientific, but after all, it was half a century later and in the world’s most civilized nation, not that primitive backwater America. Still, although the Germans could build on work done in America and Europe throughout the nineteenth century, the foundations go much deeper, and it is part of this book’s purpose to trace them. But it will do much more than depict the Jew...
