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עמוד:4
Introduction 10 years ago , a major change took place in the State of Israel – finally , a series of books appeared that gave expression to the secular Jewish voice . We are referring to the series , New Jewish Time : Jewish Culture in a Secular Age – An Encyclopedic View . And , as it was described by the late Prof . Menachem Brinker , who edited a portion of the series , “ This was an opportunity to reveal all of the wealth of Jewish culture . ” The writing of this series also differed from any other such project , as Prof . Brinker explained : “ The encyclopedia was written from a critical academic perspective . By not forcing Judaism into a corner and by accepting that there is no one specific secular Jewish identity , the authors produced a creative , diverse and unbiased publication . ” The encyclopedia comprises four volumes of articles , and an additional volume that provides a particularly comprehensive index . The series was edited by eleven leading academics from all over the world , and the project was managed by Prof . Yirmiyahu Yovel . The whole project was conceived by Mr . Yair Tzaban , who saw this series as an enterprise of immense importance for understanding the processes of secularization taking place within the Jewish people , and particularly the secular perspectives on philosophy and action that it presents to the Jewish world . The encyclopedia does not attempt to provide a definition of “ secular Judaism . ” Rather , it offers a detailed , empirical , historical description of the processes of secularization that took place in key areas among the Jews , and furnishes an albeit partial , yet representative , picture of the cultural products that were born of them – phenomena , streams , persons and oeuvre . From the very inception of the series , its creators dreamed of publishing a similar encyclopedia in English . The present volume is the first step along the road to realizing this dream . In this volume we have collected eight articles from the encyclopedia , along with an opening article , originally given as a speech in the year 2000 by Mr . Felix Posen , the founder and president of the Posen Foundation , in which he sets out his conception of “ Judaism as Culture . ” The articles that have been translated address a number of topics : the history of the Jewish people in 19 th century Europe and the United States , contemporary Holocaust denial , the influence of secularization on the Jewish people , the State of Israel and the processes taking place in it . The selection of the articles , and the order in which they appear , were determined some years ago by Prof . Menachem Brinker . Unfortunately , he passed away over a year ago , and we have chosen to dedicate this volume to his memory . We hope that this will be the first of a series of volumes translated into English , a series that will bring the enormous scope of knowledge that is in the encyclopedia to all the Jews of the world , many of whom unfortunately are unable to read it in the original Hebrew . The Editors
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