Chapter 1 A Neutral Piece of Land: The Jewish State Chapter 2 So If the King of Israel Should Come With His Men: The Lost Tribes in History and Myth Chapter 3 King Solomon Loved Many Strange Women: The Jewish Kingdom of Ethiopia Chapter 4 Though We Are Far From Zion: The Khazar Jewish Kingdom Chapter 5 And Jews Were Independent of Any Gentile Yoke: The Jewish Tribes of the Hijaz and the Jewish Kingdom of Himyar Chapter 6 In the Manner of the Jewish Tradition: The Jewish Kingdom of Adiabene Chapter 7 They Have No Settled, Agreed Beliefs: The Kahina and the Berbers Chapter 8 A Jewish National State: The Soviet Jewish Autonomous Region in Birobidzhan Chapter 9 Who Is a Jew? Zion and Identity Chapter 10 Bibliography
Eric Maroney is a freelance writer and works at Cornell University. He is also the author of Religious Syncretism.
This well-done and revealing study shows that, even after the
final, futile revolt against Roman rule in Judea in the first
century, A.D., Jews exercised sovereignty in several regions
outside the traditional Jewish homeland. . . . This is an
informative and surprising examination of some obscure aspects of
Jewish history.
*Booklist, January 2010*
The Other Zions captures the real and the imagined power of the
concept of Zion.
*Jewish Book World, Summer 2010*
Maroney’s book covers a remarkable amount of ground....He writes
well, lays out evidence and arguments clearly, and appears to be a
reliable guide through the thicket of anecdote, rumour and legend
which enshrouds the history of many of these far-off times and
places.
*Outlook*
Together with descriptions of the myths of the Lost Tribes, the
Jews of Arabia and Yemen, and the Parthian Kingdom of Adiabene,
Eric Maroney presents the history of these Jewish states in an
attempt to expand our notion of Jewish nationalism, beyond that of
the traditional rabbinical community or the enduring romance of
Zionism. In so doing he challenges us with the essential conclusion
that in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Jewish religious authorities
were more accepting of who could be a member of the community and
thus a Jew, a challenge that he implicitly throws down to the
modern Israeli state, whose compromise with rabbinical authorities
has led to a far stricter and more restrictive definition.
*Journal Of Modern Jewish Studies*
Eric Maroney has written a lively and engaging account of Jewish
political entities outside the Land of Israel over the past two
millennia. Both the mythical narratives and the documented
historical experiences discussed in this volume attest to the
diverse manifestations of Jewish national sentiment among diasporic
communities from ancient times to modern.
*Aviel Roshwald, Professor of History, Georgetown University*
Any reader who seeks to learn about Jewish-governed states in
unexpected lands and the history of conversions to Judaism in those
states would do well to savor this engaging and well-researched
study.
*Kevin Alan Brook, author, The Jews of Khazaria*
The Other Zions challenges the dominant myth that the Zionist
movement was the fulfillment of a millennia-old and singular desire
of Diaspora Jews to be 'returned' to their home in the Land of
Israel. Eric Maroney's work demonstrates that, from ancient times
to the present, the Jews' ability to craft homelands for themselves
in regions far from their imagined point of origins has been an
important—if overlooked—part of their history.
*Barry Trachtenberg, University at Albany, SUNY, author of The
Revolutionary Roots of Modern Yiddish*
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