Israel in Exile: Jewish Writing And the Desert

Israel in Exile is a bold exploration of how the ancient desert of Exodusand Numbers, as archetypal site of human liberation, forms a templatefor modern political identities, radical scepticism, and questioning ofofficial narratives of the nation that appear in the works of contemporaryIsraeli authors including David Grossman, Shulamith Hareven, andAmos Oz, as well as diasporic writers such as Edmund Jabes andSimone Zelitch. In contrast to other ethnic and national representations, Jewish writers since antiquity have not constructed a neat antithesisbetween the desert and the city or nation; rather, the desert becomes asymbol against which the values of the city or nation can be tested, measured, and sometimes found wantin

Ranen Omer-Sherman spent thirteen years in the Arava desert as a kibbutznik, guide, and ranger. He is an assistant professor of English at the University of Miami, and the author of Diaspora and Zionism in Jewish American Literature.