Renewal, Innovation, and Transformation: The Changing Face of Judaism in Modern Times
A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 March 2025 | Viewed by 4573
Special Issue Editor
Interests: Judaism; Jewish spirituality; new movements; egalitarian; borderline communities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The decades following World War II have witnessed momentous changes in the character of Judaism, in the variety of its groups, and their interactions with larger cultural trends. This has been demonstrated in the formations of numerous new movements, spiritualities, modes of prayer, leadership patterns, and educational or outreach venues. These transformations have affected all segments of Jewry, at times unwittingly.
Many have noticed the growth in numbers, firmness, and political clout of anti-modernist Ultra-Orthodox groups, including yeshivot, Hasidic courts, and Ultra-Orthodox towns and neighborhoods. Hardalim amalgamated Ultra Nationalism with Ultra-Orthodoxy. The movement, which emerged in the 1980s‒1990s currently makes up the bulk of the ideologically committed settlers in the West Bank. Ultra-Orthodox Jews have also come up with outreach venues attempting to bring non-observant Jews to ‘Return to Tradition’. Many have paid attention to Chabad, formerly a mystical Hasidic group, that has turned into an outreach order with thousands of Jewish evangelists. However, non-Hasidic Orthodox activists have also come to engage in evangelism, inventing outreach yeshivot. Both progressive and traditionalist Jewish feminists turned many synagogues into more egalitarian spaces, allowing women greater access to Jewish spirituality, learning, and rabbinical leadership. The Renewal movement, which came out of New-Hasidism, amalgamated Hasidic practices with the values and tastes of the counterculture. Gay congregations, women’s minyanim, secular yeshivot, and Kabbalah centers are but a few examples of the numerous new groups or venues that have come to characterize Judaism in the last generation. A category of their own, even more challenging to older definitions of Judaism, have been the new borderline communities that have attracted relatively large numbers of Jews in the last decades. Messianic Jewish congregations, Jewish Buddhists, and Hebrew Catholics amalgamate Jewish identity with practices and elements of faith that previous generations have considered incompatible with the Jewish tradition.
The new Jewish spiritual and communal landscapes and their new or renewed movements and trends call for new examination and evaluation of the definition of Judaism in our generation and the many expressions it has taken. It is the aim of this Issue to offer an opportunity for scholars to share their explorations of these themes.
Prof. Dr. Yaakov Ariel
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.
