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Toward a Jewish theology of liberation: The uprising and the future

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Marc H. Ellis (born in 1952) is an American author, liberation theologian, and Professor of Jewish Studies and History, as well as Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. He has written a number of other books, such as Judaism Does Not Equal Israel: The Rebirth of the Jewish Prophetic, Beyond Innocence and Redemption: Confronting the Holocaust and Israeli Power : Creating a Moral Future for the Jewish People, Israel and Palestine - Out of the Ashes: The Search for Jewish Identity in the Twenty-first Century, etc.

He writes in the Preface to this 1988 book, "A practicing Jew, I am a student of contemporary religious thought rather than a trained Jewish theologian. This book, therefore, does not attempt to expound an academic Jewish theology but rather to surface dialectics, issues, and possibilities that might give birth to a Jewish theology of liberation... I regard Christianity... as issuing from the Jewish community and following a stream of ideas, beliefs, and values that are similar and yet distinct from those of the contemporary Jewish people. I view the separation of faith communities as tragic..."

Here are some quotations from the book (NOTE: the page numbers are from the 147-page 1988 2nd edition):

"Unfortunately, few Christians have contemplated the haunting difficulty raised by the Jewish Holocaust: What does it mean to be a Christian when Christian understandings and actions issued in the death camps of Nazi Germany?" (Pg. 23)
"To translate these (progressive) views into reality is, of course, different within patriarchal mainstream of Jewish religiosity and institutional life. The founding of 'Lilith' magazine in 1976 was one such step, and soon the 'Lilith' office became a national clearing house for the growing Jewish women's movement." (Pg. 62)
"A Jewish theology of liberation is unequivocal in this regard: the Palestinian people have been deeply wronged in the creation of Israel and in the occupation of the territories." (Pg. 116)
"Would Judaism and the Jewish people cease to exist, or would the energies of Jewish resistance and hope be rechanneled? The Jewish people existed before the State of Israel and will exist long after the nation-state system ceases to exist." (Pg. 119)