Watch Shlomo Sand’s contribution to Reuters’ Great Debate here:
In his controversial book, The Invention of the Jewish People, author Shlomo Sand challenges historical notions of the link between Judaism and Israel, and argues that there is no record of exile of the Jewish people.
Photo: Olivia Grabowski-West
Rafael Behr meets Shlomo Sand, author of The Invention of the Jewish People, for the Observer books interview:
Sand is a professor at Tel Aviv university and author of The Invention of the Jewish People. His quiet earthquake of a book is shaking historical faith in the link between Judaism and Israel.
Sand’s hands are depicting how most Jews are descended from converts who never set foot in the Holy Land. That has come as a bit of a surprise to many Jews and as a colossal affront to Zionism, Israel’s national ideology. The modern Israeli state was founded on belief in a “Jewish people” as a unified nation, established in biblical times, scattered by Rome, stranded in exile for 2,000 years, then returned to the Promised Land.
But according to Sand there was no exile, and as he seeks to prove by dense forensic archaeological and historical analysis, it is meaningless to talk today about a “people of Israel”. At least not if by that you mean the Jews.
It is hard to imagine a more fundamental challenge to the idea of a modern Jewish state on the site of ancient Judea. Yet the book was a bestseller in Israel and is spreading worldwide. It won a prestigious literary award in France, where Sand is currently on sabbatical. But the reaction of the Jewish community there was hostile. “Hysterical,” he says.
Sand’s own manner in print and in person is urgent rather than polemical; more deadpan than diatribe. He understands the controversy. “After years and years of using phrases like ‘Jewish people’ and ‘Jewish nation for 4,000 years; it isn’t so easy for them to accept a book like mine.”
Read the full article here.
Shlomo Sand, author of The Invention of the Jewish People, was interviewed by Stephen Sackur for BBC HARDtalk. Broadcast last night on the BBC News Channel, Professor Sand discusses The Invention of the Jewish People and the controversy surrounding the English translation of his bestselling book. Watch online here, more information here.
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Professor Sand was also interviewed by Rana Mitter on Night Waves, BBC Radio 3. Listen here.
Shlomo Sand, author of The Invention of the Jewish People, was interviewed on the BBC World Service’s News Hour last night. In an e-mail exchange between Sand’s UK publicist and the producer of last night’s programme, it was emphasised that the BBC were “interviewing Mr Sand on the basis that the controversy over his book is an international news story.”
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‘The Invention of the Jewish People’ has now been translated into more languages than any other Israeli history book. Currently the book is available in 3 languages (Hebrew, French, and published just this week, English), and in 2 months time the book will be translated into Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, German, Italian, Arabic, Turkish and Indonesian. In Indonesia, the biggest Muslim country in the world, the translator has just finished translating The Bible, and is now starting work on The Invention of the Jewish People.
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Professor Sand will be speaking at SOAS in London tonight at 6.30. Lecture details here
Listen to Shlomo Sand on BBC World Service News Hour here
Watch Kirsty Lang interview Shlomo Sand on BBC World News Today here
9 November: Shlomo Sand was on BBC Radio’s Start the Week this morning discussing the invention of the Jewish people with Andrew Marr. Listen 
again here.
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Tonight, Professor Sand will be ‘In Conversation with The New Statesman’ discussing his book The Invention of the Jewish People with Labour MP Denis MacShane. This is a free public event chaired by Jonathan Derbyshire, Culture Editor of The New Statesman at Borders Bookshop, 122 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H OJR. For more information, click here, or call +44 (0)20 7379 8877.
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The Invention of the Jewish People is available online and in all good bookshops
By Aaron Leonard
Tel Aviv University professor Shlomo Sand recently spoke at NYU about his newly translated book “The Invention of the Jewish People,” a book that challenges conventional wisdom and deeply entrenched myths about the foundations of the state of Israel.
Among the revelations in the book is the fact that the ancient kingdoms of Solomon and David did not exist as the Bible describes. He also challenges the myth of the Exodus of ancient Jews from Egypt, noting “the Ancient Egyptians kept meticulous records of every event … yet there is not a single mention of any ‘children of Israel’ who lived in Egypt.” He further points out that an exodus from Egypt would have involved moving across the Sinai peninsula into lands Egypt ruled over — thus escaping from Egypt to … Egypt.
He also describes the process of proselytizing and conversion that led to whole populations converting to Judaism, thus explaining the dispersal of the religion throughout Europe and Asia.
Sand writes in his introduction, “I don’t think books can change the world, but when the world begins to change it looks for different books.” This book is an important contribution to the debate on the future of the Middle East. I sat down with professor Sand last Friday to talk about “Invention” while he was in New York. [click to read interview]