Chosen: The History of an Idea, and the Anatomy of an Obsession »

Avi Beker is the visiting Goldman Professor in the Department of Government at Georgetown University, and the former Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress. He was active in the international Jewish diplomatic front and has published several books and numerous articles on international security, the United Nations, Israel’s foreign policy, and world Jewish affairs.

The Chosen explores Judaism’s key defining concept and inquires why it remains the central unspoken and explosive psychological, historical, and theological problem at the heart of Jewish-Gentile relations. Crisscrossing the twin cultural and theological divides between Judaism, Christendom, and Islam, The Chosen explains how the Jews, of all people, have come to represent at once the epitome of both the good and the odious. Beker covers not only the great stories of how the Jews came to be chosen and the Christian, Muslim, and Nazi efforts to appropriate the title, but also the key role “chosenness” plays in contemporary anti-Semitism and in the current Middle East conflict over the Land of Israel and the chosen city of Jerusalem.

1 Confronting the Issue of the Chosen 1

2 How Were "The Chosen" Chosen? 15

3 The Gentile Replacement of the Chosen 39

4 Global but Apart 69

5 Hating the Chosen: Anti-Semitism 89

6 Shoah: The Final Solution for the Chosen 109

7 Israel: A Chosen Nation in Their Chosen Land 131

8 Jerusalem: The Chosen City 157

Epilogue: Why Is the World Obsessed with the Jews? 177

Notes 193

Bibliography 219

Index 231