Taking Distance: Israeli Backpackers and Their Society

Erik Cohen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

In his epochal Exkurs über den Fremden (originally published 1908; translated into English as The Stranger, 1950), Georg Simmel characterized the stranger as a person in an incongruent position:1 he (or she) is spatially (“topographically”) close to the locals, but socially remote from them- sharing with them only some general human traits, but none of the more particular, intimate ones.2 While such a position may be uncomfortable, as Simmel, an acculturated German Jew, knew from his own predicament, it has an intellectual advantage: siing on the fence between the inside and outside of the society of sojourn, the stranger may perceive it more “objectively” than do the ordinary locals. While this claim might be contested in this age rife with a postmodern insistence on a multiplicity of truths, it is still possible to argue that one can gain fresh insights, and more independent judgments regarding oneself, one’s identity, and one’s society by taking some distance, or temporarily “estranging” oneself geographically as well as psychologically from one’s normal, everyday existence. Simmel’s approach is particularly germane in the context of this anthology, which approaches contemporary Judaism from a spatial perspective. However, we should note that Simmel does not give us a clue as to how the stranger achieves such a privileged perspective on the society in which he sojourns. In real life, sojourning strangers, such as middleman minorities, 3 usually live in groups rather than as isolated individuals. I submit that they form their perspective on the host society in the course of interaction in the relative security of the protective shield provided by their local ethnic communities.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationJewish Topographies
Subtitle of host publicationVisions of Space, Traditions of Place
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages265-276
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781317111016
ISBN (Print)9781315590448
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Julia Brauch, Anna Lipphardt and Alexandra Nocke 2008.

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