Tiptoeing on Minefields

“So, what are you writing about?” I would be asked. “Err. It’s just a piece about transnational democracy, adapting Zionism to globalisation and this legal provision in the treaty of the European Union”, I would blurt uncomfortably. The inquirers would either chuckle in confusion, stare blankly (should they have understood what I just said?) or run a million miles, out of fear of being cornered into a dull discussion. The truth is this essay IS all about that. Global society in 2012 is caught between people risking their lives for freedom in the Arab world and individuals in the West protesting for greater economic fairness. While the stakes are different, there is one common thread everywhere: citizens are itching to be heard across the globe and are raising their voices. While the world is reorganising itself, isn’t it also time for change within rusty Jewish structures? How to reinvent new channels of communication where Jews and Israelis can discuss critical questions, such as peace in the Middle East or the role between church and state in Israel? In Tiptoeing on Minefields, Joelle Fiss makes some startling new policy proposals, encouraging individuals to unite more fluidly across borders. She uses the model of the European Union structures to show how transnational democracy in the Jewish world can -- at long last-- be reshaped.