October 7, 2023, was a watershed event in contemporary Jewish history. What took place on that date challenged the two most basic assumptions of post-Holocaust Jewish life: that the future security of the Jewish people would be assured by an independent Jewish state backed by an army, and that the freedom for Jews in the Diaspora to live as Jews would be secured by democratic rights and liberties. The pogroms of October 7 and the worldwide explosion of antisemitism that followed—even preceding Israel taking military action against Hamas—challenged both assumptions. The Israel Defense Forces could not prevent a slaughter from occurring even in the independent State of Israel, and throughout the world democracies seem less secure than at any time in the post-World War II era. The editors have turned to leading Jewish thinkers in the United States, Israel, and Europe to grapple with the implications of October 7 with respect to the Jewish future, the State of Israel, the relationship of Jews with Israel, and the character of Israel’s relationships in the world. A Shattered World is one of the first scholarly collections of essays to address the hard question of what the nature of the Jewish future should be.

本書は、2023年10月7日という現代ユダヤ史の転換点を、単なる悲劇の記録ではなく、戦後社会が築き上げてきた「安全の神話」の崩壊として鋭く分析しています。国家による自立と民主主義への信頼が根底から揺らぐ中、編者たちは一流の思索家と共に、砕け散った世界の破片を拾い集め、新たな地平を模索する壮絶な知の営みを提示しています。 学術的でありながら、剥き出しの現実に対する慟哭に近い切実さが全編に流れているのが本作の文学的魅力です。人間の実存と共同体の存続を問うその真摯な筆致は、読む者の魂を激しく揺さぶり、不確かな未来を歩むための新たな羅針盤となるでしょう。今この時代を生きる我々にとって、避けては通れない熱量を帯びた必読の思索集です。