Muscle Jews, Wimps, and Jewish Soldiers
The Zionist project has, inevitably, involved the promotion of the image of the strong Israeli Jew, in contrast with his (and her) weak, wimpy Diaspora counterpart. We will interrogate both this image and its discontents, considering how Jewish strength has been represented historically, how Jewish weakness has been contrasted with it, and how—in some very interesting cases—what is perceived as Jewish weakness from the Zionist perspective, is, in fact, understood to be Jewish strength from that of the Diaspora.