JUST 3011: Land and Culture of Israel : Unit 1

Topic 1- Introduction – the origins of Zionism

Topic 2 - Changing Times—Jewish Life in Europe in the 19^th Century --Haskalah and Emancipation and Disillusionment

• WATCH: “Heritage: Civilization and the Jews” episode 6 (Roads from the Ghetto)

Discussion question: How does Abba Eban explain the origins of Zionism?

READ:

      HI: p. 1-66

Rabinovich and Reinharz, Israel in the Middle East: Documents and Readings (Brandeis U. Press, 2007) p. 1-28

Borrow with free account at Archive.org

Supplementary readings (Available at BC Library):

Troy Documents: YL Gordon, Pinsker, Nordau and Hibbat Zion (ZI)

*-Excerpts from Yael Zerubavel, Recovered Roots (attached below; ask instructor for document password)

*-Shlomo Avineri, “Zionism as a Revolution” in Avineri, Shlomo. The Making of Modern Zionism: The Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State. Basic Books, 2017.(Available from Google Books, not at BC Library)

Topic 3:

Recovered Roots: Creating a New Zionist Culture and the development of Zionism

READ:

*-Harshav, The Flowers Have No Names

*-Hayyim Nachman Bialik, “On the Slaughter”

*-Herzl, The Jewish State (excerpts)

-Agudat Israel and Mizrachi (ZI)

Discussion question due September 7th: If you were a Jew in Russia in 1897, would you have supported the Zionist cause?  Would you have supported Herzl’s or Ahad Ha’am’s version of Zionism?  Defend your position using the primary text. 

Supplementary readings (On reserve at Brooklyn College Library)

(ZI) -Chapter on “Ben Yehuda: Language and Nation”

* Chapter on -Mohilever, Bar-Ilan

*-Chapter on Ahad Ha’am, “The Spiritual Dimensions of the Jewish State”

Topic 4:

1880-1948: The Construction of a Yishuv Culture

READ:

HI: p. 66-131

ITME: P. 29-53

Video Task: watch 1913, Seeds of Conflict

Discussion Question: do you agree with the filmmaker’s thesis on the origins of the conflict?

Supplementary readings and documents (On reserve at BC Library)

*-Isaac Lamdan, “Masada”

Documents: Gordon, People and Labor (ZI) –

Borochov, Our Platform (ZI)

Topic: 1880-1948: The Construction of a Yishuv Culture, part 2: The Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate, 3^rd Aliyah .

Discussion: was conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine inevitable due to the structure of the British Mandate system?

            Readings: Shapira, HI: 66-131

            *Bickerton and Klausner, Chapter 2 on British Mandate (Important if falls under the rule)

       Documents: The Balfour Declaration

         The Churchill White Paper 

Topic: Zionism in the Diaspora         

         Jabotinsky, Iron Wall; Peel Commission (ZI) 

     *White Paper of 1939 (ITME)

Supplementary reading:

Segev, Excerpts from One Palestine, Complete (1929, Hebron)  

Excerpts from The Plough Women, ed. Rachel Katznelson Shazar (ZI)

Schechter, Brandeis, Szold (ZI)

Jewish Agency Statement on the MacDonald White Paper (ZI) 

        Documents:

         *Helsingfor’s Conference, Gegenwartsarbeit

   *HaShomer Hatzair World View

         *David Frankel, Kibbutz Hakhsharah          

Topic: Arab/Jewish Confrontation

—Jabotinsky and Revisionism, The Arab Revolt  

            Documents:

         *The Hidden Question, Yitzchak Epstein

September 26^th and September 28th

Topic: 1880-1948: The Construction of a Yishuv Culture, part 3 -The Holocaust and the Creation of the State of Israel

FILM: He Walked Through the Fields (online)

READ: *-Haim Hazaz, “The Sermon” (Alter, 267-287)

HI: p. 133-151

ITME: p. 54-70

Discussion: September 28th: What are the two extreme approaches regarding the role of the Holocaust in the establishment of the State?  What does each side have invested in its claim? What is Yehuda Bauer’s view?  Friesel’s view?

Supplementary Reading

*Yehuda Bauer “The Impact of the Holocaust on the Establishment of the State of Israel” in Major Changes Within the Jewish People in the Wake of the Holocaust, edited by Yisrael Gutman, pp. 545-552

*Evyatar Friesel “The Holocaust: Factor in the Birth of Israel?”  Ibid., pp.519-552