Taught by Prof. Joel Beinin.

Why did Eastern European Jewry embrace Zionism in the late 1800s? Was it inevitable that the revival of a Jewish national community in Israel would entail confrontation with the existing Palestinian Arab community and repeated wars with its Arab neighbors?

Prof. Joel Beinin will once again be teaching a course on Thinking About Israel/Palestine at Havurah Shalom on Tuesdays from 7 to 8:30 pm from March 3 to May 12 (except spring break, March 24). The objective of the class is to stimulate discussion about Israel/Palestine at Havurah Shalom. All points of view are welcome and will be respected.

Some of the questions addressed in the course are: Why did Jews in Eastern Europe come to embrace Zionism in the late-nineteenth century? What was Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel)/Palestine like before the beginnings of modern Zionist settlement? Was it inevitable that the revival of a Jewish national community in Eretz Yisrael would entail a confrontation with the previously existing Palestinian Arab community? How did a movement among a small minority of Jews become the normative outlook for most late-twentieth-century Jews? What kind of Jewish state was established in 1948? Why did it find itself in repeated wars with its Arab neighbors? Why haven’t efforts to resolve the conflict since the first peace agreement – the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty – succeeded? Will Israel “forever live by the sword,” as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said? What relationships between American Jews and Israel are possible/desirable?

The class is limited to 20 people. There are about 50 pages of weekly reading, and participants should be willing to commit to attending at least 8 of the ten sessions. Register below.

Room Aleph