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ZIONISM and ANTI-ZIONISM COURSE STRUCTURE Welcome ZIONISM AND ANTI-ZIONISM COURSE STRUCTURE Welcome and Course Introduction: Ideas in History PAIR I - Politics: Emancipation and Political Zionism PAIR II - Labor: Communism/Socialism/Bundism and Labor Zionism PAIR III – Religion, Jewish: Jewish Anti-Zionism and Religious Zionism PAIR IV – Religion, Christianity: Christian Zionism and Christian anti- Zionism PAIR VI – The Middle East: Islamic and Arab anti-Zionism and the Birth of the State of Israel Secularism: Soviet, Anti-Imperialist, Left Wing Anti-Zionism WEEKLY READINGS (1) August 25: Welcome and Course Introduction: Ideas in History Assigned Reading: Harari, Yuval Noah. "Sapiens. A Brief History of Humankind/Yuval Noah Harari." (2014). Chapter 2: The Tree of Knowledge. Ferguson, Niall. Virtual history: Alternatives and counterfactuals. Hachette UK, 2008. Introduction. Extra Viewing/Listening: Harari, Yuval Noah. What Explains the Rise of Humans? TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/yuval_noah_harari_what_explains_the_rise_of_huma ns/transcript?language=en Guiding questions for the reading: On Yuval Noah Harari: What is intersubjective reality? Why are stories critical to human cooperation? How do stories change over time? On Niall Fergusson: How do we think about ideas history from our vantage point when we already know that some ideas have won and others have lost? Could we avoid retrospective over-determinism? Guiding questions for class discussion: What does it mean to think of Zionism and anti-Zionism as stories? Are we capable of assessing Zionism and anti-Zionism in their historical contexts when we already know about the establishment of the State of Israel? Or about the Holocaust? Or about the end of empires and the birth of nationalism? Or about the failure of Communism? PAIR I - Politics: Emancipation and Political Zionism (2) August 30 - Emancipation Birnbaum, Pierre, and Ira Katznelson, eds. Paths of emancipation: Jews, states, and citizenship. Vol. 293. Princeton University Press, 2014. Chapters 1,3,4 – Emancipation and the Liberal Offer (3-36), Emancipation in Germany (59-93), Jews in France (94-127). https://books.google.co.il/books?id=TVgABAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq= pierre+birnbaum+emancipation&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=pierr e%20birnbaum%20emancipation&f=false Mendelsohn, Moses. Jerusalem: Religious Power and Judaism. Section 3 Fidelity to the Mosaic religion https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/mendelssohn1782.pdf Clermont–Tonnerre. Speech on Religious Minorities and Questionable Professions (23 December 1789) http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/284 The Assembly of Jewish Notables, Answers to Napoleon http://people.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/363_Transp/Sanhedrin.html Yehuda Leib Gordon (1863). Poem: “Wake, My People!” (Translated by Hillel Halkin) (PDF) Extra Viewing/Listening: Film: Fiddler on the Roof. Professor Ruth Wisse online course on Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye the Dairyman. https://tikvahfund.org/course/sholem-aleichems-tevye-the-dairyman/#course- login Guiding questions for the reading and for class discussion: What is the dramatic promise of Emancipation? How does it change the condition of the Jews in Europe? What is the price of Emancipation? What is demanded of the Jews? What is the Jewish response to Emancipation? (3) September 13 - Political Zionism Roshwald, Aviel. Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires: Central Europe, the Middle East and Russia, 1914-23. Routledge, 2002. “Introduction.” Aberbach, David (2012). The European Jews, Patriotism and the Liberal State 1789-1939. Routledge. ISBN 9780203079201. Chapter 9, Love Unrequited: The Failure of Jewish Emancipation 1789-1939. In The Zionist Ideas the sections on Zionism: The Prehistory and Origins of the Zionist Movement (xxxiii-xliii), Leon Pinsker (8-11), Theodor Herzl (11-18), Max Nordau (18-22) and Jacob Klatzin (22-24) and cultural Zionism Ahad Ha’am (106-112), Martin Buber (119-123) Extra Viewing/Listening: (The Tikvah Fund Herzl Lecture Series by Daniel Polisar https://tikvahfund.org/course/theodor-herzl-birth-political-zionism/Herzl) Guiding questions for the reading and for class discussion: What is the broad historical background for the emergence of Zionism? What is the ideological background for the emergence of Zionism? What is the Zionist analysis of the failure of emancipation? How is Zionism a response to that perceived failure? How does political Zionism relate to Judaism? How does Zionism relate to ideas about empire, nationalism, freedom and self- determination? What does cultural Zionism assume about elitism, the masses, autonomy, sovereignty and politics? And what is the relationship between Zionism as an intellectual endeavor and antisemitism? Does Zionism need or rely on antisemitism for some of its central ideas? PAIR II - Labor: Communism/Socialism/Bundism and Labor Zionism (4) September 20 - Communism/Socialism/Bundism Luxemburg, Rosa. The National Question, Part I The Right of Nations to Self-Determination. (select paragraphs) https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1909/national- question/ch01.htm Lenin, Vladimir. Excerpts on the Jews. (select paragraphs) https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/p amphlets/xx/jews.htm Section on Bund in the Jewish Virtual Library. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bund Guiding questions for the reading and for class discussion: What is the appeal of Communism to the Jews? How does Communism relate to nationalism, peoples and self-determination? How does Bundism negotiate the universal promise of Communism with Jewish particularism? How does Bundism relate to autonomy, elitism and sovereignty? (5) September 27 - Labor Zionism In The Zionist Ideas the sections on Labor Zionism (37-61). Shlonsky, Avraham. Toil. A Poem. https://pij.org/articles/936/toila-poem Guiding questions for the reading and for class discussion: What is the appeal of Labor Zionism? How does Labor Zionism bring together the particular and the universal? What is the utopia of Labor Zionism as compared with Communism? What is the role of the land and labor in Labor Zionism? What is the relationship of Labor Zionism to Judaism? Is Labor Zionism utopian or practical? How is Labor Zionism an alternative to Communism and Socialism? Extra Viewing/Listening: Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment. Film Preview. http://firstrunfeatures.com/inventingourlifedvd.html PAIR III – Religion, Jewish: Jewish Anti-Zionism and Religious Zionism (6) October 4 – Jewish Religious Anti-Zionism Reinharz, Jehuda. The Conflict between Zionism and Traditionalism before World War I. Jewish History. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20101166?seq=1 Grand Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, Satmar Rebbe, Introduction to Sefer VaYoel Moshe https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Sefer-VaYoel-Teitelbaum-Satmar- ebook/dp/B007JRPOZ8 Magid, Shaul. The Satmar are Anti-Zionist. Should We Care? https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/satmar-anti-zionist Section on Neturei Karta in the Jewish Virtual Library. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/neturei-karta Guiding questions for the reading and for class discussion: What is the basic conflict between secular Zionism and religious anti-Zionism? What goals do secular Zionism and religious anti-Zionism share? What is the Jewish theological basis for religious anti-Zionism? What are the theological challenges of Zionism to Judaism? (7) October 18 – Jewish Religious Zionism In The Zionist Ideas the sections on Religious Zionism: Pioneers (85-101), Ben Zion Meir Chai Uziel (234-236), Zvi Yehuda Hekohen Kook (243-244), Eliezer Berkovits (252-254), Gush Emunim (254-255). Shemer, Naomi. Jerusalem of Gold. A Poem. https://israelforever.org/interact/multimedia/yerushalayim_shel_zahav/ Extra Viewing/Listening: End of the 1967 Six-Day War: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/end-of-war Guiding questions for the reading and class discussion: How was Jewish religion synthesized with Zionism before 1948, between 1948 and 1967, and after 1967? What role did the Six-Day War play in religious Zionism? PAIR IV – Religion, Christianity: Christian Zionism and Christian anti- Zionism (8) October 25 – Christian Zionism Byron, George Gordon. Oh! Weep for Those. A Poem. https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/byron/oh_weep_for_those.html British Christian Zionism and George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda: https://fathomjournal.org/british-christian-zionism-and-george-eliots-daniel- deronda/ British Christian Zionism: The Work of Laurence Oliphant https://fathomjournal.org/british-christian-zionism-part-two-the-work-of- laurence-oliphant/ Christian Zionism 101 https://int.icej.org/media/christian-zionism-101 Christian Zionism in Jewish Virtual Library https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/christian-zionism Extra Viewing/Listening: Professor Ruth Wisse course on Daniel Deronda https://tikvahfund.org/course/daniel-deronda/ Guiding questions for the reading and class discussion: What are the theological bases for Christian religious support for Zionism? How does Christian Zionism relate to the cultures in which it exists – especially the British and American? What role if any does antisemitism (or opposition to antisemitism) play in Christian Zionism? (9) November 1 – Christian Theological anti-Zionism Holland, Tom (2019). Dominion. Chapter VII: Exodus and XVII: Religion. Little Brown, London UK. ISBN 9781408706978. Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries in US Holocaust Museum https://www.ushmm.org/research/about-the-mandel-center/initiatives/ethics- religion-holocaust/articles-and-resources/christian-persecution-of-jews-over-
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