Zionist Thought: 1881-1947

Catalog description

This seminar explores the formative context, theoretical underpinnings, and diverse expressions of Zionist thought between 1881 and 1947. It begins by focusing on the attempt to create a new identity for Jews, to 'imagine', in contemporary parlance, a national community for the Jewish people. This process had parallels in and drew inspiration from contemporaneous national movements in Europe which sought to place the nation, rather than religious faith, at the center of self-identity. After exploring the rise of the international Zionist movement under Theodor Herzl, as well as the alternative currents of cultural, religious and labor Zionism, the focus will shift away from the ideological laboratory of Europe to the testing grounds of Palestine. Different strands of Zionist thought and activism in pre-State Palestine will be explored. Finally, we shall apply contemporary models of nationalism to the Jewish context.