with Rabbi Jaffe

Prior to the founding of the state of Israel, 19th and 20th century figures debated the merits of Zionism and what a Jewish state might look like.  What would the Jewish state be called and how would it express both particularistic aspects of Jewish peoplehood with a universalistic system of democracy?  Would the Jewish state understand Judaism religiously or culturally?  And what would be its connection to world Jewry?  Together we will explore thinkers such as Theodore Herzl, Ahad Ha’Am, Zev Jabotinsky, Franz Rosensweig, Martin Buber and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.  Join us in exploring the roots of those issues which continue to be debated today.

Sunday, January 12 at 11:30 am
Session 1: Jewish State or Jewish Renewal?
Bialek, The City of Slaughter (1903)
Herzl, The Jewish State (1896)
Pinsker, Auto-Emancipation: An Appeal to His People by a Russian Jew (1882)
Smolenskin, It is Time to Plant (1877)
Ha’am, The Jewish State and the Jewish Problem (1897)

View Session 1 below:

Sunday, January 26 at 9:15 am
Session 2: Models of Jewish Power
Nordau, Jewry of Muscle (1903)  
Herzl, The Jewish State (1896)
Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall (1923) 
Gordon, People and Labor (1915)
Kook, Lights for Rebirth (1910)

Sunday, February 9 at 9:15 am
Session 3: Secular vs Religious Identity
Klatskin, Boundaries (1914)
Berdyczewski, Wrecking and Building (1903)
Kook, Lights for Rebirth (1910)
Shlonsky, Toil (1928)
Ravina, Mi Yimalel (1936)
Ze’ev, We Are Carrying Torches (Anu Nosim Lapidim) (early 1930’s) 
Guri, Inheritance (1960)

Click here to view the course materials.

Lunch will be provided and sponsored by the Resnick Fund.