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Zionism and Jewish Culture offers a fresh cultural perspective on Zionism, highlighting the dominant role of pre-modern Jewish culture on the modern Jewish national movement. The book investigates the history, politics and Zionist vision of the pre-state period. These issues are still relevant, thus enabling a deeper understanding of Zionism and Israel today.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part One. History
Chapter 1. Shaping a National Consciousness of the Past
Chapter 2. Zionism as Evolution—Ahad Ha’am and Jewish Studies
Chapter 3. Haim Nahman Bialik and the Formation of Hebrew Culture
Part Two. Politics
Chapter 4. Between East and West
Chapter 5. Between People and Land
Part Three. Vision
Chapter 6. The Zionist Utopia
Chapter 7. The Hebrew Bible as a National Model
Epilogue
Bibliography
About the author
Yitzhak Conforti is Associate Professor in the Koschitzky Department of Jewish History at Bar Ilan University. He is the author of:
Past Tense - Zionist Historiography and the Shaping of the Zionist Memory (2006) and
Shaping A Nation - The Cultural Origins of Zionism, 1882-1948 (2019). He was a research fellow in the Katz Center at U-Penn, a visiting scholar at NYU and the CJH, New York, and a visiting research scholar at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. He has published extensively on modern Jewish historiography, Zionist history and culture, Jewish nationalism and Zionism.
Summary
Zionism and Jewish Culture examines the history of Zionism from a new perspective, arguing that Zionism was not only a political project, but also a major cultural force in modern Jewish life. To understand the growth of this movement and its success in establishing a modern Jewish state, the book examines the cultural world of pre-state Zionist activists, offering an understanding of the basic ideological challenges they faced—challenges that Israel is still grappling with today. It asks, how did the early Zionists define the relationship between Israel and Jewish tradition? How did they envision the ideal balance between the Jewish people’s welfare and the Land of Israel? What was their view on Western versus Eastern principles in defining the state? And what was their vision for the future of the Jewish state? In exploring these topics, this book enables a deeper understanding of the forces that continue to shape Zionism and Israel today.
