Israel, Judaism, Zionism: The Unique Case of Jewish Nationalism
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Evening Presentation
Drinks Reception 6:30pm
Presentation 7:00pm
Close 8:00pm
A brief survey of the peculiarities of Jewish history and heritage serves as background for reviewing a few questions Israelis keep asking themselves regarding their self-identity — fundamental collective dilemmas that polarize Israeli politics — such as: Who is a Jew? How Jewish is the Jewish State? Is a Jewish and Democratic State possible? Do Jews around the globe share only religious practice, or ethnic-national affiliation too?
The attempt to answer such queries allows some insights into the controversial issues of the relations between Judaism and Zionism in Israel.
Gideon Aran is the 2017 Elman Family Visiting Professor in Jewish and Israeli Studies at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at The Hebrew University, Jerusalem. His major fields of academic interest are Israeli Society, Religion, Radicalism and Aggression. His recent writing and lecturing concern Fundamentalism and Violence in various Western and Middle Eastern contexts. Prof. Aran has served as a Visiting Professor at University of California Davis and Berkeley, University of Notre Dame, New York University and the University of Sydney. Prof. Aran's latest book is titled Suicide Terrorism: Anthropological Perspectives. He studied at the Hebrew University (B.A., Ph.D.), University of Chicago (M.A.) and Princeton University (Postdoc).