Debating Zionism with Dr. Micah Goodman

Delve into Zionism's Great Debates

As Israel turns 75, Tikvah invites you to join Micah Goodman for an exploration of Zionism’s greatest thinkers and their most important and enduring debates

WATCH YOUR VIDEOS



Who were the original leaders and thinkers of modern Jewish nationalism? What moved them? What were their political teachings and key disagreements? In this special 3-part series, leading Israeli thinker and author Dr. Micah Goodman will help us see how the founding disagreements within Secular Zionism, Religious Zionism, and Ultra-Orthodoxy can shed light on the spirit of Jewish nationalism and the internal social and religious conflicts that Israel still faces today.


1. Zionism as the Liberation of Judaism: The Debate over the Soul of Secular Zionism

In his first lecture, Dr. Micah Goodman explores the founding disagreements of secular Zionism by focusing on the relationship between Zionism and Jewish tradition in the thought of Ahad Ha’am and Micha Josef Berdichvky.

Press play below to listen to an audio version of the lecture.

 

2. Is Zionism Messianic? The Debate over the Soul of Religious Zionism

In his second lecture, Dr. Goodman traces the evolution of religious Zionist thought from Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines and the Mizrachi, through the messianism of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, to the modern crisis of Israeli religious Zionism.

Press play below to listen to an audio version of the lecture.

 

3. A Theology of Rejection: The Haredi Struggle with Zionism and with Modernity

In this final lecture, Dr. Goodman takes us on a journey from 18th-century Lithuania to the modern state of Israel as he explores the haredi response to Zionism and the challenges of modernity.

Press play below to listen to an audio version of the lecture.