Digital Library > Jewish Political Thought > Debating Zionism: A Lecture Series with Dr. Micah Goodman

Debating Zionism: A Lecture Series with Dr. Micah Goodman

July 25, 2017 | By Micah Goodman
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The establishment of the State of Israel is one of the most remarkable achievements of the modern era. Never before had a people dispersed throughout the world, deprived of sovereignty for millennia, returned to its ancient homeland to build a thriving country. Who were the leaders and thinkers that helped craft a modern Jewish nationalism for a people so long deprived of self-determination? What moved them? What were their political teachings and key disagreements?

The Tikvah Fund invites you to join Dr. Micah Goodman, Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and CEO and Rosh Midrasha of Midreshet Ein Prat, for a three-part exploration of the writings, legacies, and debates of Zionism’s early thinkers. We will study the teachings of Theodor Herzl, Micha Josef Berdichevsky, Ahad Ha’am, Isaac Jacob Reines, Abraham Isaac Kook, and other representatives of modern Jewish nationalist thought. In doing so, Dr. 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 conflicts Israel still faces today.

These lectures were originally delivered at one of the Tikvah Fund’s educational programs for undergraduates. Click here to learn more about our educational programs.

Episode 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 the lecture, which can also be downloaded in the iTunes Store or streamed via Stitcher.

Episode 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 the lecture, which can also be downloaded in the iTunes Store or streamed via Stitcher.

Episode 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 the lecture, which can also be downloaded in the iTunes Store or streamed via Stitcher.

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