This course will look at four challenges the Jewish state faced and overcame during its formative period. All four were virtually without precedent in the history of nations and in each case Israel turned a daunting task into an opportunity to establish itself as a regional power and leader of the Jewish people worldwide. The sessions will explore how Israel: outnumbered by the surrounding Arab countries when it declared its establishment, won its War of Independence and emerged from it strong and secure; absorbed as many immigrants as it had citizens during the country’s first few years; lacked even the most basic weapons needed to defend itself at its foundation, yet within a decade and a half, was able to develop nuclear weapons; was able to bring about symbolic justice on behalf of the Jewish nation by kidnapping Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from his hiding place in Argentina and trying him in Jerusalem.