On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel. The Zionist movement, however, only got to this historic moment because of critical decisions that had been made in the previous 50 years. In this course, we’ll explore these moments of truth when Zionist leaders fiercely debated over two paths that could have taken the movement in very different directions. These fateful deliberations reflected different worldviews which continue to reverberate in contemporary Israeli society. Case studies include: The Uganda Proposal (1903-1905), the 1937 Partition Plan; the 1938 debate over ‘Havlagah’ and ‘Purity of Arms’; the 1942 Biltmore Program; and the 1944 Etzel revolt against the British
Rabbi Shlomo Brody
Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Brody is the executive director of Ematai and the Jewish Law Live columnist for the Jerusalem Post. He previously served as the founding director of the Tikvah Overseas Student Institute and co-dean of Tikvah Online Academy, a senior instructor at Yeshivat Hakotel, and as a junior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Rabbi Brody’s career has focused on making Jewish texts accessible to broader audiences while applying them to contemporary social and ethical dilemmas. His writings have been cited in Israeli Supreme Court decisions and have appeared in Mosaic, First Things, Tradition, The Federalist, Tablet, Tzohar, The Forward, Hakirah, Jewish Review of Books, and other popular publications. His first book, A Guide to the Complex: Contemporary Halakhic Debates (Maggid), received a National Jewish Book Award. His next book, Judaism Confronts War: Jewish Military Ethics for the 21st Century, is scheduled to be published in both Hebrew and English in early 2024. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, he received rabbinic ordination from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, an MA in Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University, and his PhD from Bar Ilan University Law School, where he continues to serve as a post-doctoral fellow. Rabbi Brody has been an invited scholar-in-residence at over 40 distinguished congregations and campuses in the United States, Canada, England, and Israel.