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- HTST 593.16 : Nation-Building and Social Integration in Israel

Winter 2009: 10:30 - 1:00

Location: BI. 542

Dr. Bat-Sheva Margalit-Stern and Dr. Shlomit Keren

Course Description

This course analyzes the historical process that gave birth of the State of Israel. It focuses on the nation-building process in which settlers who immigrated from all parts of the world managed to create a viable state. What were the mechanisms chosen to weave a united society of the multi cultures, traditions and customs? What was the cost involved? Which ideals and perceptions prevailed and which disappeared with the establishment of statehood? These are few of the questions that we will tackle. We will use sources of diverse disciplines, as well as visual sources, that will help us examine the most fundamental questions in the history of modern Israel.

Course Requirements

1. Students participation 20%

2. Midterm 40%

3. Final paper 40%

The paper requirements for graduate and undergraduate students will differ in size and in form. The nature of the paper and the topics will be discussed in class.

Readings: All readings will be available on line.

Lessons 1-2

David Vital, The Origins of Zionism, Oxford 1975, pp. 3-20

Gideon Shimoni, The Zionist Idoelogy, p. 3-37

Recommended:

Ran Aaronsohn, “Through the Eyes of a Settler’s Wife: Letters from the Moshava,” in Deborah S. Bernstein, ed., Pioneers and Homemakers: Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel, p. 29-47.

Lessons 3-4

Ruth Kark and Joseph B. Glass, “The Jews in Eretz Israel/Palestine: From Traditional Peripherality to Modern Centrality,” in Efraim Karsh, ed., Israel: The First Hundred Years, Israel’s Transition from Community to State, Vol. 1, p. 73-107.

Margalit Shilo, “The Women’s Farm at Kinneret, 1911-1917: A Solution to the Problem of the Working Woman in the Second Aliyah,” in Deborah S. Bernstein, ed., Pioneers and Homemakers: Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel, p. 119-143.

Recommended:

Sheila H. Katz, Women and Gender in Early Jewish and Palestinian Nationalism, pp. 155-164

Lessons 5-6

Naomi Sheperd, Ploughing Sand: British Rule in Palestine, 1914-1948, 5-19 (“The Genesis of the Mandate”).

Barbara J. Smith, The Roots of Separatism in Palestine: British Economic Policy, 1920-1929, p. 63-85 (“Facilitating Jewish Immigration”).

Recommended:

Amos Nadan, The Palestinian Peasant Economy Under The Mandate: A Story Of ColonialBuilding, pp. 3-25

Lessons 7-8

Gideon Shimoni, The Variegation of Zionist Idoelogy, p, 194-235.

Israel Kolatt, “The Concept of the Histadrut: Emergence and Change, 1920-1948,” in Isaiah Avrech and Dom Giladi, eds., Labor and Society in Israel, p. 204-227.

Judith Buber Agassi, `The Status of Women in Kibbutz Society`, in Esther Fuchs (ed.), Israeli Women's Studies: A Reader, p. 170-180

Recommended:

Paula Rayman, The Kibbutz Community and NationBuilding, p. 9-82.

Lesson 9

Eran Kaplan, The Jewish Radical Right, p. 3-30 (“Between Left and Right: Revisionism in Zionist Politics”).

Lesson 10

Anthony D. Smith, “Sacred Territories and National Conflict,” in Efraim Karsh, ed., Israel: The First Hundred Years, Israel’s Transition from Community to State, Vol. 1, p. 13-31.

Recommended:

Yaron Peleg, Orientalism and the Hebrew Imagination, p. 14-39

Lesson 11

Shaul Zadka, “Jewish Armed Struggle in Palestine in the 1940s: Its Impact on British Morale and Public Opinion,” in Efraim Karsh, ed., Israel: The First Hundred Years, Israel’s Transition from Community to State, Vol. 1, p. 181-197.

Rashid Kalidi, `The Palestinians and 1948: The Underlying Causes of Failure` in Eugene L. Rogan, Avi shlaim (ed.), The War For Palestine, Cambridge 2001, pp. 12-36

Recommended:

Eliezer Tauber, “The Jewish and Arab Lobbies in Canada and the UN Partition of Palestine,” in Efraim Karsh, ed., Israel: The First Hundred Years, Israel’s Transition from Community to State, Vol. 1, p. 229-244.

Lesson 12

Alan Dowty, "Zionism's Greatest Conceit," Israel Studies, vol. 3, 1, p. 1-23.

Yael Zrubavel, "The Mythological Sabra and Jewish Past: Trauma, Memory and Contested Identities," Israel Studies 7, 2, p. 115-144.

Recommended:

Tamar Mayer, `From Zero to Hero: Masculinity in Jewish Nationalism`, in Esther Fuchs (ed.), Israeli Women's Studies: A Reader, p. 97-177

Lesson 13

Nadav Davidovich and Shifra Shvarts, “Health and Hegemony: Preventive Medicine, Immigrants and the Israeli Melting Pot,” Israel Studies, vol. 9, 2, pp. 150-179.

Students were required to be familiar with Dowty’s article (Lesson 10 reading), “Zionism’s Greatest Conceit,” for this class as well.