ONLINEHenrietta Szold, Judah Magnes and the “Hebrew Orient”

Join us to learn about American Jewry and the land of Israel during the first decades of the 20th century with the authors of bold new scholarship on the subject. While there is significant literature concerning American Zionism, the study of American Jews and the land of Israel has, until now, been relegated to the margins of the Israel studies field.

Now, in the space of just over a year, a number of books have appeared that deal in different ways with the story of American Jews and the Yishuv, the Jewish community of Palestine, in the decades prior to the creation of the State of Israel. Three of the authors behind this bold new scholarship will discuss their books:

• “Judah Magnes: The Prophetic Politics of a Religious Binationalist” (Jewish Publication Society) by David Barak-Gorodetsky, Israel Institute Visiting Fellow at the University of Chicago; faculty member in the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University and soon-to-be director of the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies at Haifa University
• “The Hebrew Orient: Palestine in Jewish Visual Culture 1901-1938” (SUNY Press) by Jessica L. Carr, Berman scholar of Jewish studies and assistant professor of religious studies at Lafayette College in Easton, PA
• “To Repair a Broken World: The Life of Henrietta Szold, Founder of Hadassah” (Harvard University Press) by Dvora Hacohen, professor of modern Jewish history at Bar Ilan University; her history of youth aliyah entitled “The Children of the Time: Youth Aliyah 1933-1948” won the Ben Gurion Prize for scholarship

Moderating the discussion will be Jonathan D. Sarna, director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, university professor and Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies at Brandeis University.