Abstract
As the juxtaposition of two images printed at the top of this syllabus suggest, modern Israel is a
place of triumphs and tragedies, “complexities and contradictions” (Shavit).
This course provides an introduction to Israeli history, society, and culture. Our sources and texts
come from ancient through contemporary times, and from the Bible through to recent news
media and films. Like the land, language and inhabitants of Israel, each unit is a kind of time
capsule, including both older and recent and ideas. Culture plays a special role: cultural sources
teach us about the texture of everyday life in Israel. They narrate the history of Israel and provide
a critical lens onto Israeli society and history.
In the course, students will acquire the knowledge to understand and contextualize critical
challenges shaping Israel today—especially national, social, and environmental challenges—by
reading primary sources and recent scholarship. Moreover, by engaging with cultural texts,
including novels, stories, poetry, music and film, as well as protest literature by important
cultural figures, students will find deep insights and even solutions to those challenges.
The initial unit will provide an overview of Israeli geography, history, important spaces,
symbols, and structures, and the history and stories behind them. The unit will conclude with a
quiz (identifications and short answers). Subsequent units focus on the origins of the modern
state, as well as historical turning points and important, event urgent phenomena which have
shaped Israel’s history and continue to impact this very twenty-first century, globalized Israeli
society. These units include topics such as the history of Israel/Palestine and the ongoing
conflict; the impact of the Holocaust; the challenges of motherhood in Israeli society; Israel’s
environmental challenges; the ongoing centrality of Jewish and biblical themes in the Israeli
national narrative. Whenever possible, we will study these topics through the unmediated voices
of the Israeli and Palestinian “actors” themselves.