The Jewishness of the Jewish State examined
WHILE Israel finds itself under both physical and verbal attack on the international stage, there are a number of domestic challenges faced by the country too – which Israeli scholar David Mendelsson will delve into when he visits Australia this week for Limmud Fest.
Mendelsson is director of the Year-in-Israel program at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and lectures at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University where he teaches the history of the modern State of Israel and the changing nature of Israeli Jewish identity.
Speaking to The AJN, Mendelsson said while most people know about Zionism’s commitment to a Jewish State, there is a facet of the Zionist movement many people aren’t aware of.
“What people don’t often know is that Zionism also had a very strong element within it which was committed to trying to change the nature of Jewish identity, in many ways departing from religion and towards more of what one might call a non-religious, secular national identity,” he explained.
This will be the topic of his first talk at Limmud, entitled “Israeli Identity: For the New Jew and Sabra to Contemporary Israeli Voices.”
He will also address the secular–religious divide in Israel. “The rift can be managed … I’m not sure it can be healed,” he said, describing the current relationship between the secular and ultra-Orthodox populations as “tense”.
“One of the things that characterises Israel, and certainly our different groups in Israel, is the sense that they all feel threatened … by each other,” he said, noting that some mutual understanding needs to be reached. In terms of the current crisis, “the situation here is distressing”, he said, drawing on last week’s stabbings in Tel Aviv and Gush Etzion.
“I think there’s a lot of anxiety … But of course there’s also a sense of a terrible stalemate around possibilities of negotiations, and peace talks, and things of that nature.”
Limmud Fest takes place from November 28-30. For more details and bookings, visit www.limmud-oz.com.au or call (02) 9381 4160.
PHOEBE ROTH
Israeli scholar David Mendelsson is one of the speakers at Limmud Fest.
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