Current Issues in Israel
Resource page for the Current Issues in Israel class (Fall / Winter 2023) with Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Rabbi Marisa James.
Class Recordings
History
Resources referenced in the 11/20/23 class:
- A very, very basic outline of the history of the conflict, starting in 1947.
- A map of Israel with the West Bank and Gaza clearly marked.
- A much more detailed local map of the Gaza Strip and the Israeli villages (mostly kibbutzim) in the immediate vicinity, what is commonly referred to as the “Gaza envelope” area, showing the current situation.
Reading List & More
Referenced in the 11/20/23 and 11/27/23 classes:
- A very good overview of history with significant time discussing the American Jewish connection to Israel is Daniel Sokatch’s “Can We Talk About Israel?” Here’s a concise review.
- A very good recent NY Times piece on why the Oslo peace process failed (with thanks to Lise for sharing!) is here; this is a gift link that you don’t need a subscription to read.
- If you prefer memoir as a genre, I highly recommend reading these two together: “A Tale of Love and Darkness” by Amos Oz, and “Once Upon a Country” by Sari Nusseibeh. These two gorgeous memoirs, one by an Israeli Jew and one by a Palestinian Muslim, overlap the same time periods in the same places in and around Jerusalem, from two very different historical experiences.
- Here is the information about the Shoah Foundation collecting testimonies from the October 7th attacks, with links to the recordings which are starting to be made available publicly.
- We also really appreciate Ezra Klein’s NY Times podcasts these days, including this one, an interview with Rabbi Sharon Brous of IKAR in Los Angeles.
- If you haven’t yet read Rabbi Kleinbaum’s letter to the CBST community on her trip to Israel, you can read that here.
- And this article in Ha’aretz about Rabbi Kleinbaum & Randi Weingarten’s trip to Israel is here as a gift link, and also attached as a PDF.
- And we’ll say it again: if you haven’t subscribed to Ha’aretz, it’s really worth doing so – their coverage and podcasts are unparalleled.
Maps
Here are the maps referenced in the 12/11/23 class, in order:
- Abraham’s journey, per the book of Genesis.
- The Kingdoms of David and Solomon and the Hasmoneans (I only focused on the first two maps here).
- The Roman Empire’s expansion (especially the third map!).
- The growth of the Ottoman Empire from 1481-1683.
- The Ottoman Empire in the land of Israel the 1890’s.
- The British creation of Jordan in 1922, gifting land to the Hashemite Kingdom.
- The 1947 UN suggested partition plan.
- The armistice lines after the 1948 war in which Israel gained independence (the white area was the official State of Israel from 1949-1967).
- After the Six Day War in 1967, Israel now controlling the Sinai, including Gaza (from Egypt), the West Bank (from Jordan), and the Golan Heights (from Syria).
- UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) refugee camps for displaced Palestinians as of 1973.
- Peace Treaty with Egypt (under Anwar Sadat) in 1979.
- Jewish settlements in Gaza in 2005, just before the unilateral disengagement and withdrawal that summer.
- Map of the State of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza today, created in 2015 by J Street.
Antisemitism
We highly recommend preparing for the 12/18/23 class by reading Rabbi Jill Jacobs‘ excellent 2018 article in the Washington Post, “How to tell when criticism of Israel is actually anti-Semitism,” watching her on MSNBC in 2021 discussing “5 ways to check if you’re being anti-Semitic when criticizing Israel,” and downloading T’ruah’s excellent booklet “A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism.” (Note that all of these are linked from CBST’s Antisemitism Resources page.) Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.