Join Yitzhak Conforti for a talk on his new book, Zionism and Jewish Culture: A Study in the Origins of a National Movement, which examines the history of Zionism from a new perspective, arguing that Zionism was not only a political project, but also a major cultural force in modern Jewish life. The book examines the cultural world of pre-state Zionist activists, offering an understanding of the basic ideological challenges they faced—challenges that Israel is still grappling with today. How did the early Zionists define the relationship between Israel and Jewish tradition? How did they envision the ideal balance between the Jewish people’s welfare and the Land of Israel? What was their view on Western versus Eastern principles in defining the state? And what was their vision for the future of the Jewish state? In exploring these topics, this book enables a deeper understanding of the forces that continue to shape Zionism and Israel today.

About the Author
Yitzhak Conforti is Associate Professor in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar Ilan University in Israel. He is the author of Past Tense – Zionist Historiography and the Shaping of the Zionist Memory (in Hebrew; Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi, 2006); Shaping a Nation: The Cultural Origins of Zionism, 1882-1948 (in Hebrew; Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi, 2019); and Zionism and Jewish Culture: A Study in the Origins of a National Movement (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2024). He was a visiting scholar in various universities and research institutions such as Oxford University, NYU, Center for Jewish History, and Brandeis University, and a research fellow at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at UPenn. He has published extensively on modern Jewish historiography, Zionist history and memory, Jewish nationalism, and Zionism. His current project is Zionism and the Hebrew bible.