NaUKMA Department of History and MA in Jewish Studies Program, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies, and Israeli Cultural Center in Kyiv at the Embassy of Israel to Ukraine invite to a mini course by Bernard Susser "Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity: The Secular-Religious Impasse".
The mini course will take place on January 21–24, 2019. Venue: Office of the NaUKMA Jewish Studies programs (Kyiv, Voloska Street 8/5, building 5, basement).
Since the 1980s, relationships between secular and religious Israelis have gone from bad to worse. What was formerly a politics of accommodation, one whose main objective was the avoidance of strife through “arrangements” and compromises, has become a winner-take-all, zero-sum game. It is a conflict over the very character of the polity, a struggle to define Israel’s collective character.
The lecturer will show how this transformation has been caused by structural changes in Israel’s public sphere. He will trace the rise of the Haredi parties and the growing consonance of religiosity with right-wing politics, the new Basic Laws on Freedom, Dignity, and Occupation, the effects of massive immigration of secular Jews from the former Soviet Union, etc.
Bernard (Baruch) Susser was The Senator Paterson Professor of Politics at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He is currently Professor Emeritus. After receiving his Ph.D. from Columbia University he immigrated to Israel (1969). His main fields of interest are political philosophy and comparative politics (especially Israeli politics). He has served as Chairman of the Israel Political Science Association. Professor Susser has held visiting positions at the universities in the USA, Germany, the Republic of South Africa, and China. He has authored and edited 18 books relating to political thought, modern ideologies, and Israeli politics.
