Israel's True Origins and The Secret of Israeli Resilience

There are two kinds of Zionism: The array of idealistic ideologies carrying that label - religious, cultural, socialist, liberal, etc. - and the more prosaic Zionism, that of Pinsker and Herzl and Ben Gurion.

Zionism as a vast, desperate rescue operation. The first kind gets all the attention and is the focus of elite discourse, but it is the second that actually built Israel. This is a social history of the millions of ordinary people whose experiences and travails gave Zionism its strength and resilience over the past 140 years.

Haviv Rettig Gur is a prominent Israeli political journalist. As a senior analyst for The Times of Israel, Haviv offers deep insights into Israeli politics, and his expertise in Middle Eastern affairs is informed by his extensive work and research.

Sponsored in memory of A. Alfred Taubman

Please register by June 20th

HAVIV RETTIG GUR is an Israeli journalist who serves as the senior analyst at The Times of Israel and host of the ‘’Ask Haviv Anything’’ podcast. He has covered Israeli politics and the country’s foreign and regional policies, as well as its relationship with the Jewish diaspora. He has reported from over 20 countries on the issues of the day. He is fluent in Hebrew and English, lectures in Israel and abroad on Israeli society and history, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and more. He served as director of communications for the Jewish Agency for Israel, Israel's largest NGO, and was an early advocate and lobbyist for SpaceIL, working to advance science and space education through the construction and launch of an Israeli spacecraft. He teaches about the intersection of journalism, history and politics at prestigious Israeli pre-military academies.