Opposition to Zionism in Jewish Orthodoxy

Public panel discussion in English with Prof. Yakov Rabkin (Montréal) and Dr. Hannah Tzuberi (Berlin), moderated by Prof. Elad Lapidot (Berlin/Lille)

Orthodox Jews opposed Zionism when it emerged in the late 19th century. This rejection has not disappeared to this day and represents an important, often unknown aspect of the relationship between Judaism and the State of Israel.

Jewish Studies scholar Hannah Tzuberi (Berlin) and philosopher Elad Lapidot (Berlin/Lille) will talk with historian Yakov Rabkin (Montréal) about his recently published book in German, Im Namen der Thora. Die jüdische Opposition gegen den Zionismus (fifty-fifty Verlag, 2020). The book explains and interprets an important but often obscured chapter in the history of modern Israel, shedding a different light on the now century-old conflict in the Holy Land.

Yakov M. Rabkin has been Professor of History at the University of Montreal since 1973, and has held visiting positions at universities in Australia, France, Israel, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine and the United States. His areas of interest include contemporary Jewish history, international relations in science as well as demodernization.

Yakov Rabkin is the author of several books, including Science between the Superpowers, A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism (now available in fifteen languages), What is Modern Israel? (available in English, French, Italian, Japanese and Russian), and Judaïsme, islam et modernité. He frequently contributes to electronic and printed media.

Hannah Tzuberi studied Jewish Studies and Islamic Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and was a research assistant at the Institute for Jewish Studies (FU Berlin). Currently she is a post-doctoral researcher in a collaborative research project “Beyond Social Cohesion. Global Repertoires of Living Together” (RePLITO) at the FU Berlin, directed by Prof. Schirin Amir-Moazami. She is the co-editor of “Jewish Friends: Contemporary Figures of the Jew” (Jewish Studies Quarterly27:2–3, 2020) and is working on a book-project titled “Reviving Judaism, Reviving the Nation: Post-Holocaust Imaginaries of the (German) Nation-State.” Her research interests include Talmud, halakha, and contemporary European Jewry. Her work draws on the critical study of secularism and current discussions related to the co-constitutive relations between Europe, the European subject, and Europe’s racial-religious others.