Our Mission is to teach Zionist history.
The most important development in modern Jewish history is seldom studied. Even in Jewish Day Schools, students come away with only a basic knowledge of Zionism – defined here as the political movement that led to the creation of the State of Israel.
This is not to say that Jewish children at these schools aren’t imbued with a love for Israel. They are. But there is a profound difference between clapping and shouting “Hurrah, Israel!” and understanding how it came to be. If we wish to encourage a deep attachment to Israel among our children, we should emphasize an education which imparts a deep understanding of the history that led to it.
Advocacy v. History
In a real sense, advocacy has sucked the air out of the room. What do we mean by that? The emphasis now is on defending Israel from libelous attack.
Currently, these attacks have taken the form of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, an effort to isolate Israel diplomatically and which is most virulent on American college campuses. A good deal of time and money is spent countering this disinformation campaign, and numerous grassroots groups have sprung up to defend Israel. We applaud their efforts.
However, with the focus on advocacy history has been neglected. In devoting our energies to parrying attacks, we forget to study the rich and remarkable account of Israel’s rise. It is a history interesting in and of itself and hidden within it are lessons useful for today. We don’t argue against Israel advocacy. We argue for learning Israel’s history.
Zionism is a modern term for an ancient idea. It is the longing of a people for 1,800 years to return home. If that is not worth studying, then no history is worth studying.
ZIONISM 101 FILM SERIES
ZionismU’s first project is Zionism 101, a film series about the history of the movement, covering its earliest beginnings up to the creation of the State of Israel.
The series consists of 47 carefully researched films containing rarely seen period footage and photographs collected from archives in several countries. To help educators we offer, together with our Zionism 101 film series, supplemental materials for the classroom, including lesson plans, PowerPoints, supporting documents, timelines, and bibliographies. Instructors will find everything they need to teach about Zionism.
If you are an instructor who only has time to teach one class on Zionism, we highly recommend Modern Zionism, Lesson 3 in our Origins of Zionism course.
All videos are free to stream on our site. A complete DVD set is available for purchase in our store for those who prefer to watch offline.
