The Jewish People in Dispersion Dr. Kenneth Hanson

12. Israel - Into the Future While we’ve focused on the modern state of Israel, millions of Jews of course continue to live in many lands of the Diaspora. But what for centuries had been expressed as raw antisemitism more recently finds expression as anti-Israel agitation. Perhaps the best the Jews can hope for is that there will be a revival of Jewish life and culture in the Diaspora. But whether or not this happens, the state of Israel today is alive and well, and it's not going anywhere. Indeed, there is nowhere else to go! Dr. Kenneth Hanson, http://drkenhanson.com/

11. Israel's First 35 Years The ancient prophet Jeremiah once excoriated those who cry “Peace,” when there is no peace. But in the infant modern state of Israel, no one had even a delusion of peace. In the wake of Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, the young nation continued to be beleaguered on every side. Yet, as we trace Israel’s first thirty-five years, we should recall the words of Prime Minister Golda Meir: “We Jews have a secret weapon; we have nowhere else to go!”Dr. Kenneth Hanson, http://drkenhanson.com/

10. The Rise of Israel In the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust, that annihilated the great bulk of European Jewry, it seemed as though a Jewish state in Palestine was the last best hope of the Jewish people. Yet, the way seemed blocked, due to British policy that had been in effect for decades. Nonetheless, the state of Israel was about to be born. Dr. Kenneth Hanson, http://drkenhanson.com/

9. Antisemitism and Zionist The 1880s & 1890s are often identified as the period of Zionism’s birth. At that time a genuine cataclysm fell on Russian Jewry. But the greater the gloom & adversity of Jewish life, the more intense the recollection of ancestral pride. In the early twentieth century the Balfour Declaration was an authentic turning-point in Jewish history. Before, idea of a Jewish nation in Israel seemed a hopeless dream. But as Herzl had said, “If you will it, it is not a dream!” Dr. Kenneth Hanson, http://drkenhanson.com/

8. Failure of Emancipation We raise important questions in this episode. Were the Jews right to plant themselves firmly on European soil, proud of achieving full citizenship? Or should they have been more attentive to the continuing background noise of anti-Semitism, and taken proactive steps, to defend themselves, or even to leave, for Palestine? At the time nothing was elementary… Dr. Kenneth Hanson, http://drkenhanson.com/

7. From the French Revolution to the Jewish Enlightenment The story of the Jews is woven through the tapestry of world cultures, as we trace their legacy across the 18th and 19th centuries. The bleak spiritual landscape of the 1700s gave rise to a new currents within Judaism – from ultra-orthodox Hasidism to the Jewish “Enlightenment.” Moving on to the 1800s, we meet Napoleon and Czar Alexander I. All made an impact, for better or worse, on the Jews of Europe…Dr. Kenneth Hanson, http://drkenhanson.com/