Women’s Initiative for Jewish Studies (WIJS) at Young Israel of New Rochelle in New York is proud to present Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn on Sunday, March 2, at 10:30 a.m. (ET) on Zoom. Hirschhorn will be the seventh speaker of the 2024-2025 season in the monthly scholarly programming offered by WIJS at YINR.
Hirschhorn’s lecture is titled “New Day in Babylon and Jerusalem: Zionism, Jewish Power and Identity Politics from 1967 to Oct. 7.” This lecture (based on the author’s forthcoming book) will explore the period between 1967-1975, a fascinating chapter of history about the first parting of ways of Zionism and the left, and the unraveling of the unanimity of the American Jewish community over Israel (seen clearly in post-Oct. 7 debates). With 1967 as its point of departure, Hirschhorn will trace the earliest confrontations between two nascent, dueling movements, “Jewish Power” and “Black Power,” following these clashes over the next decade, culminating in the “Zionism is Racism” debates of 1975.
The book and this lecture will offer an original, historical approach to the framework of a “new antisemitism” and a first-of-its-kind approach of centering Israel in discussions about Jewish privilege and power in identity politics since the late 1960s.
Hirschhorn is currently visiting professor at the Ruderman Program in American Jewish Studies and senior researcher at the Comper Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa. She is also a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, Jerusalem.
Her research, teaching and public engagement activities focus on Diaspora-Israel relations, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Israeli ultranationalist movement. Her first book, “City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement” (Harvard, 2017), won the 2018 Sami Rohr Prize in Jewish Literature Choice Award and was a finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award. She is currently working on a new manuscript titled “New Day in Babylon and Jerusalem: Zionism, Jewish Power, and Identity Politics From 1967 to October 7,” that will offer a transnational history of the post-Six Day War period. Follow her public work at sarahirschhorn1@X (formerly known as Twitter).
All WIJS programming is open to women and men. Visit www.yinr.org/wijs.html to view the complete WIJS 2024-25 schedule. For more information, to be added to the WIJS email list, or for Zoom information, call (914) 636-2215 or email [email protected]. Individuals on the WIJS mailing list will automatically receive the Zoom information.
