Sanford Lakoff to teach course on Israel

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–The Agency for Jewish Education continues its summer class offerings with Professor Sanford Lakoff of UCSD. Lakoff will teach a 5 week class beginning on July 8th on “Israel: A condensed history of its origins and challenges.”

This course aims to present a concise history of the origins and development of the State of Israel, with an emphasis on its struggle for survival in a hostile region. It will begin with an examination of the roots of Zionism in the ethno-religious longing for an end to exile and the secular need for a national homeland in the face of persecution and rejection in Europe. It will then examine the period of early settlement, culminating in the Balfour Declaration and the British mandate; the period of state building and defense that followed the UN partition resolution of 1947; and, in the final two meetings, the challenges from Arab nationalism and Islamist radicalism, the successes and failures of the peace process, and the threat posed by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran as a potential nuclear power.

This class meets at Congregatio Beth Israel in the morning and at the JCC in the evening. Tuition is $80.  For more information or to register, contact the Agency for Jewish Education, (858) 268-9200 ext.102 or visit www.ajesd.org.

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Preceding provided by Agency for Jewish Education