Lithuanian-born Schapira was a math professor at the University of Heidelberg. He first proposed creating what became the Jewish National Fund to purchase and develop land in Palestine. At the First Zionist Congress in 1897…
A Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi born in Belarus, Reines was one of the earliest leaders of Religious Zionism, supported an unsuccessful effort to establish a settlement mixing Torah and labor in the early 1890s, and founded…
Born in Lithuania and ordained at the Volozhin yeshiva, Mohilever was a founder of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia and served as its president in the 1880s. He helped launch Religious…
A scholar and author born in Lithuania, Lilienblum embraced the Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia after the pogroms of 1881 and served as secretary of an Odesa committee on Palestine settlement. His…
A Belarus native, Levin was a Jewish Enlightenment poet who wrote in Hebrew on socialist themes. Concerned with Jewish lives in Russia, Levin wrote one of his most famous poems, “Daniyel be-gov ha-arayot” (“Daniel in…
A journalist born in Odesa, Jabotinsky organized self-defense units and fought for Jewish rights in Russia. He attended most Zionist Congresses from 1903 to 1933. He co-founded the Zion Mule Corps in World War I….
Born in Hungary, Herzl is viewed as the father of modern political Zionism. A journalist, novelist and playwright, he embraced Zionism after reporting on Alfred Dreyfus’ trial in France. His pamphlet “Der Judenstaat” (“The Jewish…
Gottheil attended the Second Zionist Congress, where Theodor Herzl invited her to translate his speech into French, Italian and English. In the United States she organized women’s study groups that were the precursors of Hadassah….
A Ukrainian-born scholar, Friedlander was a commissioner for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. He became a U.S. Zionist leader and wrote books including “Past and Present: A Collection of Jewish Essays.” He was a…
November 2, 1917 The Balfour Declaration was the Jewish charter that Herzl failed to obtain from the Ottoman sultan 20 years earlier. The terms were included in the preamble of the Palestine Mandate’s Articles in…
August 10, 2025 Updated August 11, 2025, with follow-up resources. CIE and partners including including Hillels of Georgia, American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s JTeen initiative, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community…
Divided at home and condemned abroad, public opinion of Israel sinks in response to war and domestic politics.
June 2025 CIE has compiled the following list of books and articles, including some available on our website, to guide understanding of Israel’s capital, the holy city of Jerusalem. Books Adelman, Madelaine, and Miriam Fendius…
The Brooklyn Nets drafted two Israelis, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf, back to back in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft on June 25.
CIE has compiled the following list of books, articles, videos on our website, and surveys of American Jewish opinion to guide understanding of the relationship between Diaspora Jewry and Israel.
From Ancient Times to the 19th Century The bond between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel is one of the most enduring in human history. Since the Roman destruction of the Second Temple…
Iran’s relations with Israel and the Jewish people from ancient times to the present day. June 23-June 24, 2025 — At the request of President Donald Trump, Iran and Israel enter a cease-fire to end…
May 18, 2025 Contradiction has been a theme in Iran’s relationship with the Jewish people, for nowhere else in the Muslim world have Jews both suffered so grievously and flourished so thoroughly. Nor is the…
By Scott Abramson and Ken Stein, April 4, 2025 The Exile and the Homeland It may be said that the Jewish people’s entire cosmology (the origin and nature of the universe) from their birth as…
March 2025 CIE has compiled the following list of books and articles, including some available on our website, to guide understanding of Zionism. Books Almog, Shmuel. Zionism and History: The Rise of a New Jewish…
August 1, 2025 CIE has compiled the following list of books, articles and videos, including some available on our website, to guide understanding of antisemitism, particularly in connection with Zionism and Israel. Books Ackerman, Nathan…
The Parashah Hashavuah is the weekly portion of the Torah, the five books of Moses, read by Jews throughout the world each Sabbath and on specific holidays. Here you will find a d’var Torah (commentary)…
Many people, Jewish and non-Jewish, have played a part in the State of Israel’s creation, survival and development despite never themselves becoming Israeli. For good or bad, Israel would not be what it is today…
By Scott Abramson and Ken Stein In his famous 2004 essay “Between Right and Right,” Israel’s most celebrated novelist, Amos Oz, reflects on Israeli society, summing up his fellow citizens with this appraisal: “What we,…
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