Dayenu — From Exodus to Contemporary Israel

Dayenu — From Exodus to Contemporary Israel

Sung or recited on Passover, the original Dayenu is reflective appreciation of 14 significant events specifically wrapped around the exodus from Egypt. The Dayenu presented here chronicles Jewish history from Exodus to the present day. This history can be read individually or responsively. Different moments and personalities in Jewish history could have been included. Hebrew and Spanish versions of Dayenu are available.

Era II: Zionism to Israel, 1898 to 1948

Era II: Zionism to Israel, 1898 to 1948

From 1898 to 1948, Zionism evolved from an idea to a concrete reality: the actual establishment of the Jewish state, Israel. Slowly, a few immigrating Jews created facts by linking people to the land. For half a century, fortuity and fortitude made the Zionist undertaking a reality. They exhibited pragmatism and gradually constructed a nucleus for a state. Through perseverance Zionists empowered themselves.

Origins of Israeli Democracy: Jewish Political Culture and Pre-State Practice

Origins of Israeli Democracy: Jewish Political Culture and Pre-State Practice

Neither Israel’s political culture nor Israel’s democracy based on Jewish self determination simply materialized on May 15, 1948. A connection exists from Jewish self-rule in the Diaspora to Zionist political autonomy during the Yishuv and to contemporary Israeli political culture. Likewise, the origins of Israeli democracy are found in the hundreds of years of Jewish Diasporas transitioning into the Zionist movement to the state; from aliyot before the Palestine Mandate to 1948 and since. Components of Israeli political culture…

The Lists of 75

The Lists of 75

To commemorate the State of Israel’s forthcoming 75th birthday, the Center for Israel Education is sharing lists of 75 people and things that form a mosaic of Israel’s past, present and future.

April: A Land of Education, Sports and Culture

April: A Land of Education, Sports and Culture

While the Zionist-Arab/Israeli-Palestinian conflict is never absent from the calendar, April is a month that has brought advances toward Israel being a normal part of the global community through educational institutions, cultural achievements, sports victories, diplomatic gains and technological contributions.

Issues and Analyses|April 13, 2023
March: Painful Path to Arab-Israeli Peace

March: Painful Path to Arab-Israeli Peace

March has seen some of the worst moments in Zionist history. The first Arab-Jewish battle at Tel Hai in 1920 killed Joseph Trumpeldor. The War of Attrition forced Israel to pay a continual toll for its success in the 1967 war. Terrorist attacks on Tel Aviv’s Savoy Hotel in 1975 and along the Coastal Road in 1978 traumatized the nation. Six Arab citizens were killed in 1976 when land protests turned violent.

Issues and Analyses|April 10, 2023
January: Stumbles Toward Peace

January: Stumbles Toward Peace

Compiled by the Center for Israel Education, January 2023 January in Zionist history has been a month for frustrated peace efforts and life transitions. Jan. 2, 1927 — Death of Ahad Ha’am Ahad Ha’am, the…

Issues and Analyses|January 31, 2023
Moshe Naor, “Israel’s 1948 War of Independence as a Total War,” 2008

Moshe Naor, “Israel’s 1948 War of Independence as a Total War,” 2008

Examination of the mobilization of society for the Israeli War of Independence effort enables one to present a more extended process that began in October 1947 — some two months prior to the outbreak of the war — and ended, from the standpoint of mobilization of personnel, at the beginning of 1949, when demobilization of the first draftees from the wartime army took place, and from an economic standpoint in April 1949, when an Austerity system was declared in the State of Israel.

Issues and Analyses|December 28, 2022
Hearing the Voices of History

Hearing the Voices of History

Wendy Kalman, November 30, 2021 As a researcher at the Center for Israel Education, I review and correct interview transcripts. CIE founder and Chief Content Officer Ken Stein interviewed nearly 90 diplomats, politicians and others…

Issues and Analyses|November 30, 2021
Reiter and Seligman, Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem, Har ha-Bayit and Al-Haram al-Sharif, 1917-Present

Reiter and Seligman, Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem, Har ha-Bayit and Al-Haram al-Sharif, 1917-Present

Since the 1920s the Sacred Esplanade of Jerusalem came to symbolise the bone of contention in the conflict over Palestine. The maintenance and even definition of the lines of division between the communities was a clear aim of the British authorities from 1920-1948. The communal/religious conflicts intensified after 1967 with the Israeli capture of East Jerusalem and other Arab-populated territory, which left neither side fully content.

Issues and Analyses|January 2009