HIST 250 - Palestine, Christian Zionism, and the Evangelical Empire

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as GNCS 250) Zionism was not the first modern movement for a Jewish state in Palestine. In fact, by the time Theodor Herzl founded the Zionist movement in 1897, British evangelicals had already spent most of the nineteenth century urging their government to occupy Palestine and help restore “the ancient and right lords of the soil, the Jews!” Their fascination with Jews and the Holy Land fueled an ever-expanding British political, missionary, touristic, and scholarly presence in Palestine. American Protestant churches soon shared the interest of their British counterparts, sponsoring tours of “The Land of the Bible.” This Intensive traces the cultural and institutional changes that led many groups calling Ottoman Palestine home–as the land’s “rightful” inhabitants. During the first part of this Intensive, we consider recent historical scholarship along with travel guides, visual art, sermons, and a variety of other sources. For the second part of the class, the students consult with the professor and together choose an important individual, institution, or event in the approximately two-hundred-year-history of Protestant efforts to “restore” Jews to Palestine. Students then compile a bibliography, gather primary and secondary sources, and write a mentored paper based on them. During this process, students meet regularly with the professor and/or other Vassar faculty to discuss the progress of their research. The sources to be collected and analyzed may include (but need not be limited to) published sermons, videos of religious services, fine art, archaeological bulletins, reviews of plays, Bible-themed pageants, or other dramatic presentations, popular fiction, missionary groups’ fundraising brochures, proselytizing materials, and European consular records. Joshua Schreier.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: INT