This course is designed to engage students in conversations about particular perspectives on the history of a selected nation, region, people, culture, institution, or historical phenomenon as specified by the respective instructor. By taking this course, students will come to understand, and develop an appreciation for, some combination of: the origins and evolution of the people, cultures, and/or political, economic, and/or social institutions of a particular region(s) of the world. They may also explore how human encounters shaped individual and collective identities and the complex political, economic, and social orders of the region/nation/communities under study. Instructors and subject will vary.

The years preceding and following the founding of Israel were dominated by intense events, which had an impact on all spheres of life. The course follows the history of Israel from the Balfour Declaration (November 1917) until the 1980s (The first Lebanon War and the first Intifadah), throughout the main junctions that affected the establishment of Israel and its social, cultural and political characteristics. During the course, students will be introduced to various dimensions in the shaping of Israeli state and society. Themes that will be covered include: the Zionist leadership and its internal polemics; Arab-Jewish relations in view of a changing, local and international, reality; Diplomacy and War in the eve of Israel's establishment; social relations and power relation during Israel's first decades (Jewish immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa; Arab citizens of Israel; the Ultra-Orthodox community), the 67, 73 and 82 Israeli young generations; civic activism (Black Panthers, Land Day); the Right/Left polemic—its social, political and cultural manifestations. The students will experience individual inquiry on specific case studies. Classes will include historical records analysis based on: Ben-Gurion's online Archive; Historical Jewish Press (J press) Documentary footage; cultural works (music, theatre, films) and oral history. Instructor bio: Paula Kabalo is an associate professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism. She served as the director of the Institute during the years 2013–2021. In 2011–2017, she was the founding chair of the Woodman-Scheller Israel Studies International MA program. Since 2017, she serves as the founding head of the Azrieli Center for Israel Studies at the Institute, a complex of research hubs that aim to decode core themes related to the Israel phenomenon and the Zionist Idea. Her book "Israeli Community Action: Living Through the War of Independence" (IUP) won the AIS Shapiro Prize for the year 2020. The book portrays patterns of community resilience and self-help organizations during Israel's war of independence. Her book "Shurat Ha'Mitnadvim—The Story of a Civic Association" (Am Oved and TAU, 2007), sheds light on an anti-corruption civic association active in early Israel. She has published dozens of articles on the patterns and roles of civic associations during Israel's early history (pre and post 1948), on state-citizen relations in Israel and on David Ben-Gurion's leadership, through the prism of leader-followers theories. Paula served as the history consultant for the documentary "Ben-Gurion: Epilogue" and is currently a member of the curating team working the Ben-Gurion Archive's exhibition hall at BGU. Her current work is on community Resilience and community action in 1960–1970s Israel.

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Requirements class fulfills