Women’s Initiative for Jewish Studies (WIJS) at Young Israel of New Rochelle is proud to present Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn on Sunday, March 2, 2025 @ 10:30 am (ET) on Zoom. Hirschhorn will be the seventh speaker of the 2024-2025 season in the monthly scholarly programming offered by WIJS at YINR.
Dr. Hirschhorn’s lecture is entitled, “New Day in Babylon and Jerusalem: Zionism, Jewish Power, and Identity Politics from 1967 to October 7.” This lecture (based on the author’s forthcoming book) explores the period between 1967 and 1975, a fascinating chapter of history about the first parting of ways of Zionism and the Left, and the unraveling of the unanimity of the American Jewish community over Israel (seen clearly in post- October 7th debates). With 1967 as its point of departure, Hirschhorn traces the earliest confrontations between two nascent, dueling movements, “Jewish Power” and “Black Power,” following these clashes over the next decade, culminating in the ‘Zionism is Racism’ debates of 1975.
The book and this lecture offer an original, historical approach to the framework of a “new antisemitism” and a first-of-its-kind approach of centering Israel in discussions about Jewish privilege and power in identity politics since the late 1960s.
Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn is currently Visiting Professor at the Ruderman Program in American Jewish Studies and Senior Researcher at the Comper Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa. She is also a Fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, Jerusalem. She was previously appointed as the Visiting Assistant Professor in Israel Studies at Northwestern University (2018-2022) and the University Research Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Oxford (2013-2018). Her research, teaching, and public engagement activities focus on Diaspora-Israel relations, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, and the Israeli Ultranationalist Movement. Her first book, “City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement” (Harvard, 2017), was the winner of the 2018 Sami Rohr Prize in Jewish Literature Choice Award and a finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award. She is currently working on a new manuscript entitled “New Day in Babylon and Jerusalem: Zionism, Jewish Power, and Identity Politics From 1967 to October 7,” that will offer a transnational history of the post-Six Day War period. Apart from her academic work, Dr. Hirschhorn is an internationally-recognized public speaker, writer, educator, media commentator, and consultant on contemporary Jewish/Israel affairs. Follow her public work at sarahirschhorn1@X (formerly known as Twitter).
All WIJS programming is open to women and men. Please visit https://www.yinr.org/wijs.html to view the complete WIJS 2024-25 schedule. For more information, to be added to the WIJS email list, or for Zoom information, please call 914-636-2215 or email: wijs@yinr.org. Individuals on the WIJS mailing list will automatically receive the Zoom information.
