The Bible, the Lure of Antiquity, and Israeli Popular Culture

Title: The Bible, the Lure of Antiquity, and Israeli Popular Culture
Speaker: Yael Zerubavel
Founding Director, The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University

Description: Yael Zerubavel posits the thesis that the modern Israeli national movement looks to an ancient golden age to lend legitimacy to its modern culture. What makes Israeli culture different is the long break between antiquity and the modern migration of Jews to Palestine in the mid-20th century. The seeking of legitimacy run both forward and backward in time, with modern sensibilities ascribe to ancient characters, and by the process of projecting an air of antiquity on modern figures. She looks at how ancient events, including those described in the Bible, are used to help define and drive 20th and 21st century Israeli culture.

About the speaker: Zerubavel is a scholar of memory studies with an expertise in modern Israeli society and culture. Her work explores collective memory and identity, national myths, the transformation of traditions, war and trauma, and cultural perceptions of space. Her work addresses the impact of nationalism, secularization, immigration and dislocation, the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the reshaping of Jewish memory in Israel and developments within Israeli culture.

Sponsor: Program in Jewish Culture & Society (PJCS)
Lecture Series: Einhorn Lecture