Rhona Burns | “From King to Peasant: Class Imagination in the Formative Years of Jewish Nationalism”

Nationalism. Many of us think we know what this idea stands for. But what did it mean for early Jewish national activists and thinkers? This talk will focus on the crucial role of ideas of class and status in the formation of early Jewish nationalism: From dreams about the ideal peasant and farmer to hopes for an aristocratic leadership – the Jewish national future was imagined in various ways by different people. The presentation will explore some of the central ideas in Jewish nationalism’s early decades and consider their political implications for the following developments of Jewish nationalism, and perhaps even for current events.

Rhona Burns is a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies.