May

4 2023

UCSD Jewish Studies: Diaspora Israeli Culture in the 21st Century

Jewish Studies Annual Katzin Lecture
Beyond the Land: Diaspora Israeli Culture in the 21st Century with Professor Melissa Weininger
Thursday, May 4, 2023 | Atkinson Pavilion, Faculty Club
Reception begins at 4:30 p.m., lecture begins at 5 p.m.
Historically, the Jewish diaspora has been presented as the binary opposite to Jewish homeland. But a growing body of work by contemporary Israeli writers that I call “diaspora Israeli literature” reconsiders this binary opposition between homeland and diaspora, taking into account the existence of the state of Israel and its implications for diaspora Jewish identity as well as the implications for Zionism of diasporic conceptions of Israel. This talk will consider how this dynamic understanding of both an Israeli and a Jewish diaspora works to envision a non-hegemonic Jewish nationalism that can negotiate both political imagination and reality.