The Balfour Declaration and its Legacy

Описание: On the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the Y&S Nazarian Center brought together a panel of scholars of British, Middle East and Jewish history and politics to explore the Balfour Declaration's origins and its significance for today.

Issues addressed by the speakers included: the circumstances that led to the declaration; its impact on the Zionist movement at the time; its influence on diaspora Jews' connection to the land of Israel/Palestine; and its relevance for current debates about the future of the region.

These speakers included (in order of appearance):

Jonathan Schneer is the modern British historian at Georgia Tech in the School of History, Technology, and Society. Dr. Schneer is the author of The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict which won a 2010 National Jewish Book Award, as well as six other books including, most recently, Ministers at War: Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet; London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis; and The Thames: England's River. He has published articles in leading scholarly journals and collections of essays. He was a founding member of the Radical History Review and served as its book review editor for seven years.

Mark A. Raider is Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of History at the University of Cincinnati and Director of the University’s Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Culture. He is also Visiting Professor of American Jewish History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Dr. Raider has authored or co-authored numerous books, including The Emergence of American Zionism; Abba Hillel Silver and American Zionism (with Jonathan D. Sarna and Ronald W. Zweig); The Plough Woman: Records of the Pioneer Women of Palestine. A Critical Edition, (with Miriam B. Raider-Roth); American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise (with Shulamit Reinharz); and others. His recent scholarly articles include “The Rise of Stephen S. Wise as a Jewish Leader” and “Stephen S. Wise and Golda Meir: Zionism, Israel and American Power in the Twentieth Century.”

Ian Lustick is Professor and Bess W. Heyman Chair in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lustick is interested in comparative politics, international politics, Middle Eastern politics, and agent-based, computer assisted modeling for the social sciences. He teaches courses on Middle Eastern politics, political identities and institutions, techniques of hegemonic analysis, the expansion and contraction of states, and on relationships among complexity, evolution, and politics.

Shira Efron (Moderator) is a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, a special advisor on Israel with RAND's Center for Middle East Public Policy, and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. At RAND, she is now launching a unique research program on Israel as well as continuing to research various Middle East topics including food, water and energy security, public health, technology adoption and more.

More information about the event can be found on the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies website: http://www.international.ucla.edu/isr....