This course will provide a comparative analysis of writing from and about Israel and Palestine, from the pre-State period onwards by Jewish-Israeli, Palestinian-Israeli and Palestinian writers. It will bring together a variety of literary texts by writers, including Avraham Shlonsky, Rahel, Avot Yeshurun, Mahmoud Darwish, Almog Behar and Sayed Kashua, to explore the human and personal aspect of ongoing war and political conflict. Topics under discussion will include: literary configurations of place and displacement, homecoming and exile, militarism, political commitment and dissent, and utopian and dystopian visions of the past and future. This multi-vocal view is intended to offer participants a picture of the complexity of national identity and belonging in this highly contested place, and how these fraught issues are given voice through literature.

Sponsored by the Adult Education Committee. JRC Congregants only. You do not need to attend all sessions to participate though it is encouraged. Register here

Teacher Bio: Dr. Beverly Bailis teaches courses in Hebrew language and literature at Brooklyn College.  She received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and her M.A. in Jewish Civilization from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  She specializes in Modern Hebrew, Jewish Literature and Gender Studies.  She has taught courses at JTS, The Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, the JCC in Manhattan, and other adult education programs in New York City.  She has published in Prooftexts and elsewhere, and one of her most recent articles, “Reading the Poetry of Mahmoud Darwish in the Transnational Classroom” appeared in the volume Teaching the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the College Classroom, published by Wayne State Press in 2019.  She is currently a co-editor, along with David Stern, of the forthcoming book, American Hebraist: Essays on Modern Hebrew and Jewish Literature and Literary Culture by Alan Mintz.  This anthology is in honor of her former dissertation advisor at JTS, Alan Mintz z”l.