The word “Israel” in the phrase “Israel Education” is a complicating term. It connotes multiple and, at times, disparate meanings which often add confusion rather than consistency to the field.
“Israel” is on one hand a Land of old (Eretz Yisrael) whose presence and position in the Jewish narrative plays a central role in the biblical Exodus generations. That “Israel” was an Imagined Land of which the Hebrews in Egypt had only heard, without experiencing it firsthand. To the twelve settling tribes, known as “Bnai Yisrael,” the People of Israel, “Israel” was a Covenantal Land which embodied their pact with the Holy One at Sinai and whose precise borders had fluctuated during various monarchies and eras.
Responses
Israel’s Declaration of Independence should be the starting point for any serious consideration of Israel’s past, present, and future. It is one of the key primary sources for developing an understanding of the complexity inherent in the modern State of Israel. As Zohar Raviv points out, the various identities implied by the name Israel are all contained and interwoven within this seminal document, and it is in this complex matrix of identities that our students find themselves lost without a clear navigable path. For much of Jewish history, Israel was a Remembered Land, an eschatological vision of a Homeland that could coexist peacefully with the reality of Diaspora Jews’ physical locations. In contemporary times,...
Zohar Raviv's vision is a challenging and demanding one, and isn't simple to implement. At what point, developmentally, are students ready for the paradoxical reality that the word "Israel" connotes multiple meanings to multiple people, both throughout time and in the contemporary setting? How and when do we introduce the notion of Israel as an imagined community, the meaning of which is a subject of contestation and debate? What do we risk in doing so? And what do we risk in not doing so?