Educational Resources
Browse our ever-growing library of books, films, podcasts, and more to deepen your connection to Israel and Jewish identity.
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| Image | Title | Description | Categories | Tags | Link | hf:categories | hf:tags | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | *** Upping Your Israel IQ Toolkit *** | Research & Analysis |
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 | +972 Magazine | +972 Magazine is an independent, non-profit magazine owned by a group of Israeli and Palestinian journalists, publishing reporting and analysis. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | 1913: Seeds of Conflict | It is the overlooked legacy of World War I. 1913: Seeds of Conflict looks at the moment of transformation when Ottoman rule in Palestine was still strong, the identities of Jerusalemites were fluid and few could imagine the conflict that would dominate the region for the next century. Until now, the public and scholars have focused on the British Mandate as the matchstick of the Middle East conflict. Breaking new ground, this film focuses on the moment just before World War I, when Arab and Jewish nationalism first made contact, and the seeds of conflict were first sewn. | Films | Palestinians, Pre-State, Zionism |
| films | palestinians pre-state zionism | |
 | 1948 by Benny Morris | This history of the foundational war in the Arab-Israeli conflict is groundbreaking, objective, and deeply revisionist. A riveting account of the military engagements, it also focuses on the war’s political dimensions. Benny Morris probes the motives and aims of the protagonists on the basis of newly opened Israeli and Western documentation. The Arab side–where the archives are still closed–is illuminated with the help of intelligence and diplomatic materials. Morris stresses the jihadi character of the two-stage Arab assault on the Jewish community in Palestine. Throughout, he examines the dialectic between the war’s military and political developments and highlights the military impetus in the creation of the refugee problem, which was a by-product of the disintegration of Palestinian Arab society. The book thoroughly investigates the role of the Great Powers–Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union–in shaping the conflict and its tentative termination in 1949. | Books | 1948 War, IDF, Palestinians |
| books | 1948-war idf palestinians | |
 | A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples by Ilan Pappe | Ilan Pappe’s book traces the history of Palestine from the Ottomans in the nineteenth century, through the British Mandate, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and the subsequent wars and conflicts which have dominated this troubled region. | Books | 1948 War, Palestinians, Pre-State, Six-Day War, Zionism |
| books | 1948-war palestinians pre-state six-day-war zionism | |
 | A Letter in the Scroll by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | For too long, Jews have defined themselves in light of the bad things that have happened to them. And it is true that, many times in the course of history, they have been nearly decimated: when the First and Second Temples were destroyed, when the Jews were expelled from Spain, when Hitler proposed his Final Solution. Astoundingly, the Jewish people have survived catastrophe after catastrophe and remained a thriving and vibrant community. The question Rabbi Jonathan Sacks asks is, quite simply: How? How, in the face of such adversity, has Judaism remained and flourished, making a mark on human history out of all proportion to its numbers? Written originally as a wedding gift to his son and daughter-in-law, A Letter in the Scroll is Rabbi Sacks’s personal answer to that question, a testimony to the enduring strength of his religion. Tracing the revolutionary series of philosophical and theological ideas that Judaism created — from covenant to sabbath to formal education — and showing us how they remain compellingly relevant in our time, Sacks portrays Jewish identity as an honor as well as a duty. | Books | Jewish Thought |
| books | jewish-thought | |
 | A Line in the Sand by James Barr | Through a stellar cast of politicians, diplomats, spies and soldiers – including T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle – ‘A Line in the Sand’ tells the story of the short but crucial era when Britain and France ruled the Middle East. | Books | Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | pre-state zionism | |
 | A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust by David Wyman and Rafael Medoff | In his landmark bestseller, The Abandonment of the Jews, David Wyman exhaustively detailed America’s failure to help rescue the victims of Nazi genocide. But one man, Peter Bergson, led a tireless battle against that tide of indifference, making it impossible for American leaders to plead ignorance of the German atrocities. Now, Wyman, along with Rafael Medoff, tells for the first time the story of the man who led America’s most effective campaign to rescue victims of the Holocaust. | Books | Holocaust/World War II |
| books | holocaust-world-war-ii | |
 | A Soldier with the Arabs by Sir John Bagot Glubb | The memoirs of the former Commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion during his time as commander from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to his abrupt dismissal in 1956. | Books | 1948 War, Autobiography/Memoir, Palestinians | books | 1948-war autobiography-memoir palestinians | ||
 | A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion by Tom Segev | As the State of Israel’s first leader, David Ben-Gurion long ago secured his reputation as a leading figure of the twentieth century. Determined from an early age to create a Jewish state, he thereupon took control of the Zionist movement, declared Israel’s independence, and navigated his country through wars, controversies and remarkable achievements. And yet Ben-Gurion remains an enigma — he could be driven and imperious, or quizzical and confounding. In this definitive biography, Israel’s leading journalist-historian Tom Segev uses large amounts of previously unreleased archival material to give an original, nuanced account, transcending the myths and legends that have accreted around the man. Along the way, Segev reveals for the first time Ben-Gurion’s secret negotiations with the British on the eve of Israel’s independence, his willingness to countenance the forced transfer of Arab neighbors, his relative indifference to Jerusalem, and his occasional “nutty moments.” The result is a full and startling portrait of a man who sought a state “at any cost” — at times through risk-taking, violence, and unpredictability, and at other times through compromise, moderation, and reason. Segev’s Ben-Gurion is neither a saint nor a villain but rather a historical actor who belongs in the company of Lenin or Churchill — a twentieth-century leader whose iron will and complex temperament left a complex and contentious legacy that we still reckon with today. | Books | 1948 War, Biography, Israeli Prime Ministers, Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | 1948-war biography israeli-prime-ministers pre-state zionism | |
 | A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz | A family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of Israel and lived through its turbulent history. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of a boy who grows up in war-torn Jerusalem, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. The story of an adolescent whose life has been changed forever by his mother’s suicide. The story of a man who leaves the constraints of his family and community to join a kibbutz, change his name, marry, have children. The story of a writer who becomes an active participant in the political life of his nation. | Books | 1948 War, Autobiography/Memoir, Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | 1948-war autobiography-memoir pre-state zionism | |
 | Above and Beyond | Would you risk everything – your future, your citizenship, even your life – to help a brother in need? In 1948, just three years after the liberation of Nazi death camps, a group of Jewish American pilots answered a call for help. In secret and at great personal risk, they smuggled planes out of the U.S., trained behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia and flew for Israel in its War of Independence. As members of Machal – “volunteers from abroad” – this ragtag band of brothers not only turned the tide of the war; they also embarked on personal journeys of discovery and renewed Jewish pride. Above and Beyond is their story. | Films | 1948 War, FFT Recommended, IDF |
| films | 1948-war fft-recommended idf | |
 | Al Arabiya | Al Arabiya English is the leading source of news and opinion from the Middle East for English-speaking audiences around the world. It is a 24-hour digital news platform publishing breaking news, politics, business, features, opinion and lifestyle. With a headquarters in Dubai and correspondents across the region, Al Arabiya English presents a globalized view of the Arab world to audiences across five continents. | News Sources |
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 | al-Monitor | Al-Monitor features unmatched reporting and analysis by prominent journalists and experts from the Middle East and North Africa, through our reporting and analysis on Egypt, the Gulf, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, North Africa, Palestine, Syria and Turkey. Our Washington and Russia coverage looks at how policies from Washington and Russia impact the MENA region. Founded by Jamal Daniel in 2012, Al-Monitor’s mission is to foster a deeper understanding between the Middle East and the international community by diving deep with analytical pieces from some of the most trusted, independent authors from across the globe. Our team represents a diverse set of perspectives and Al-Monitor provides a unique, multilingual platform that amplifies their insights to allow us to uncover the trends that are shaping the future of the Middle East. | News Sources |
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 | Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide by Michael Oren | Michael Oren’s memoir of his time as Israel’s ambassador to the United States—a period of transformative change for America and a time of violent upheaval throughout the Middle East—provides a frank, fascinating look inside the special relationship between America and its closest ally in the region. An American by birth and a historian by training, Oren arrived at his diplomatic post just as Benjamin Netanyahu, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton assumed office. During Oren’s tenure in office, Israel and America grappled with the Palestinian peace process, the Arab Spring, and existential threats to Israel posed by international terrorism and the Iranian nuclear program. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, US-Israel Relationship |
| books | autobiography-memoir us-israel-relationship | |
 | Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947 by Bruce Hoffman | In this groundbreaking work, Bruce Hoffman—America’s leading expert on terrorism—brilliantly re-creates the crucial thirty-year period that led to the birth of Israel. Drawing on previously untapped archival resources in London, Washington, D.C., and Jerusalem, Anonymous Soldiers shows how the efforts of two militant Zionist groups brought about the end of British rule in the Middle East. Hoffman shines new light on the bombing of the King David Hotel, the assassination of Lord Moyne in Cairo, the leadership of Menachem Begin, the life and death of Abraham Stern, and much else. Above all, he shows exactly how the underdog “anonymous soldiers” of Irgun and Lehi defeated the British and set in motion the chain of events that resulted in the creation of the formidable nation-state of Israel. One of the most detailed and sustained accounts of a terrorist and counterterrorist campaign ever written, Hoffman has crafted the definitive account of the struggle for Israel—and an impressive investigation of the efficacy of guerrilla tactics. Anonymous Soldiers is essential to anyone wishing to understand the current situation in the Middle East. | Books | Etzel/Irgun, Lehi/Stern Group, Pre-State |
| books | etzel-irgun lehi-stern-group pre-state | |
 | Arutz Sheva – Israel National News | Arutz Sheva keeps you informed on the latest news from Israel, the Middle East and Jewish world. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel’s Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky | Modern Israel’s founding fathers provided some of the boldest and most principled leadership of any nation. At a time when the political destiny of Israel is more uncertain than at any moment since its modern founding, Be Strong and of Good Courage celebrates the defining generation of leaders who took on the task of safeguarding the country’s future. David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon were all present at the creation of the new nation in 1948. Over the next sixty years, each experienced moments when the country’s existence was directly imperiled. In those moments, Israel needed extraordinary acts of leadership and strategic judgment to secure its future, and these leaders rose to the occasion. The strength they showed allowed them to prevail. | Books | 1948 War, Biography, IDF, Israeli Prime Ministers, Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | 1948-war biography idf israeli-prime-ministers pre-state zionism | |
 | Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies | The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (also known by its acronym, the BESA Center) is an independent, non-partisan think tank conducting policy-relevant research on Middle Eastern and global strategic affairs, particularly as they relate to the national security and foreign policy of Israel and regional peace and stability. | Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | Behind the Silken Curtain by Bartley Crum | A Personal Account of Anglo-American Diplomacy in Palestine and the Middle East. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Pre-State |
| books | autobiography-memoir pre-state | |
 | Ben Gurion Epilogue | In the great depths of the archive, six hours of interview footage was discovered of one of modern history’s greatest leaders- David Ben-Gurion. It is 1968 and he is 82 years old, five years before his death. He lives in his secluded home in the desert, removed from all political discourse, which allows him a hindsight perspective on the Zionist enterprise. Ben-Gurion’s introspective soul searching is the focus of this film, and his clear voice provides a surprising vision for today’s crucial decisions and the future of Israel. | Films | Israeli Prime Ministers |
| films | israeli-prime-ministers | |
 | Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel by Anita Shapira | David Ben-Gurion cast a great shadow during his lifetime, and his legacy continues to be sharply debated to this day. There have been many books written about the life and accomplishments of the Zionist icon and founder of modern Israel, but this new biography by eminent Israeli historian Anita Shapira strives to get to the core of the complex man who would become the face of the new Jewish nation. Shapira tells the Ben-Gurion story anew, focusing especially on the period after 1948, during the first years of statehood. As a result of her extensive research and singular access to Ben-Gurion’s personal archives, the author provides fascinating and original insights into his personal qualities and those that defined his political leadership. | Books | Biography, Israeli Prime Ministers, Zionism |
| books | biography israeli-prime-ministers zionism | |
 | Blind Jump: The Story of Shaike Dan by Rudolf Steiner | Blind Jump is the story of the amazing exploits of Shaike Dan. During World War II, Shaike Dan volunteered to parachute behind enemy lines in Romania on behalf of British Intelligence. His jump had two objectives: to locate the prison camp where 1,400 Allied Air Force crewman, downed when bombing the Ploesti oil fields in Romania, were being held, and also to find ways to get them out of Romania so that they could go back into action and resume their contribution to the war effort. The second objective was to try to rescue Jews from Eastern Europe and get them to Palestine. Thus began his remarkable career of rescuing Jews behind the Iron Curtain, an endeavor that continued almost up to the very present. | Books | Holocaust/World War II, Pre-State |
| books | holocaust-world-war-ii pre-state | |
 | Brotherhood of Warriors by Aaron Cohen | At the age of eighteen, Aaron Cohen left Beverly Hills to prove himself in the crucible of the armed forces. He was determined to be a part of Israel’s most elite security cadre, akin to the American Green Berets and Navy SEALs. After fifteen months of grueling training designed to break down each individual man and to rebuild him as a warrior, Cohen was offered the only post a non-Israeli can hold in the special forces. In 1996 he joined a top-secret, highly controversial unit that dispatches operatives disguised as Arabs into the Palestinian-controlled West Bank to abduct terrorist leaders and bring them to Israel for interrogation and trial. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, IDF |
| books | autobiography-memoir idf | |
 | Cast a Giant Shadow | WWII hero Mickey Marcus (Kirk Douglas) is called to the new state of Israel to build an army. Against the wishes of his wife, Mickey makes the journey and begins transforming a ragtag underground army into a first-class fighting machine. | Films | 1948 War, Holocaust/World War II, Pre-State, Zionism |
| films | 1948-war holocaust-world-war-ii pre-state zionism | |
 | Catch the Jew! by Tuvia Tenenbom | Catch the Jew! recounts the adventures of gonzo journalist Tuvia Tenenbom, who wanders around Israel and the Palestinian Authority for seven months in search of the untold truths in today’s Holy Land. With holy chutzpah, Tenenbom boldly goes where no Jew has gone before, at times risking his life as he assumes the identities of Tobi the German and even Abu Ali in order to probe into the many stories in this strange land and poke holes in all of them. From the self-hating leftists in Tel Aviv to the self-promoting PLO execs in Ramallah, from the black-clad Haredim of Bet Shemesh to the glowing foreign human rights activists in Beit Hanina, from Jewish settlers and the Christians who come from abroad to toil with them to ardent Jerusalem monks and Bedouins in surprisingly glorious shacks, Tenenbom takes on the people of the land, getting to know them and disarming them as he breaks bread and mingles with anyone and everyone. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir |
| books | autobiography-memoir | |
 | Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War by Micah Goodman | Since the Six-Day War, Israelis have been entrenched in a national debate over whether to keep the land they conquered or to return some, if not all, of the territories to Palestinians. In 2017, best-selling Israeli author Micah Goodman published a balanced and insightful analysis of the situation that quickly became one of Israel’s most debated books of the year. Now available in English translation with a new preface by the author, Catch-67 deftly sheds light on the ideas that have shaped Israelis’ thinking on both sides of the debate, and among secular and religious Jews about the Israeli‑Palestinian conflict. Contrary to opinions that dominate the discussion, he shows that the paradox of Israeli political discourse is that both sides are right in what they affirm—and wrong in what they deny. Although he concludes that the conflict cannot be solved, Goodman is far from a pessimist and explores how instead it can be reduced in scope and danger through limited, practical steps. Through philosophical critique and political analysis, Goodman builds a creative, compelling case for pragmatism in a dispute where a comprehensive solution seems impossible. | Books | FFT Recommended, Palestinians, Six-Day War |
| books | fft-recommended palestinians six-day-war | |
 | Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land by Sandy Tolan | It is an unlikely story. Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, a child from a Palestinian refugee camp, confronts an occupying army, gets an education, masters an instrument, dreams of something much bigger than himself, and then, through his charisma and persistence, inspires scores of others to work with him to make that dream real. The dream: a school to transform the lives of thousands of children — as Ramzi’s life was transformed — through music. Children of the Stone chronicles Ramzi’s journey — from stone thrower to music student to school founder — and shows how through his love of music he created something lasting and beautiful in a land torn by violence and war. This is a story about the power of music, first, but also about freedom and conflict, determination and vision. It’s a vivid portrait of life amid checkpoints and military occupation, a growing movement of nonviolent resistance, the prospects of musical collaboration across the Israeli–Palestinian divide, and the potential of music to help children everywhere see new possibilities for their lives. | Books | Palestinians |
| books | palestinians | |
 | Chutzpah: Why Israel Is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Inbal Arieli | Discover the secret behind how Israel, a tiny country with the highest concentration of start-ups per capita worldwide, is raising generations of entrepreneurs who are disrupting markets around the globe and bringing change to the world. Despite its small size, it attracts more venture capital per capita than any other country on the planet. What factors have led to these remarkable achievements, and what secrets do Israeli tech entrepreneurs know that others can learn? | Books | Israeli Innovation |
| books | israeli-innovation | |
 | Colliding Dreams | Colliding Dreams recounts the dramatic history of one of the most controversial, and urgently relevant political ideologies of the modern era. The century-old conflict in the Middle East continues to play a central role in world politics. And yet, amidst this fierce, often-lethal controversy, the Zionist idea of a homeland for Jews in the land of ancient Israel remains little understood and its meanings often distorted. Colliding Dreams addresses that void with a gripping exploration of Zionism’s meaning, history and future. | Films | Palestinians, Pre-State, Zionism |
| films | palestinians pre-state zionism | |
 | Conversations with Yitzhak Shamir by Haim Misgav | A leader of resolute intention and firm Zionist conviction, Yitzhak Shamir adheres to the principle that there can be no compromise in matters of conscience. His term as Prime Minister (1986-1992) and tenure as leader of the Likud party were notable for his unflinching integrity and abiding concern for Israel’s growth and security. This one-time freedom fighter for the liberation of the Jewish people from dependence on other nations fervently believes that the fulfillment of the Zionist dream is not only a matter of rational determination. It also depends on an emotional and intellectual belief in the mission of Israel to overcome her enemies and prevail as the eternal homeland of the Jewish people. These fascinating conversations with Haim Misgav cover a wide range of important historical and political topics and reflect on Mr. Shamir’s heroic carer as warrior, statesman, and Jewish visionary. | Books | Biography, Israeli Prime Ministers, Lehi/Stern Group, Zionism |
| books | biography israeli-prime-ministers lehi-stern-group zionism | |
 | Daily Alert | Daily Alert offers 100 hyperlinked excerpts each week from the mainstream media. Thousands of people receive the Daily Alert by email, more view it online. It is a digest of news and commentary about Israel and the Middle East, published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. | News Sources |
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 | Days of Fire by Shmuel Katz | Shmuel Katz immigrated to British Mandatory Palestine in 1936. He became active in the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the underground militia fighting for Jewish statehood, eventually rising to become a member of the Irgun High Command and its primary spokesman to the world media. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Etzel/Irgun, Pre-State |
| books | autobiography-memoir etzel-irgun pre-state | |
 | Decolonization and the Jews | Rudy Rochman and Rabbi Yehuda HaKohen discuss: Have the Jewish people been colonized? Are Jews a religion? A race? An ethnicity? A culture? Was Zionism a colonial or decolonial project? What does Jewish decolonization look like? What are the current challenges & objectives of Jewish liberation? | Videos | Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| videos | jewish-thought zionism | |
 | Defiance by Nehama Tec | Nechama Tec tells the story of the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II. Arguing that the success of the Bielski partisans, as the rescue organization came to be known, would have been unthinkable without the vision of one man, Tec offers penetrating insight into the group’s commander, Tuvia Bielski. Tec brings to light the untold story of Bielski’s struggle as a partisan who lost his parents, wife, and two brothers to the Nazis, yet never wavered in his conviction that it was more important to save one Jew than to kill twenty Germans. She shows how, under Bielski’s guidance, the partisans smuggled Jews out of heavily guarded ghettos, scouted the roads for fugitives, and led retaliatory raids against Belorussian peasants who collaborated with the Nazis. Herself a Holocaust survivor, Nechama Tec here draws on wide-ranging research and never before published interviews with surviving partisans–including Tuvia Bielski himself–to reconstruct here the poignant and unforgettable story of those who chose to fight. | Books | Holocaust/World War II |
| books | holocaust-world-war-ii | |
 | Der Judenstaat by Theodor Herzl | Many are aware that Theodor Herzl is considered the father of Zionism, the political movement that culminated in the creation of the modern State of Israel, but if you asked what exactly he envisioned for “The Jewish State” many would struggle to answer. Der Judenstaat is a must-read for all who wish to understand Herzl’s vision for Jewish salvation, and now, with the passage of more than a century, have the opportunity to evaluate what he, and Zionism, got right and wrong. | Books | FFT Recommended, Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | fft-recommended pre-state zionism | |
 | Doomed to Succeed: The US-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama by Dennis Ross | When it comes to Israel, US policy has always emphasized the unbreakable bond between the two countries and our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security. But it was not always this way. Dennis Ross has been a direct participant in shaping US policy toward the Middle East, and Israel specifically, for nearly thirty years. He served in senior roles, including as Bill Clinton’s envoy for Arab-Israeli peace, and was an active player in the debates over how Israel fit into the region and what should guide US policies. In Doomed to Succeed, he takes us through every administration from Truman to Obama, throwing into dramatic relief each president’s attitudes toward Israel and the region, the often tumultuous debates between key advisers, and the events that drove the policies and at times led to a shift in approach. | Books | US-Israel Relationship |
| books | us-israel-relationship | |
 | Dr. Mordechai Kedar: The Emirates Paradigm | 2017 | Dr. Mordechai Kedar discusses why the emirates paradigm has succeeded in the Middle East and why it can with the Palestinians, too. | Videos | Palestinians |
| videos | palestinians | |
 | Elnakam by Ezra Yakhin | Elnakam is the code name given to Ezra Yakhin. He was born in Jaffa in 1928 but his early childhood was spent in Jerusalem, opposite the walls of the Old City, from where he and his family were evacuated during the 1929 Arab riots. His youth was spent in the busy lanes of the Machane Yehuda Quarter, where the seeds of revolution against British rule were nurtured, eventually bringing him into service in the Lehi. He participated in reconnaissances, in ambushes and in other actions against the British and Arabs. Elnakam was miraculously saved from prison and death many times, was wounded twice and lost an eye in the attack on the Old City. This book, originally written in Hebrew, has been reprinted nine times and is widely used in different educational institutions as an aid in study of the history of Israel’s War of Independence. | Books | 1948 War, Autobiography/Memoir, Lehi/Stern Group, Pre-State |
| books | 1948-war autobiography-memoir lehi-stern-group pre-state | |
 | Endless Light: The Ancient Path of Kabbalah by Rabbi David Aaron | After years of careful study, Rabbi David Aaron helps us find the answers to life’s questions as revealed in the Kabbalah, the mystical tradition of Judaism. Unlike other works on the Kabbalah, which are often academic, abstract, and unrelated to our everyday challenges and concerns, Endless Light is a thought-provoking, practical guide that illuminates our path in life. Rich in personal stories and anecdotes, it offers a deeper awareness of ourselves, our inner conflicts, and the way we understand and receive life’s bounteous gifts. | Books | Jewish Thought |
| books | jewish-thought | |
 | Every Individual, a King: The Social and Political Thought of Ze’Ev Vladimir Jabotinsky by Raphaella Bilski Ben-Hur | Discussion about Jabotinsky’s political, social and economic thought. Analysis of his relationship to liberal democracy, social and economic policy, leadership, army and militarism, discipline and ceremony, the principle of majority rule, the individual, race, nation and humanity. Investigation of Jabotinsky’s Zionist thought: the nation and the Jewish race, connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, the Diaspora perception, the role and place of Jewish religion and origins of antisemitism. Discussion on the topics: humanism and ideology, nature of rule and the desired political culture, the relationship to the Arabs, education, the Hebrew language, women’s status, ethics and truth, ways and means to establishing a Jewish state, aliyah, relationship to British rule and the controversy with the workers’ movement. | Books | Biography, Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | biography pre-state zionism | |
 | Exodus | Otto Preminger’s classic 1960 epic about the birth of Israel stars Paul Newman as a commander of the Israeli underground who leads 600 Jews on a harrowing journey from the detention camps of Cyprus to Palestine. | Films | Holocaust/World War II, Pre-State, Zionism |
| films | holocaust-world-war-ii pre-state zionism | |
 | Exodus by Leon Uris | Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon – the towering novel of the twentieth century’s most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies – the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era. Here is Exodus -one of the great best-selling novels of all time. | Books | Historical Fiction, Holocaust/World War II, Pre-State |
| books | historical-fiction holocaust-world-war-ii pre-state | |
 | Fauda | A top Israeli agent comes out of retirement to hunt for a Palestinian fighter he thought he’d killed, setting a chaotic chain of events into motion. | TV Shows | IDF, Palestinians |
| tv-shows | idf palestinians | |
 | Fear No Evil by Natan Sharansky | Fear No Evil is the memoir of Israeli activist and politician Natan Sharansky about his struggle to immigrate to Israel from the former Soviet Union. He tells the story of the Jewish refuseniks in the USSR in the 1970s, his show trial on charges of espionage, incarceration by the KGB and eventual liberation. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Zionism |
| books | autobiography-memoir zionism | |
 | Fightworld (Israel: Masters of War) | Actor and fight enthusiast Frank Grillo travels the world, immersing himself in different fight cultures to understand their traditions and motivations. In Israel, Grillo receives a lesson on Krav Maga, a unique style of hand-to-hand combat used by citizens and military forces alike. | TV Shows | IDF, Jewish Thought |
| tv-shows | idf jewish-thought | |
 | Flase Flag | Five Israeli citizens find themselves plunged into a gripping international espionage affair overnight. These ordinary people, going about their daily business, wake up one morning to discover that they are implicated in a ruthless kidnapping operation following the disappearance of the Iranian Defence Minister while on a secret visit to Moscow. News bulletins repeatedly flash their names and passport photos on screen, linking them to video footage from the kidnapping. | TV Shows | Mossad |
| tv-shows | mossad | |
 | Flexigidity: The Secret of Jewish Adaptability by Gidi Grinstein | Gidi Grinstein offers a bird’s eye systemic view of Jewish society, exploring the secret of Jewish survival, resilience, security, prosperity, and leadership during past millennia. Gidi argues that this secret stems from a unique societal hybrid between old and new, tradition and innovation, rigidity and flexibility—Flexigidity. He shows how this hybrid exists in many areas of Jewish society including mission, community, law, and membership, explaining how this legacy may be key to Israel’s future prosperity and security. | Books | Israeli Innovation, Jewish Thought |
| books | israeli-innovation jewish-thought | |
 | Forged in Fury: A True Story of Courage, Horror…and Revenge by Michael Elkins | Concerning the murder of 6,000,000 Jews between 1941 and 1945, this account covers the lives of a group of Jews, who in 1945 vowed revenge on the Germans. Through forming a secret organization called DIN (or “judgement”), they were responsible for the deaths of over 1000 Nazis. | Books | Holocaust/World War II |
| books | holocaust-world-war-ii | |
 | From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters | This monumental and fascinating book, the product of seven years of original research, will forever change the terms of the debate about the conflicting claims of the Arabs and the Jews in the Middle East. The weight of the comprehensive evidence found and brilliantly analyzed by historian and journalist Joan Peters answers many crucial questions, among them: Why are the Arab refugees from Israel seen in a different light from all the other, far more numerous peoples who were displaced after World War II? Why, indeed, are they seen differently from the Jewish refugees who were forced, in 1948 and after, to leave the Arab countries to find a haven in Israel? Who, in fact, are the Arabs who were living within the borders of present-day Israel, and where did they come from? | Books | 1948 War, Palestinians, Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | 1948-war palestinians pre-state zionism | |
 | Gatestone Institute | Gatestone Institute, a non-partisan, not-for-profit international policy council and think tank is dedicated to educating the public about what the mainstream media fails to report in promoting:
| Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad by Gordon Thomas | In the secret world of spies and covert operations, no other intelligence service continues to be as surrounded by myth and mystery as the Mossad. Gordon Thomas reveals that all too often the truth exceeds all the fantasies about the Mossad. | Books | Mossad |
| books | mossad | |
 | Gidi: One Chasing a Thousand by Joseph Evron | Few knew him by his full name, Amihai Paglin. Everyone called him Gidi. His name became a legend. He appeared suddenly, like a shooting star, out of the looming storm clouds of the Jewish war for independence in Palestine Eretz Israel. He turned the Irgun Zvai Leumi into a formidable fighting machine, striking at the British without pause and without mercy and 100,000 military and police personnel could find no effective response. | Books | Biography, Etzel/Irgun, Pre-State |
| books | biography etzel-irgun pre-state | |
 | Globes | Israel’s first and only English-language business and financial newspaper. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Haaretz | Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Haaretz Weekly | From Haaretz – Israel’s oldest daily newspaper – a weekly podcast in English on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World, hosted by Simon Spungin. | Podcasts | IDF, Jewish Thought, Palestinians, US-Israel Relationship, Zionism |
| podcasts | idf jewish-thought palestinians us-israel-relationship zionism | |
| Hasbarism Versus Liberal Zionism Versus Hebrew Universalism | A 2014 debate between former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami and West Bank Jewish peace activist Yehuda HaKohen. | Videos | 1948 War, Jewish Thought, Palestinians, Pre-State, Six-Day War, Zionism |
| videos | 1948-war jewish-thought palestinians pre-state six-day-war zionism | |
 | Hidden Lights of Torah | Student and activist Simon Kaufman/Shlomo Yitzhak takes us on a journey to reach the inner worlds of Torah. | Podcasts | Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| podcasts | jewish-thought zionism | |
 | i24NEWS | i24NEWS is an Israeli international 24-hour news and current affairs television channel broadcasting in French, English and Arabic. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | In our Own Hands: The Hidden Story of the Jewish Brigade in World War II | The final weeks of World War II. His Majesty’s Jewish Brigade – the only all-Jewish fighting unit in the war – goes into combat against the hated Nazis… and comes away victorious. It is after the war, though, that the real story of the Brigade begins. Amidst the chaos of post-war Europe, and under the noses of the occupying Allied armies, the young Jewish soldiers mastermind one clandestine operation after the next: forming secret vengeance squads to assassinate Nazi officers in hiding…engineering the rescue and illegal movement of Holocaust survivors to Palestine. Later, in 1948, Brigade veterans help organize and lead the fledgling Israel Defense Forces in their new country’s War of Independence. From the trenches of Northern Italy to the refugee camps of war-torn Europe, In our Own Hands unravels the thrilling tale of young Jewish soldiers who carried the weight of a people on their shoulders. | Films | Holocaust/World War II, Pre-State |
| films | holocaust-world-war-ii pre-state | |
 | In This Place Together: A Palestinian’s Journey to Collective Liberation by Sulaiman Khatib | As a Palestinian youth, Sulaiman Khatib encountered the occupation in his village and attempted to fight back, stabbing an Israeli. Imprisoned at the age of 14, he began a process of political and spiritual transformation still unfolding today. In a book he asked Penina Eilberg-Schwartz, an American Jew, to write, and based on years of conversation between them, Khatib shares how his activism became deeply rooted in the belief that we must ground all work—from dialogue to direct action to healing—in recognition of the history and humanity of the other. He reveals how he became convinced that Palestinian freedom can flourish alongside Jewish connection to the land where he was born. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Palestinians |
| books | autobiography-memoir palestinians | |
 | International Law Issues in the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict, with Eugene Kontorovich | Eugene Kontorovich is a professor at Northwestern Law whose research spans the fields of constitutional law, international law, and law and economics. He has authored a series of papers that extend “transaction cost” analysis from private law to constitutional law. He speaks and writes about contemporary law issues in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, including the BDS Movement, Palestinian statehood, and Israel’s borders. | Videos | 1948 War, Palestinians, Pre-State, Six-Day War, Zionism |
| videos | 1948-war palestinians pre-state six-day-war zionism | |
 | Interview with Abba Eban | April 12, 1958 | As the tenth anniversary of the founding of Israel approached, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Abba Eban talked to Mike Wallace about Arab nations, the Arab refugee problem, Egyptian President Nasser, the role of American Jews in Israel’s future, and the charge that Israel threatens world peace with a policy of territorial expansion. | Videos | 1948 War, Jewish Thought, Palestinians, Zionism |
| videos | 1948-war jewish-thought palestinians zionism | |
 | Interview with Golda Meir | 1970 | Dubbed the “Iron Lady” of Israeli politics Thames Televisions ‘This week’ speaks exclusively to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. First Shown on British Television in 1970. | Videos | 1948 War, Israeli Prime Ministers, Palestinians, Six-Day War, Zionism |
| videos | 1948-war israeli-prime-ministers palestinians six-day-war zionism | |
 | Interview with Menachem Begin | January 10, 1972 | Menachem Begin reflects on his time leading the Etzel/Irgun against the British in Palestine. | Videos | Etzel/Irgun, Israeli Prime Ministers, Pre-State |
| videos | etzel-irgun israeli-prime-ministers pre-state | |
 | Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace | A three part documentary series examines the last years of the Arab-Israeli peace process from the point of view of presidents and prime ministers, their generals and ministers and those behind the suicide bombs and assassinations. The series reveals what happened behind closed doors as the peace process failed and the violence of the intifada exploded. | Films | FFT Recommended, Palestinians, US-Israel Relationship |
| films | fft-recommended palestinians us-israel-relationship | |
 | Israel Hayom | Israel Hayom is Israel’s most widely-read newspaper. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Israel Story | Israel Story is a bi-weekly podcast, hosted by Mishy Harman and distributed by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange. It tells modern tales from an ancient land – the kind of stories you’d share with a friend over a plate of hummus on a Friday afternoon, or with your partner at the end of a long day. These are everyday stories, told by, and about, regular Israelis. The award-winning show is one of the most popular programs in Israel, where it is aired nationally, on prime-time. | Podcasts | IDF, Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| podcasts | idf jewish-thought zionism | |
 | Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis | Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world’s attention, aroused its imagination, and lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future? Daniel Gordis offers a brief but thorough account of the cultural, economic, and political history of this complex nation, from its beginnings to the present. | Books | Zionism |
| books | zionism | |
 | Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, by Noa Tishby | Israel. The small strip of arid land is 5,700 miles away from the United States but remains a hot-button issue and a thorny topic of debate. But while everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know the facts? Here to fill in the information gap is Israeli American Noa Tishby. But this is not your Bubbie’s history book. Instead, offering a fresh, 360-degree view, Tishby brings her passion, humor, and deep intimacy to the subject, creating an accessible and dynamic portrait of a tiny country of outsized relevance. Through bite-sized chunks of history and deeply personal stories, Tishby chronicles her homeland’s evolution, beginning in Biblical times and moving forward to cover everything from WWI to Israel’s creation to the disputes dividing the country today. Tackling popular misconceptions with an abundance of facts, Tishby provides critical context around headline-generating controversies and offers a clear, intimate account of the richly cultured country of Israel. | Books | Jewish Thought, Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | jewish-thought pre-state zionism | |
 | IsraelCast | A podcast powered by Jewish National Fund sharing stories of interesting people doing fascinating work all over Israel. | Podcasts | Jewish Thought, US-Israel Relationship, Zionism |
| podcasts | jewish-thought us-israel-relationship zionism | |
 | Jabotinsky by Hillel Halkin | Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940) was a man of huge paradoxes and contradictions and has been the most misunderstood of all Zionist politicians–a first-rate novelist, a celebrated Russian journalist, and the founder of the branch of Zionism now headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. This biography, the first in English in nearly two decades, undertakes to answer central questions about Jabotinsky as a writer, a political thinker, and a leader. Hillel Halkin sets aside the stereotypes to which Jabotinsky has been reduced by his would-be followers and detractors alike. | Books | Biography, Pre-State |
| books | biography pre-state | |
| Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs | The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is an Israeli research institute specializing in public diplomacy and foreign policy. | Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | Jewish Currents | Jewish Currents is a quarterly magazine of progressive, secular Jewish thought. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Jewish Journal | The Jewish Journal is a source for Jewish news, opinion and entertainment in Los Angeles, the United States, Israel and around the world. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Jewish News Syndicate | Jewish News Syndicate is an independent, non-profit news agency reaching Jewish communities throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Jewish People and Ideas with Barak Hullman | Conversations with Jewish Thought Leaders & Influential Jews with Barak Hullman. | Podcasts | Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| podcasts | jewish-thought zionism | |
 | Jewish Telegraphic Agency | Founded in 1917, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is a source of breaking news, in-depth analysis, opinion and features on current events of interest to the Jewish people. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Jews and Words by Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger | Why are words so important to so many Jews? Novelist Amos Oz and historian Fania Oz-Salzberger roam the gamut of Jewish history to explain the integral relationship of Jews and words. Through a blend of storytelling and scholarship, conversation and argument, father and daughter tell the tales behind Judaism’s most enduring names, adages, disputes, texts, and quips. These words, they argue, compose the chain connecting Abraham with the Jews of every subsequent generation. Framing the discussion within such topics as continuity, women, timelessness, and individualism, Oz and Oz-Salzberger deftly engage Jewish personalities across the ages, from the unnamed, possibly female author of the Song of Songs through obscure Talmudists to contemporary writers. They suggest that Jewish continuity, even Jewish uniqueness, depends not on central places, monuments, heroic personalities, or rituals but rather on written words and an ongoing debate between the generations. Full of learning, lyricism, and humor, Jews and Words offers an extraordinary tour of the words at the heart of Jewish culture and extends a hand to the reader, any reader, to join the conversation. | Books | Jewish Thought |
| books | jewish-thought | |
 | Let There Be Water by Seth Siegel | Let There Be Water illustrates how Israel can serve as a model for countries everywhere by showing how to blunt the worst of the coming water calamities. Even with 60 percent of its country made of desert, Israel has not only solved its water problem; it also has an abundance of water, supplying its Palestinian and Jordanian neighbors every day. Based on meticulous research and hundreds of interviews, this book reveals the methods and techniques of the often offbeat inventors who enabled Israel to lead the world in cutting-edge water technology. | Books | Israeli Innovation |
| books | israeli-innovation | |
 | Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi | Attempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli commentator and award-winning author of Like Dreamers directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes. Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of “the enemy.” In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East. This is the first attempt by an Israeli author to directly address his Palestinian neighbors and describe how the conflict appears through Israeli eyes. Halevi untangles the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the conflict for nearly a century. In lyrical, evocative language, he unravels the complex strands of faith, pride, anger and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel, using history and personal experience as his guide. | Books | Palestinians, Zionism |
| books | palestinians zionism | |
 | Lights On Orot: The Teachings of HaRav Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook by David Samson and Tzvi Fishman | Rav Kook’s Orot explores the deepest, most esoteric understandings of the nation of Israel, and Israel’s role in world redemption. Lights On Orot is intended to be a series of commentaries on Rav Kook’s most profound and visionary treatise. | Books | FFT Recommended, Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| books | fft-recommended jewish-thought zionism | |
 | Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation by Yossi Klein Halevi | In Like Dreamers, acclaimed journalist Yossi Klein Halevi interweaves the stories of a group of 1967 paratroopers who reunited Jerusalem, tracing the history of Israel and the divergent ideologies shaping it from the Six-Day War to the present. Following the lives of seven young members from the 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade, the unit responsible for restoring Jewish sovereignty to Jerusalem, Halevi reveals how this band of brothers played pivotal roles in shaping Israel’s destiny long after their historic victory. While they worked together to reunite their country in 1967, these men harbored drastically different visions for Israel’s future. | Books | FFT Recommended, IDF, Six-Day War |
| books | fft-recommended idf six-day-war | |
 | Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel by Francine Klagsbrun | Born in tsarist Russia in 1898, Golda Meir immigrated to America in 1906 and grew up in Milwaukee where from the earliest years she displayed the political consciousness and organizational skills that would eventually catapult her into the inner circles of Israel’s founding generation. A series of public service jobs brought her to the attention of David Ben-Gurion, and her political career took off. Fund-raising in America in 1948, secretly meeting in Amman with King Abdullah right before Israel’s declaration of independence, mobbed by thousands of Jews in a Moscow synagogue as Israel’s first representative to the USSR, serving as Minister of Labor and Foreign Minister in the 1950s and 1960s, Golda brought fiery oratory, plainspoken appeals, and shrewd-making to the cause to which she had dedicated her life — the welfare and security of the State of Israel and its people. As prime minister, Golda negotiated arms agreements with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger and had dozens of clandestine meetings with Jordan’s King Hussein in the unsuccessful pursuit of a land-for-peace agreement with Israel’s neighbors. But her time in office ended in tragedy, when Israel was caught off guard by Egypt and Syria’s surprise attack on Yom Kippur in 1973. Resigning in the war’s aftermath, Golda spent her final years keeping a hand in national affairs and bemusedly enjoying international acclaim. | Books | Biography, Israeli Prime Ministers, Zionism |
| books | biography israeli-prime-ministers zionism | |
 | Lone Wolf: A Biography of Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky | Shmuel Katz’s detailed and comprehensive biography of Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940) is an unabashedly partisan defense of one of the most complex Zionists of the early 20th century. Jabotinsky was a Russian poet, playwright, journalist, and novelist as well as the founder of Revisionist Zionism and of Betar. His oratory in many languages was legendary. Katz first heard him speak in South Africa in the early part of the 20th century and was so impressed that he dropped out of university to work for Revisionist Zionism. Katz recounts Jabotinsky’s efforts to create the Jewish Legion during World War I, traces the history of Jewish relations with the British during the time of the Palestine Mandate, describes Jabotinsky’s role in the defense of the Jewish Yishuv and in organizing the Af-Al-Pi “illegal” Jewish immigration to Palestine before World War II. He paints a vivid mural of competing Jewish personalities, factions and ideologies in the decades before the establishment of Israel. | Books | Biography |
| books | biography | |
 | Long is the Road to Freedom by Yaakov Meridor | Long is the Road to Freedom accounts the personal experience of the leader of the Irgun before Menachem Begin took over after his arrival in Israel. Yaakov Meridor describes his experience of being a prisoner of the British colonial administration, exiled in prison camps in Africa, and the countless escapes he took part in and his journeys through Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Kenya in the mid 1940s. It is the story of the tenacity and fighting spirit of the Nation of Israel and the determination of the liberators of the Irgun Zvai Leumi to get back to their homeland of Israel. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Etzel/Irgun, Pre-State |
| books | autobiography-memoir etzel-irgun pre-state | |
 | MEF | The Middle East Forum, a think tank founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes, promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats. In the Middle East, we focus on ways to defeat radical Islam; work for Palestinian acceptance of Israel; develop strategies to contain Iran; and deal with advancing anarchy. Domestically, the Forum emphasizes the danger of lawful Islamism; protects the freedoms of anti-Islamist authors, and activists; and works to improve Middle East studies. | Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist by Yossi Klein Halevi | Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist is a coming-of-age story about a traumatic family history, radical politics, and spiritual transformation that speaks to a new generation struggling to understand what it means to be Jewish in America. The child of a Holocaust survivor, Yossi Klein Halevi grew up in 1960s Brooklyn perceiving reality through the lens of his family’s brutal past. Increasingly identifying with their history of suffering, he regarded the non-Jewish world with fear and loathing. Determined to take action—and seek retribution—he became a disciple of the late rabbi Meir Kahane and a member of the radical fringe of the American Jewish community. In this wry and moving account, Halevi explores the deep-rooted anger of his adolescence and early adulthood that fueled his increasingly aggressive activism. He reveals how he started to question his beliefs—and his self-inflicted suffering as a hostage of history—and see the world from his own clear perspective. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| books | autobiography-memoir jewish-thought zionism | |
 | MEMRI | Exploring the Middle East and South Asia through their media, MEMRI bridges the language gap between the West and the Middle East and South Asia, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, Urdu-Pashtu, Dari, Turkish, and Russian media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends. Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. MEMRI’s main office is located in Washington, DC, with branch offices in various world capitals. MEMRI research is translated into English, French, Polish, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Hebrew. | Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | Menachem Begin: A Life by Avi Shilon | The first full-scale biography of one of the most important—and enigmatic—leaders in Israeli history. This riveting biography is the first to provide a satisfactory answer to the question, Who was Menachem Begin? Based on wide-ranging research among archival documents and on testimonials and interviews with Begin’s closest advisers, the book presents a detailed new portrait of Israel’s founding leader. Among the many topics Avi Shilon holds up to new light are Begin’s antagonistic relationship with David Ben-Gurion, his controversial role in the 1982 Lebanon War, his unique leadership style, the changes in his ideology over the years, and the mystery behind the total silence he maintained at the end of his career. Through Begin’s remarkable life, the book also recounts the history of the right-wing segment of Israeli society, a story essential to understanding the Israel of today. | Books | Biography, Etzel/Irgun, Israeli Prime Ministers |
| books | biography etzel-irgun israeli-prime-ministers | |
 | Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul by Daniel Gordis | A biography of the sixth prime minister of Israel that explains how the pre-state “terrorist” became the first Israeli leader to sign a peace treaty with an Arab country. Reviled as a fascist demagogue by his great rival Ben-Gurion, venerated by Israel’s underclass, internationally admired as a statesman who became the first Israeli to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a proud Jew but not a conventionally religious one, Menachem Begin was a complex and controversial figure. Mourned by Israelis from both the Right and the Left upon his death in 1992, Begin was buried not alongside Israel’s prime ministers, but alongside the Irgun comrades who died in the struggle to create the Jewish national home to which he had devoted his life. | Books | Biography, Israeli Prime Ministers |
| books | biography israeli-prime-ministers | |
 | Mila 18 by Leon Uris | It was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy—and a time of transcendent courage and determination. Leon Uris’s blazing novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists. | Books | Historical Fiction, Holocaust/World War II |
| books | historical-fiction holocaust-world-war-ii | |
 | Mosaic | Launched in June 2013, Mosaic takes a lively, serious, and committed approach to Jewish issues and ideas. The main feature in Mosaic is a full-length monthly essay on an issue or theme of pressing significance for Jews, Judaism, or the Jewish state. To enrich discussion of each essay, invited experts offer responses to the author’s contentions and conclusions, followed, at the end of the month, by the author’s reply. In addition, Mosaic regularly carries a variety of briefer opinion pieces, thoughts on issues and events of the day, historical reflections, and the like. Finally, a permanent feature of the website is the daily “Editors’ Picks”: a handful of the day’s most urgent items, gathered from far-flung places around the web and introduced in short summaries of their specific substance and import. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Moshe Dayan: Israel’s Controversial Hero by Mordechai Bar-On | Instantly recognizable with his iconic eye patch, Moshe Dayan (1915–1981) was one of Israel’s most charismatic—and controversial—personalities. As a youth he earned the reputation of a fearless warrior, and in later years as a leading military tactician, admired by peers and enemies alike. As chief of staff during the 1956 Sinai Campaign and as minister of defense during the 1967 Six Day War, Dayan led the Israel Defense Forces to stunning military victories. But in the aftermath of the bungled 1973 Yom Kippur War, he shared the blame for operational mistakes and retired from the government. He later proved himself a principled and talented diplomat, playing an integral role in peace negotiations with Egypt. In this biography, Mordechai Bar-On, Dayan’s IDF bureau chief, offers an intimate view of Dayan’s private life, public career, and political controversies, set against an original analysis of Israel’s political environment from pre-Mandate Palestine through the early 1980s. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir |
| books | autobiography-memoir | |
 | Mossad 101 | Cadets from every level of Israeli society undergo intense training to join their country’s elite, highly classified intelligence service, the Mossad. | TV Shows | Mossad |
| tv-shows | mossad | |
 | Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service by Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal | Mossad unveils the defining and most dangerous operations, unknown heroes, and mysterious agents of the world’s most respected—and most enigmatic—intelligence service. Here are the thrilling stories of daring top secret missions, including the capture of Adolf Eichmann, the eradication of Black September, the destruction of the Syrian nuclear facility, and the elimination of key Iranian nuclear scientists. Drawn from intensive research and exclusive interviews with Israeli leaders and Mossad operatives, this riveting history brings to life the brave agents, deadly villains, and major battlegrounds that have shaped Israel and the world at large for more than sixty years. | Books | Mossad |
| books | mossad | |
 | My Country, My Life: Fighting for Israel, Searching for Peace by Ehud Barak | Born on a kibbutz, Ehud Barak became commander of Israel’s elite special forces, then army Chief of Staff, and ultimately, Prime Minister. My Country, My Life tells the unvarnished story of his — and his country’s — first seven decades; of its major successes, but also its setbacks and misjudgments. He offers candid assessments of his fellow Israeli politicians, of the American administrations with which he worked, and of himself. Drawing on his experiences as a military and political leader, he sounds a powerful warning: Israel is at a crossroads, threatened by events beyond its borders and by divisions within. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Israeli Prime Ministers, Zionism |
| books | autobiography-memoir israeli-prime-ministers zionism | |
 | My Glorious Brothers by Howard Fast | My Glorious Brothers is the epic story of perhaps the most breathtaking chapter in the history of Israel, a stirring tale of courage for those who like to find meaning for today’s world in the great events of history. After a ransacked and desecrated Jerusalem, Simon and his four brothers—soon to be known and revered as the Maccabees—rise to lead an earthshaking rebellion. Their tale has almost no parallel in human history. Theirs was the will, fire, and unbending spirit that inspired the timeless rite of Hanukkah, transforming a society of farmers and scholars into an unconquerable army that would wage the first modern fight for freedom and the first victory for religious freedom. | Books | FFT Recommended, Historical Fiction |
| books | fft-recommended historical-fiction | |
 | My Mission in Israel by Ambassador James McDonald | A truly world changing account of the life and career of James G. McDonald. McDonald was the first American ambassador to the new nation of Israel in 1948, his diary details his meetings with some of the people who changed the world during the twentieth century. | Books | 1948 War, Autobiography/Memoir, US-Israel Relationship |
| books | 1948-war autobiography-memoir us-israel-relationship | |
 | My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit | Ari Shavit draws on interviews, historical documents, private diaries, and letters, as well as his own family’s story, illuminating the pivotal moments of the Zionist century to tell a riveting narrative that is larger than the sum of its parts: both personal and national, both deeply human and of profound historical dimension. | Books | Zionism |
| books | zionism | |
 | Natural Born Settlers | A self-described liberal from cosmopolitan Tel Aviv, Zaki wanted to get behind the politics of Israel’s controversial settlements in the occupied territories — so she moved there, temporarily, setting up an improvised cafe where she could chat with settlers from her own generation to learn what it’s like to grow up in an Israeli settlement. | Videos | Jewish Thought, Palestinians, Zionism |
| videos | jewish-thought palestinians zionism | |
 | Netanyahu at War | An inside look at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political rise and his relationship with the United States. This documentary traces the stormy relationship between Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama over their fundamentally different views of the world. For Netanyahu, Obama’s vision of the Middle East threatened Israel’s existence. Told through riveting footage and interviews with political insiders in Jerusalem and Washington. | Films | Israeli Prime Ministers, US-Israel Relationship |
| films | israeli-prime-ministers us-israel-relationship | |
| New Generation New Conversation | Can Palestinians find more common ground with Jewish nationalists than with liberal Israelis? Palestinian activist Sami Awad & Rabbi Yehuda HaKohen at Hebrew University’s Rothberg International School in Jerusalem discussing the failures of the peace process, the rival narratives contextualizing the conflict and fresh ideas for achieving a peace that can satisfy the aspirations of both peoples. | Videos | Jewish Thought, Palestinians, Zionism |
| videos | jewish-thought palestinians zionism | |
 | No Room for Small Dreams: Courage, Imagination and the Making of Modern Israel by Shimon Peres | In 1934, eleven-year-old Shimon Peres emigrated to the land of Israel from his Poland, leaving behind an extended family who would later be murdered in the Holocaust. Few back then would have predicted that this young man would eventually become one of the towering figures of the twentieth century. Peres would go on to serve as Israel’s prime minister, president, foreign minister, and the head of several other ministries. He was central to the establishment of the Israel Defense Forces and the defense industry that would provide the young nation with a robust deterrent power. He was crucial to launching Israel’s nuclear energy program and to the creation of its high-tech “Start-Up Nation” revolution. His refusal to surrender to conventional wisdom and political conventions helped save the Israeli economy and prompted some of the most daring military operations in history, among them the legendary Operation Entebbe. Examining pivotal moments in Israel’s rise, Peres explores what makes for a great leader, how to make hard choices in a climate of uncertainty and distress, the challenges of balancing principles with policies, and the liberating nature of imagination and unpredicted innovation. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Israeli Prime Ministers, Zionism |
| books | autobiography-memoir israeli-prime-ministers zionism | |
 | No Trophy No Sword: An American Volunteer in the Israeli Air Force During the 1948 War of Independence by Harold Livingston | Harold Livingston recounts the greatest adventure he would ever know: the true story of how a ragtag fleet of predominantly American Jewish volunteers were assembled to form what would eventually become the revered and indomitable Israeli Air Force. Just prior to the 1948 war for independence, a group of American and foreign Air Force veterans banded together in an effort to help the Israelis attain their goal of becoming a nation. Livingston masterfully delineates the austere realities that he and his compatriots endured and describes dozens of diminutive victories, secured not by acts of military genius but by jury-rigging, bribery, courage, and luck. The result is an astonishing and deftly told account of the role Livingston played in the historic battle to preserve a people and give birth to the state of Israel. | Books | 1948 War, Autobiography/Memoir, IDF |
| books | 1948-war autobiography-memoir idf | |
 | Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by Sari Nusseibeh | From his time teaching side by side with Israelis at the Hebrew University through his appointment by Yasir Arafat to administer the Arab Jerusalem, Sari Nusseibeh’s Once Upon a Country dives into the consequences of war, partition, and terrorism in this land. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Palestinians |
| books | autobiography-memoir palestinians | |
 | Operation Uranium Ship by Dennis Eisenberg, Eli Landau, Menahem Portugali | In the aftermath of the Six-Day War, the Israelis found that the French cut off their uranium supply for political reasons. What did the Israelis do? They got hold of some by snatching it up in transit. The story is told from a man-on-the-ground perspective. Weaving together the different stories in a fast-paced tale, Eisenberg tells a story in a manner similar to a thriller novel. With intriguing characters like the former sniper whose family thought he was a traveling businessman, Eisenberg tells the story with an eye for the detail of the personalities of the people involved in the Plumbat Affair. | Books | Mossad, Six-Day War |
| books | mossad six-day-war | |
 | Orientalism and the Jews by Derek J. Penslar | Orientalism and the Jews demonstrates that, since the Middle Ages, Jews have been seen in the Western world as both occidental and oriental. Jews formed the model for medieval depictions of Muslim warriors. Representations of biblical Jews in early modern Europe provided essential sustenance for Western fictions about the Muslim world. And many of the Western protagonists of imperialism “discovered” real or imaginary Jews wherever their expeditions took them. Today orientalist attitudes by Israelis target not only Arabs but also the mizrahi (“oriental”) Israelis with roots in the Arab world as Others. | Books | Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | pre-state zionism | |
 | Orientalism by Edward Said | Edward Said’s groundbreaking critique of the West’s historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East traces the origins of “orientalism” to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined “the orient” simply as “other than” the occident. Said describes how this entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding. | Books | Palestinians |
| books | palestinians | |
 | Orot by HaRav Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook | Zionism was a body that needed a soul breathed into it. Rav Kook would provide such a soul in the form of Jerusalemism. | Books | Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| books | jewish-thought zionism | |
 | Our Man in Damascus: Elie Cohn by Eli Ben-Hanan | Elie Cohn was hanged from a hook in Martyrs’ Square, Damascus, and his body, draped in a white robe, was left hanging for six hours in public view. The execution was carried live, from beginning to end, by Syrian television, and in Israel a pale woman tensely followed every scene, heard every imprecation hurled by the announcer and the frenzied crowd. The woman was Nadia Cohn, the wife of Israel’s greatest spy – a man who had penetrated the highest echelons of the Syrian government so successfully that he was, at the time of his capture, being seriously considered for a minister’s post. This is the true story of Elie Cohn, his selection and training, his first missions and connections in Argentina, and eventually his cunning and resourceful actions in Damascus, where he became the intimate of high-ranking army officers and of President El-Hafez himself. There he gained access to some of Syria’s most important military secrets, and what he reported became invaluable to Israel’s security: it helped Israel to win one of the most brilliant victories in the history of warfare in 1967. Today Elie Cohn is a martyr and a legend. His life and brutal death are a symbol of the courageous men behind the scenes in the tense, often vicious, and infinitely subtle and strained relations between Israel and the Arab world. | Books | Biography, Mossad, Six-Day War |
| books | biography mossad six-day-war | |
 | Palestine Betrayed by Efraim Karsh | The 1947 UN resolution to partition Palestine irrevocably changed the political landscape of the Middle East, giving rise to six full-fledged wars between Arabs and Jews, countless armed clashes, blockades, and terrorism, as well as a profound shattering of Palestinian Arab society. Its origins, and that of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict, are deeply rooted in Jewish-Arab confrontation and appropriation in Palestine. But the isolated occasions of violence during the British Mandate era (1920–48) suggest that the majority of Palestinian Arabs yearned to live and thrive under peaceful coexistence with the evolving Jewish national enterprise. So what was the real cause of the breakdown in relations between the two communities? | Books | Palestinians, Pre-State |
| books | palestinians pre-state | |
 | Palestinian Media Watch | Founded in 1996, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) is a non-profit Israeli research institute known internationally for its in-depth research of Palestinian society from a broad range of perspectives. PMW’s findings are sought after by governments, legislators, media outlets, and decision-makers worldwide and have played a central role in correcting inaccurate narratives about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. | Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | Partisans of Vilna | This film tells the story of the men and women who formed the Jewish partisan movement in Vilna, Lithuania, during World War II. After over sixty thousand Lithuanian Jews were decimated by the Nazis, the remaining survivors began fighting back. Gradually united through skirmishes in the ghettos of Vilna (now Vilnius), scattered partisans formed a commando unit which took to the forests to battle German forces through sabotage and mayhem. Dozens of survivors relate startling tales of bravery and audacity chronicling one of the earliest instances of organized Jewish resistance to the horrors of the Holocaust. | Films | Holocaust/World War II |
| films | holocaust-world-war-ii | |
 | Prisoners of War | Seventeen years ago, a reserve unit was sent deep into Lebanon for a secret operation to apprehend a senior ranking terrorist. The operation failed and during the rescue, three soldiers, Nimrode Klein, Uri Zach and Amiel Ben Horin were left behind and captured. Tonight, after years of covert negotiations, the boys come home as part of a prisoner swap. Two of them come back alive, one in the coffin. This is their story. | TV Shows | IDF |
| tv-shows | idf | |
 | Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story by Matti Friedman | It was just one remote hilltop in an unnamed war in the late 1990s, but it would send out ripples that are still felt today, foreshadowing the chaos of 21st-century conflicts in the Middle East. The hill, in Lebanon, was called the Pumpkin; ‘flowers’ was the military code word for casualties. Part memoir, part reportage and part haunting elegy for lost youth, award-winning writer Matti Friedman’s powerful account follows the band of young soldiers – the author among them – conscripted out of high school into holding this remote outpost, and explores how the task would change them forever. Pumpkinflowers is a lyrical yet devastating insight into the day-today realities of war, and a powerful coming-of-age narrative. Raw and beautifully rendered, this essential chronicle casts an unflinching look at the nature of modern warfare, in which there is never a clear victor and innocence is not all that is lost. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir |
| books | autobiography-memoir | |
 | Rabbi David Aaron | Join and listen in as we embark on a journey to rediscover our deepest selves with Rabbi David Aaron. Rabbi Aaron is a spiritual visionary and master educator who has invested over three decades delving into life’s biggest questions and sharing Torah’s transformational wisdom with searching souls. Rabbi Aaron gently urges us to take a look at the self-defeating and silly notions we carry about ourselves and G-d. His wit and humor will entertain your inner child while his teachings open your mind to perceive a profound, new world. | Podcasts | Jewish Thought |
| podcasts | jewish-thought | |
| Rabbi Yehuda HaKohen: Post-Zionism and Jewish Liberation | 2017 | Rabbi Yehuda HaKohen discusses the need for post-zionism to advance Jewish liberation forward. | Videos | Jewish Thought, Palestinians, Six-Day War, Zionism |
| videos | jewish-thought palestinians six-day-war zionism | |
 | Rabin in His Own Words | Rabin in His Own Words is an “autobiography” of sorts, the story is told entirely in Rabin’s own voice. Through a combination of rare archival footage, home movies and private letters, his personal and professional dramas unfold before the viewer’s eyes – from his childhood as the son of a labor leader before the founding of the State of Israel, through a change of viewpoint that turned him from a farmer into an army man who stood at some of the most critical junctures in Israeli history, through his later years during which he served as Prime Minister and made moves that enraged a large portion of the public, until the horrific moment when his political career and life were suddenly brought to an end.
| Films | Autobiography/Memoir, Israeli Prime Ministers |
| films | autobiography-memoir israeli-prime-ministers | |
 | Rage and Glory | An avowed anarchist and Stern Gang hitman is sent to Jerusalem to assassinate a senior British officer creating much tension within the already troubled cell and almost brings its collapse, as the British operatives are closing in. Heralded by the Film Society of Lincoln Center as one of the most important films in fifty years of Israeli cinema. | Films | Lehi/Stern Group, Pre-State, Zionism |
| films | lehi-stern-group pre-state zionism | |
 | Raid On Entebbe | Based on actual events surrounding Israel’s Operation Thunderbolt, members of the Revolutionary Cells and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijack an Air France flight, and the airplane makes its way to an airport in Entebbe, Uganda. The terrorists release all but the Israeli passengers, and then threaten to execute them if Israel doesn’t release terrorists in Israeli prisons. Refusing to negotiate, Israeli officials devise one of the greatest hostage rescue plans in history. | Films | IDF, Israeli Prime Ministers |
| films | idf israeli-prime-ministers | |
 | Reut Group | The Reut Group is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2004 by Gidi Grinstein as the Reut Institute to become a leadership, strategy, and impact organization. Reut creates and scales innovative models that tackle critical challenges facing the State of Israel, Israeli society and the Jewish world. Using our unique combination of theory, methodology, and technology, we identify areas in which ‘blind spots’ in the way leaders perceive a given reality generate a “fundamental gap” between these perceptions and fast-changing realities. Reut’s process is based on the work of the Praxis Institute’s reframing methods, tools, and services its founder Dr. Zvi Lanir. | Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman | The Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting the nation from harm has been the responsibility of its intelligence community and armed services, and there is one weapon in their vast arsenal that they have relied upon to thwart the most serious threats: Targeted assassinations have been used countless times, on enemies large and small, sometimes in response to attacks against the Israeli people and sometimes preemptively. In this page-turning, eye-opening book, journalist and military analyst Ronen Bergman offers a riveting inside account of the targeted killing programs: their successes, their failures, and the moral and political price exacted on the men and women who approved and carried out the missions. Including never-before-reported, behind-the-curtain accounts of key operations, and based on hundreds of on-the-record interviews and thousands of files to which Bergman has gotten exclusive access over his decades of reporting, Rise and Kill First brings us deep into the heart of Israel’s most secret activities. Bergman traces, from statehood to the present, the gripping events and thorny ethical questions underlying Israel’s targeted killing campaign, which has shaped the Israeli nation, the Middle East, and the entire world. | Books | Mossad |
| books | mossad | |
 | Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End by Daniel Gordis | The Jewish State must end, say its enemies, from intellectuals like Tony Judt to hate-filled demagogues like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even average Israelis are wondering if they wouldn’t be better off somewhere else and whether they ought to persevere. Daniel Gordis is confident his fellow Jews can renew their faith in the cause, and in Saving Israel, he outlines how. | Books |
| books | |||
 | Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy by Shlomo Ben-Ami | Former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami was a key figure in the Camp David negotiations and many other rounds of peace talks, public and secret, with Palestinian and Arab officials. Here he offers an unflinching account of the Arab-Israeli conflict, informed by his firsthand knowledge of the major characters and events. | Books | Palestinians, Zionism |
| books | palestinians zionism | |
 | Seeing God: Ten Life Changing Lessons of the Kabbalah by Rabbi David Aaron | In this important, inspirational, and eminently practical book, Rabbi David Aaron, founder of the world-renowned Isralight Institute, teaches us how to “see” God through the wisdom of the Kabbalah. Making these powerful ancient truths accessible to modern readers, Seeing God offers guidance for living a more meaningful life and provides simple exercises to put the principles into practice. | Books | Jewish Thought |
| books | jewish-thought | |
 | Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael Oren | Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting. Writing with a novelist’s command of narrative and a historian’s grasp of fact and motive, Michael B. Oren reconstructs both the lightning-fast action on the battlefields and the political shocks that electrified the world. Extraordinary personalities—Moshe Dayan and Gamal Abdul Nasser, Lyndon Johnson and Alexei Kosygin—rose and toppled from power as a result of this war; borders were redrawn; daring strategies brilliantly succeeded or disastrously failed in a matter of hours. And the balance of power changed—in the Middle East and in the world. | Books | IDF, Six-Day War |
| books | idf six-day-war | |
 | Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef | Since he was a small boy, Mosab Hassan Yousef has had an inside view of the deadly terrorist group Hamas. The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member of Hamas and its most popular leader, young Mosab assisted his father for years in his political activities while being groomed to assume his legacy, politics, status… and power. But everything changed when Mosab turned away from terror and violence, and embraced instead the teachings of another famous Middle East leader. In Son of Hamas, Mosab Yousef-now called “Joseph”-reveals new information about the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization and unveils the truth about his own role, his agonizing separation from family and homeland, the dangerous decision to make his newfound faith public, and his belief that the Christian mandate to “love your enemies” is the only way to peace in the Middle East. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, FFT Recommended, Palestinians |
| books | autobiography-memoir fft-recommended palestinians | |
 | Soul Talk with Rabbi David Aaron and Leora Mandel | Having a relationship with G-d is so important. Yet, since we don’t hear G-d, or see G-d, how can we cultivate a real sense of connection to our creator? As it turns out, we can hear and see G-d and even feel G-d, but doing so requires our developing our senses to G-d’s frequency. How? Listen to Soul Talk with Rabbi David Aaron and Leora Mandel. Soul Talk is part of Israel News Talk Radio. Browse the Israel News Talk Radio show to find episodes of Soul Talk. | Podcasts | Jewish Thought |
| podcasts | jewish-thought | |
 | Speaking for Israel: A Speechwriter Battles Anti-Israel Opinions at the United Nations by Aviva Klompas | According to Aviva Klompas, representing Israel at the United Nations is like volunteering to sell Red Sox paraphernalia outside Yankee Stadium. During her time as the director of speechwriting for Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Klompas crafted highly acclaimed speeches that advanced Israel’s policies and informed public opinion. In Speaking for Israel, Klompas gives readers a glance behind the curtain of international politics and all the drama, intrigue, and conflict that simmer under the surface. Constantly in the thick of things, Klompas’s experience with the Israeli UN delegation is full to bursting with juicy insider stories and a day-to-day look at what it’s like in the top diplomatic echelon. With humor and bite, Speaking for Israel tells her story, one that is both universal and uniquely singular. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir |
| books | autobiography-memoir | |
 | Spies of No Country: Israel’s Secret Agents at the Birth of the Mossad by Matti Friedman | The four spies were young, Jewish, and born in Arab countries. In 1948, at the outbreak of war in Palestine, they went undercover in Beirut, spending two years running sabotage operations and sending crucial intelligence back home. It was dangerous work. Of the dozen members of their ragtag unit, five would be caught and executed—but the remainder would emerge as the nucleus of the Mossad, Israel’s vaunted intelligence agency. Journalist and award-winning author Matti Friedman’s masterfully told and meticulously researched tale of Israel’s first spies reads like an espionage novel—but it’s all true. Spies of No Country is about the slippery identities of these spies, but it’s also about the complicated identity of Israel, a country that presents itself as Western but in fact has more citizens with Middle Eastern roots, just like the spies of this fascinating narrative. | Books | 1948 War, Mossad |
| books | 1948-war mossad | |
 | Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle by Dan Senor and Saul Singer | Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel– a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources– produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada and the UK? With the savvy of foreign policy insiders, Senor and Singer examine the lessons of the country’s adversity-driven culture, which flattens hierarchy and elevates informality– all backed up by government policies focused on innovation. In a world where economies as diverse as Ireland, Singapore and Dubai have tried to re-create the “Israel effect”, there are entrepreneurial lessons well worth noting. As America reboots its own economy and can-do spirit, there’s never been a better time to look at this remarkable and resilient nation for some impressive, surprising clues. | Books | IDF, Israeli Innovation |
| books | idf israeli-innovation | |
 | Stern: The Man and His Gang by Zev Golan | Stern: The Man and His Gang traces Abraham Stern’s evolution from hated gangster to folk hero and chronicles the military and political deeds of the thousand Jews who joined his war against England. In the 1940s, before there was an Israel, the Holy Land was rocked by warfare and violence, and no militia was fiercer than the band of Jewish revolutionaries known as the Stern Gang. This is the first English-language account of the life of Abraham Stern, the charismatic poet who founded the underground that called itself the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel (Lehi), and also provides a comprehensive history of the group’s operations in the years 1940-48, when it fought what it called British imperialism in the Mideast. | Books | Biography, FFT Recommended, Lehi/Stern Group, Pre-State |
| books | biography fft-recommended lehi-stern-group pre-state | |
 | Summing Up by Yitzhak Shamir | A major figure in Israeli politics, Yitzhak Shamir chronicles his long career and his fervent belief in Zionism, recounting how he left Poland to join the Jewish underground of Palestine, spent years in the Mossad, and became Prime Minister of Israel. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Israeli Prime Ministers, Lehi/Stern Group, Pre-State |
| books | autobiography-memoir israeli-prime-ministers lehi-stern-group pre-state | |
 | Tablet Magazine | Tablet Magazine is a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Terror Out of Zion by J. Bowyer Bell | This is the definitive story of desperate, dedicated revolutionaries who were driven to conclude that lives must be taken if Israel were to live. The dynamite bombing of the King David Hotel and the assassinations of Lord Moyne in Cairo and Count Bernardotte in Palestine were but a few acts of terror which forced the British out of the Middle East. Terror Out of Zion evaluates whether these acts were extremist or necessary, and whether these men and women were fanatics or freedom fighters. Terror Out of Zion serves as a primer for those who would understand contemporary political divisions in Israel. It is based on careful historical research and interviews with surviving members of the Irgun, chronicling bombings, assassinations, prison escapes, and endless cycles of retaliation in the terror that gave birth to Israel, but, no less, continues to inform its political relations. Bell has fashioned an adventure story that also explains the sources of current tensions and frictions within Israel. | Books | Etzel/Irgun, Lehi/Stern Group, Pre-State |
| books | etzel-irgun lehi-stern-group pre-state | |
 | The “Bergson Boys” by Judith Baumel | During and shortly after World War II, six young emissaries of the revisionist-Zionist “Irgun” military movement in Palestine revolutionized the American Jewish and Zionist scene. Judith Baumel provides the complete story of the role the Bergson group played in raising American public consciousness of Jewish and Zionist concerns. After founding a series of pro-Zionist and rescue organizations, they initiated a new form of fundraising that used the media to turn the spotlight on their activities, gaining adherents and supporters from both ends of the political and social spectrum. Long before the protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s, members of this group learned the art of courting the media in order to bring word of their existence to every part of the United States. Having energized politicians, gangsters, Hollywood moguls, and ultra- Orthodox rabbis, the handful of young men taught other Zionist and American- Jewish groups not only how the media was the message but how it could and should be used. A guiding force behind the creation of the War Refugee Board, the group served as a beacon for contemporary Zionist militancy while ultimately laying the groundwork for other organizations to utilize the media in future political campaigns. | Books | Etzel/Irgun, Holocaust/World War II, US-Israel Relationship, Zionism |
| books | etzel-irgun holocaust-world-war-ii us-israel-relationship zionism | |
 | The Algemeiner | The Algemeiner, a global news destination published online and in print, serves as an independent media voice covering the Middle East, Israel and matters of Jewish interest around the world. It was founded in 1972 by famed journalist Gershon Jacobson as Der Algemeiner Journal and was originally published in Yiddish. In 2008, Dovid Efune was named Editor-in-Chief and Executive Director. In 2012, he launched Algemeiner.com. The Algemeiner’s board is chaired by Gershon’s oldest son Simon Jacobson. Algemeiner is a Yiddish/German word that means “universal” or “all inclusive.” It was chosen because of Gershon’s stated desire to reach as many people as possible with the paper’s coverage. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel by Uri Bar-Joseph | As the son-in-law of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and a close advisor to his successor, Anwar Sadat, Ashraf Marwan had access to the deepest secrets of the country’s government. But Marwan himself had a secret: He was a spy for the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. Under the codename “The Angel,” Marwan turned Egypt into an open book for the Israeli intelligence services—and, by alerting the Mossad in advance of the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack on Yom Kippur, saved Israel from a devastating defeat. | Books | Biography, Mossad |
| books | biography mossad | |
 | The Avengers by Rich Cohen | Rich Cohen, author of the acclaimed Tough Jews, again narrates a little-known episode of Jewish history, this time altering what we thought we knew about the Holocaust. Abba Kovner, Vitka Kempner, Ruzka Korczak – comrades, lovers, friends. In the Lithuanian ghetto of Vilna, they were the heart of a breathtakingly courageous underground movement, and when the ghetto was liquidated, they fled to the forests and joined other partisans in continued sabotage and resistance. Riveting, poignant and uplifting, The Avengers is a powerful exploration of resistance and revenge, of courage and dedication, and an inside look at some of the intrepid individuals who fought against the Holocaust and the nazi occupation of Europe. | Books | Holocaust/World War II |
| books | holocaust-world-war-ii | |
 | The Birth of Israel: The Drama As I Saw It by Jorge Garcia Granados | Guatemalan diplomat Jorge Garcia Granados served on the Palestine commission which presented the UN report recommending the 1947 partition plan. This is the story of his experience with UNSCOP (UN Special Committee on Palestine) and the difficulties they faced throughout the process – differences within the commission, boycotted by the Arabs, hampered by the British, double-crossed- yet painfully arriving at a majority decision in favor of an independent Jewish state under a partition plan. | Books | 1948 War, Autobiography/Memoir, Palestinians, Pre-State |
| books | 1948-war autobiography-memoir palestinians pre-state | |
 | The Brigade: An Epic Story of Vengeance, Salvation, and WWII by Howard Blum | November 1944. The British government finally agrees to send a brigade of 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine to Europe to fight the German army. But when the war ends and the soldiers witness firsthand the horrors their people have suffered in the concentration camps, the men launch a brutal and calculating campaign of vengeance, forming secret squads to identify, locate, and kill Nazi officers in hiding. Their own ferocity threatens to overwhelm them until a fortuitous encounter with an orphaned girl sets the men on a course of action – rescuing Jewish war orphans and transporting them to Palestine – that will not only change their lives but also help create a nation and forever alter the course of world history. | Books | Holocaust/World War II, Pre-State |
| books | holocaust-world-war-ii pre-state | |
 | The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz | Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz’s detailed and penetrating analysis of the issues that fuel the continuing war in Israel should be read by everyone interested in reaching a fair conclusion as to how the tragic conflict should be ended. Every charge leveled by Israel’s opponents is dealt with lucidly and convincingly by one of the nation’s brightest legal minds and most effective advocates. This is not a defense of every Israeli policy or action, but of its basic right to exist, to protect its citizens from terrorism, and to defend its borders from hostile enemies. | Books | Zionism |
| books | zionism | |
 | The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi | Born to a Jewish family in Tunisia during French rule, Albert Memmi explores the psychological effects of colonialism on colonized and colonizers alike in this timeless classic. | Books |
| books | |||
 | The Deed by Gerold Frank | The true story of two young Jewish boys who sought to hurry history with a gun, and were hanged for it. What led them, desperate for freedom for their country, to assassinate Lord Moyne, the highest ranking British official in the Middle East, during the fall of 1944? | Books | Biography, FFT Recommended, Lehi/Stern Group, Pre-State |
| books | biography fft-recommended lehi-stern-group pre-state | |
 | The First Tithe by Israel Eldad | The First Tithe takes you where no reader of thrillers, lover of history or analyst of Mideast politics and terrorism has yet gone into the minds of the Zionist revolutionaries, from the secret meetings of the commanders of the Jewish underground planning to expel the British from the Land of Israel in the 1940s, to prison cells where freedom fighters plan to turn their trials into theater and to escape. The First Tithe is the memoir of one of the leaders of the fiercest Jewish underground army in 2,000 years. It is the story of bank robberies, bombings and the assassination of a British cabinet minister. Israel Eldad reveals the history and revolutionary theories behind the blood and fire that created modern Israel and the national spirit that maintains it. No lover of suspense, friend of Israel or person who seeks to understand the roots of terror can do without The First Tithe. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Jewish Thought, Lehi/Stern Group, Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | autobiography-memoir jewish-thought lehi-stern-group pre-state zionism | |
 | The Forgotten Refugees | In 1945 there were one million Jews living in the Middle East and North Africa. For over two millennia they lived under varying rulers as part of the diverse fabric of peoples native to the region. Yet, in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel, Jewish life in other countries in the region dramatically began to disappear. Anti-Jewish riots in reaction to the failure of the attempts of Arab armies to eliminate the infant state of Israel, as well as the rise of post-colonial pan-Arabist movements set off a massive wave of Jewish immigration from the region. From Casablanca to Baghdad, Jews abandoned their ancestral homelands often leaving behind their homes, communities and livelihoods suddenly becoming refugees. For decades, many Jews who fled their native homelands never shared their experiences of being forced into exile but in The Forgotten Refugees for the first time, stories of several Jewish Refugees are told.
| Films | 1948 War, Pre-State |
| films | 1948-war pre-state | |
 | The Forward | The Forward delivers coverage of the issues, ideas and institutions that matter to American Jews. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | The Gatekeepers | Charged with overseeing Israel’s battle against Palestinian terrorism, the head of the Shin Bet – Israel’s secret service – is present at the crossroad of every decision made. For the first time ever six former heads of the agency agreed to share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions. The Gatekeepers offers an exclusive account of the sum of their success and failures.
| Films | Palestinians |
| films | palestinians | |
 | The God-Powered Life: Awakening to Your Divine Purpose by Rabbi David Aaron | You are an individual expression of God; that’s the teaching of the Kabbalah, the ancient Jewish mystical tradition. Here Rabbi David Aaron shows that when we truly connect to our inner self, that fact becomes wonderfully obvious. Each of us has a divine mission in life, he says, and when we understand this, we are empowered to take control of our life; to use our creative powers more fully; and to give more to others, our community, and the world. In his characteristic warm, witty, and accessible style, Rabbi Aaron helps us find a connection to the divine within ourselves and then shows us how to manifest that divine presence in our dealings with others and during tumultuous times. | Books | Jewish Thought |
| books | jewish-thought | |
 | The Green Prince | Set against the chaotic backdrop of recent events in the Middle East, Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince retraces the details of a highly unprecedented partnership that developed between sworn enemies. In the style of a tense psychological thriller, this extraordinary documentary recounts the true story of the son of a Hamas leader who emerged as one of Israel s prized informants, and the Shin Bet agent who risked his career to protect him.
| Films | Palestinians |
| films | palestinians | |
 | The Institute for National Security Studies | The Institute for National Security Studies launches and engages in innovative, relevant, high-quality research that shapes the public discourse of issues on Israel’s national security agenda, and provides policy analysis and recommendations to decision makers, public leaders, and the strategic community, both in Israel and abroad. As part of its mission, it is committed to encourage new ways of thinking and expand the traditional contours of establishment analysis… | Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | The Israel Democracy Institute | The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) is an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy. IDI works to bolster the values and institutions of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. A non-partisan think-and-do tank, the institute harnesses rigorous applied research to educate decision makers and help shape policy, legislation and public opinion. The institute partners with government, policy and decision makers, civil service and society, to improve the functioning of the government and its institutions, confront security threats while preserving civil liberties, and foster solidarity within Israeli society. Israel recognized the positive impact of IDI’s research and recommendations by conferring upon the institute its most prestigious award, the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement. | Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | The Jerusalem Post | The Jerusalem Post is a centrist broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. In 1950, it changed its name to The Jerusalem Post. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | The Jewish Revolution by Israel Eldad |
With The Jewish Revolution, classical Zionism has found its true interpretation. In the highest tradition of the soldier-statesman, Dr. Israel Eldad advocates a form of Zionism that is unpopular in conventional society. He condemns “establishmentarian,” “social-club” Zionism as a belittling of Jewish history and a threat to Jewish lives. In its place, he calls for a revolutionary creed – one that dares assert its right to the Jewish homeland; not as defined by diplomats, politicians and Security Council Resolutions, but in biblical, historical terms. He boldly declares that Jewish “diplomacy” failed to save millions of European Jews, and he accuses world leaders of inviting new Holocausts by denying history’s lessons and ignoring its imperatives. He warns the Jewish people that it can only rely on its own forces, and he offers a solution to the Arab problem in the Middle East. The Jewish Revolution combines the passion of the patriot, the logic of the scholar and the sweep of the historian. | Books | Jewish Thought, Lehi/Stern Group, Zionism |
| books | jewish-thought lehi-stern-group zionism | |
 | The Jewish Story | Deepen your relationship with Israel as a People and take a journey with Rabbi Mike Feuer through the most remarkable, majestic and dramatic history of any people in human history with The Jewish Story. | Podcasts | Jewish Thought, Pre-State, Six-Day War, Zionism |
| podcasts | jewish-thought pre-state six-day-war zionism | |
 | The Jewish War by Josephus | Josephus’ account of a war marked by treachery and atrocity is a superbly detailed and evocative record of the Jewish rebellion against Rome between AD 66 and 70. Originally a rebel leader, Josephus changed sides after he was captured to become a Rome-appointed negotiator, and so was uniquely placed to observe these turbulent events, from the siege of Jerusalem to the final heroic resistance and mass suicides at Masada. His account provides much of what we know about the history of the Jews under Roman rule, with vivid portraits of such key figures as the Emperor Vespasian and Herod the Great. Often self-justifying and divided in its loyalties, The Jewish War nevertheless remains one of the most immediate accounts of war, its heroism and its horrors, ever written. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Historian |
| books | autobiography-memoir historian | |
 | The Land of Israel Network | Broadcasting the truth and beauty of the land of Israel and the Jewish people. Featuring hosts Ari Abramowitz & Jeremy Gimpel, Josh Hasten, Eve Harow, Yishai Fleisher, Shlomo Katz, Gil Hoffman, and Rav Mike Feuer. | Podcasts | IDF, Israeli Prime Ministers, Jewish Thought, Palestinians, Pre-State, Six-Day War, US-Israel Relationship, Zionism |
| podcasts | idf israeli-prime-ministers jewish-thought palestinians pre-state six-day-war us-israel-relationship zionism | |
 | The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan | In 1967, Bashir Khairi, a twenty-five-year-old Palestinian, journeyed to Israel with the goal of seeing the beloved stone house with the lemon tree behind it that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose family left fled Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next half century in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, demonstrating that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and transformation. | Books | 1948 War, Palestinians, Six-Day War |
| books | 1948-war palestinians six-day-war | |
 | The Lone Soldier Podcast | What motivates someone to move halfway across the world to enlist in the IDF? Among the ranks of the Israeli Defense Forces are several thousand soldiers known as “Lone Soldiers,” meaning they have no family in Israel supporting them. Many of these soldiers move to Israel from abroad, leaving their friends and family behind them to pursue their dream of IDF service. Between 2010 and 2013, Corey Feldman served as a lone soldier in a combat unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. In this podcast series, he interviews former lone soldiers to learn about their motivations for enlisting, their experiences in the IDF, and how those experiences have shaped the rest of their lives. | Podcasts | IDF, Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| podcasts | idf jewish-thought zionism | |
 | The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross | The Missing Peace is a candid inside account of the Middle East peace process. Dennis Ross, the chief Middle East peace negotiator in the presidential administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, recounts the peace process in detail from 1988 to the breakdown of talks in early 2001. It’s all here: Camp David, Oslo, Geneva, Egypt, and other summits; the assassination of Yitzak Rabin; the rise and fall of Benjamin Netanyahu; the very different characters and strategies of Rabin, Yasir Arafat, and Bill Clinton; and the first steps of the Palestinian Authority. For the first time, the backroom negotiations, the dramatic and often secretive nature of the process, and the reasons for its faltering are on display for all to see. | Books | Palestinians, US-Israel Relationship |
| books | palestinians us-israel-relationship | |
 | The Next Stage Podcast | The official podcast of Vision Magazine. | Podcasts | 1948 War, Biography, Etzel/Irgun, IDF, Jewish Thought, Lehi/Stern Group, Palestinians, Pre-State, Six-Day War, US-Israel Relationship, Zionism |
| podcasts | 1948-war biography etzel-irgun idf jewish-thought lehi-stern-group palestinians pre-state six-day-war us-israel-relationship zionism | |
 | The Office of Rabbi Sacks | Follow the audio shiurim, lectures and speeches of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, global religious leader, philosopher, author of over 30 books and moral voice for our time. Rabbi Sacks served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth between September 1991 and September 2013. | Podcasts | Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| podcasts | jewish-thought zionism | |
 | The Password is Courage by John Castle | The man who broke into Auschwitz. When he was captured in France in 1940 Sergeant-Major Charles Coward launched his own private war against the Germans (although he was being held as a prisoner-of-war). For several years he was the most incredible amateur espionage and sabotage agent of World War II, opposing the Nazis while sending back vital information to England. He carried guns and dynamite for the Polish underground movement, traded in dead bodies to allow Jewish prisoners to escape, and, finally, he smuggled himself into Auschwitz where he witnessed the full horrors of the extermination camp. At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, Coward’s testimony was sensational, allowing over 2,000 Auschwitz survivors to file lawsuits for compensations against their former oppressors. | Books | Holocaust/World War II |
| books | holocaust-world-war-ii | |
 | The Pledge by Leonard Slater | The story of an incredible and dramatic race against time to provide a not-yet-born State of Israel with an Air Force and weapons to defend itself an epic that contained heroism, farce and endless contradictions. Its headquarters was a New York hotel known for its tall chorus girls. | Books | 1948 War, IDF, Pre-State |
| books | 1948-war idf pre-state | |
 | The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership by Yehuda Avner | The Prime Ministers is the first and only insider account of Israeli politics from the founding of the Jewish State to the near-present day. | Books | Israeli Prime Ministers |
| books | israeli-prime-ministers | |
 | The Question of Palestine by Edward Said | This original and deeply provocative book was the first to make Palestine the subject of a serious debate. Edward Said traces the fatal collision between two peoples in the Middle East and its repercussions in the lives of both the occupier and the occupied, as well as in the conscience of the West. | Books | Palestinians |
| books | palestinians | |
 | The Revolt by Menachem Begin | The book traces the development of the Irgun from its early days in the 1930s, through its years of violent struggle in the Palestine Mandate against both British rule (the “revolt” of the title) and Arab opposition, to the outbreak of the Israeli War of Independence in 1948. The book is also part autobiographical, tracing Menachem Begin’s own political development. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Etzel/Irgun, FFT Recommended, Israeli Prime Ministers, Pre-State |
| books | autobiography-memoir etzel-irgun fft-recommended israeli-prime-ministers pre-state | |
 | The Secret Life of God by Rabbi David Aaron | How much does our perception of God really matter? Many of us aren’t conscious of our image of a “higher power.” For some of us, that unspoken image is a Judgmental Parent or an exacting Old Man in the Sky. For others, God is an Imaginary Friend who is there to fix problems after we create them. David Aaron can help you discover a mature, new understanding of God and lead you to discover the wellspring of Divinity within you. By drawing on teachings of Kabbalah that were secret for millennia, he helps you to reclaim the power you’ve given away to negative images of God or passive images of yourself. These mystical secrets of Judaism can offer reassuring guidance, meaning, and purpose to the lives of people of all faiths. David Aaron shares these profound ancient teachings in simple, everyday language with a touch of wit and humor. Rich in personal stories and anecdotes, his examples from daily life help us tap the transformational power hidden within and illuminate the surprising paradoxes of spiritual growth. Awakened to finally experience a personal connection to God, we are at last able to receive God’s love unconditionally and discover our ultimate identity, divine purpose, and true happiness. | Books | FFT Recommended, Jewish Thought |
| books | fft-recommended jewish-thought | |
 | The Settlers | With remarkable access, award-winning Israeli filmmaker, Shimon Dotan traces the history of Israeli settlements in the West Bank since Israel’s decisive victory in the 1967 Six Day War. While government leaders and the Israeli public initially saw the military victory as an opportunity for a negotiated peace, Jewish religious zealots saw it as a divine calling to redeem the Biblical land of Israel. Dotan embarks upon the most comprehensive retelling to date, employing little-seen archival footage, candid comments by security officials, uncensored interviews with the pioneers and a diverse range of modern-day settlers, religious and secular alike, to weave a provocative web that entangles the destinies of Israel and the Palestinian people.
| Films |
| films | |||
 | The Six-Day War Scroll by Hagi Ben-Artzi | In only Six Days, the young State of Israel defeated three mighty Arab nations – Egypt, Syria and Jordan – and returned to major parts of the Biblical Land of Israel and in the process more than doubled the size of the country. The world stood in awe. The aim of this book is to tell the story of the war of deliverance in 1967 and to emphasize the miraculous aspects of Israel’s astonishing victory. The story is historically accurate based on Israel’s official publications, but it is also attuned to the Hand of Heaven guiding and accompanying us throughout. | Books | FFT Recommended, IDF, Jewish Thought, Six-Day War | books | fft-recommended idf jewish-thought six-day-war | ||
 | The Tikvah Podcast | The Tikvah Fund is a philanthropic foundation and ideas institution committed to supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish State. Its institutes, programs, and publications reflect this spirit of bringing forward the serious alternatives for what the Jewish future should look like, and bringing Jewish thinking and leaders into conversation with Western political, moral, and economic thought. | Podcasts | Jewish Thought, US-Israel Relationship, Zionism |
| podcasts | jewish-thought us-israel-relationship zionism | |
 | The Times of Israel | The Times of Israel is a Jerusalem-based online newspaper founded in 2012 to document developments in Israel, the Middle East and around the Jewish world. It was established by veteran UK-born, Israeli journalist David Horovitz and his US-based capital partner Seth Klarman. Horovitz is the founding editor, responsible for the site’s editorial content. The Times of Israel has no partisan political affiliation. It seeks to present the news fair-mindedly and offers a wide range of analysis and opinion pieces. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | The Times of Israel Podcasts | The podcast platform of The Times of Israel. Covering developments in Israel, the Middle East and around the Jewish world. | Podcasts | IDF, Israeli Prime Ministers, Jewish Thought, Palestinians, US-Israel Relationship, Zionism |
| podcasts | idf israeli-prime-ministers jewish-thought palestinians us-israel-relationship zionism | |
 | The Washington Institute For Near East Policy | The mission of The Washington Institute is to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East and to promote the policies that secure them. The Washington Institute is a 501(c)(3) organization. All donations are tax deductible. | Research & Analysis |
| research-analysis | |||
 | The Weapon Wizards: How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower by Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot | From drones to satellites, missile defense systems to cyber warfare, Israel is leading the world when it comes to new technology being deployed on the modern battlefield. The Weapon Wizards shows how this tiny nation of 8 million learned to adapt to the changes in warfare and in the defense industry and become the new prototype of a 21st century superpower, not in size, but rather in innovation and efficiency―and as a result of its long war experience. | Books | IDF, Israeli Innovation |
| books | idf israeli-innovation | |
 | The Zionist Ideology by Gideon Shimoni | This superb and highly nuanced study traces the development and ramifications of the ideology of Zionism from its roots in Europe to its full flowering in the establishment of the State of Israel. Gideon Shimoni begins by outlining the social origins of Zionism, including its debt to European nationalism and its subsequent emergence in the 1880s, precipitated by the pogroms in the Russian Empire. He then describes the various streams of Zionist thought, and concludes by examining both Zionism’s connection with a secular Jewish identity and the nature of the Jewish claim to Eretz Israel. | Books | Pre-State, Zionism |
| books | pre-state zionism | |
 | Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World by Avi Jorisch | Thou Shalt Innovate profiles wondrous Israeli innovations that are collectively changing the lives of billions of people around the world and explores why Israeli innovators of all faiths feel compelled to make the world better. This is the story of how Israelis are helping to feed the hungry, cure the sick, protect the defenseless, and make the desert bloom. Israel is playing a disproportionate role in helping solve some of the world s biggest challenges by tapping into the nation’s soul: the spirit of tikkun olam, the Jewish concept of repairing the world. | Books | Israeli Innovation |
| books | israeli-innovation | |
 | To Win the Promised Land by Eliahu Lankin | Eliahu Lankin’s book is an insider’s account of the Israeli Herut party’s predecessor, the Irgun Zvi Leumi (IZL, Etzel), from the 1930s to its demise as a military unit before transforming into a political party of the newly established State of Israel in 1948. It focuses on Lankin’s adventures in Mandatory Palestine, his capture and imprisonment in Africa by the British authorities and his escape, as well as his fundraising and arms acquisition in Europe leading up to the War of Independence. | Books | 1948 War, Autobiography/Memoir, Etzel/Irgun, Pre-State |
| books | 1948-war autobiography-memoir etzel-irgun pre-state | |
 | Two Nice Jewish Boys | Two Nice Jewish Boys is a weekly Israeli podcast in English. Naor and Eytan offer you a glimpse of Israel and some of the interesting people here. | Podcasts | IDF, Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| podcasts | idf jewish-thought zionism | |
 | Underground to Palestine by I.F. Stone | This is an eyewitness story of the modern Exodus. Underground to Palestine was written in the spring of 1946 when I.F. Stone was the first newspaperman to accompany survivors of the Holocaust on their epic clandestine journey from Eastern Europe, through the British blockade, to the biblical homeland. Recognized as a tour de force of journalism and a historic document of enduring power whose hallmark is a humanity and sensitivity to the plight and aspirations of the homeless. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Holocaust/World War II, Pre-State |
| books | autobiography-memoir holocaust-world-war-ii pre-state | |
 | Unorthodox | Unorthodox is a smart, fresh, fun weekly take on Jewish news and culture hosted by Mark Oppenheimer, Stephanie Butnick, and Liel Leibovitz. | Podcasts | Jewish Thought, US-Israel Relationship, Zionism |
| podcasts | jewish-thought us-israel-relationship zionism | |
| Unpacking Ancient Hebrew Logic | Does the worldview of the ancient Israelites differ radically from modern Western logic? Rabbi David Aaron teaches Paradoxical Logic. | Videos | Jewish Thought |
| videos | jewish-thought | |
 | Unsettled | In 2005, the Israeli government decides to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. The choice impacts all who live in the embattled region, and it earns a variety of reactions. Some people, like Ye’ela, whose sister was killed by Palestinians, supports the decision, while others, like Neta, a young filmmaker who believes the Gaza Strip belongs to Israel, are staunchly opposed. Regardless of their stance, however, soldiers are charged with forcing other Israeli citizens out of their homes. | Films |
| films | |||
 | Valley of Tears | On the first day of Yom Kippur, a surprise attack thrusts young combatants into battle. Inspired by the true events of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this harrowing drama series focuses on the universality of heroism and sacrifice through four intertwined stories. Through its magnified, unflinching lens, Valley of Tears reveals the tension, anxiety, and trauma of a fateful war. | TV Shows | Historical Fiction, IDF |
| tv-shows | historical-fiction idf | |
| Vision Magazine | Vision is a blog-based web magazine providing fresh conversations for some of the most pressing and significant issues facing the Jewish world. The magazine is a platform for thinkers and activists to share ideas, experiences, analyses, photographs, poems, videos and other expressions of personal creativity in an openly accessible forum. | News Sources | FFT Recommended |
| news-sources | fft-recommended | |
| Vision Magazine | Post-Zionism: Threat or Opportunity? | Rabbi Gavriel Reiss leads a 2014 discussion about the need for Israel to advance beyond Zionism. | Videos | FFT Recommended, Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| videos | fft-recommended jewish-thought zionism | |
| Vision Magazine: Judging Esav’s Mountain | Shiurim by Rabbi Gavriel Reiss, part of Vision Magazine’s The Next Stage Podcast. | Podcasts | 1948 War, Biography, Etzel/Irgun, IDF, Jewish Thought, Lehi/Stern Group, Palestinians, Pre-State, Six-Day War, US-Israel Relationship, Zionism |
| podcasts | 1948-war biography etzel-irgun idf jewish-thought lehi-stern-group palestinians pre-state six-day-war us-israel-relationship zionism | |
 | Voice of Valor by Geula Cohen | Geula Cohen weaves her personal story together with the chronicles of the Lehi underground during the period of the British Mandate over Palestine. As a secret radio broadcaster, later as a prisoner and afterwards following her escape, she writes with special appreciation for the inner forces that urged on the young fighters in their battle for the freedom of the Jewish nation in its homeland. | Books | Autobiography/Memoir, Lehi/Stern Group, Pre-State |
| books | autobiography-memoir lehi-stern-group pre-state | |
 | War and Peace: The Teachings of HaRav Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook by David Samson and Tzvi Fishman | Often startling in its condemnation of Western civilization’s moral decay, Rav Kook’s writings on war reveal a little-known side of his giant Torah personality. Written during the height of World War I, his essays read like prophecies heralding the rebirth of The Jewish nation in Israel, a miracle which began to unfold in the aftermath of the war. | Books | Jewish Thought, Zionism |
| books | jewish-thought zionism | |
 | We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel by Daniel Gordis | We Stand Divided examines the history of the troubled relationship between the American Jewish community and Israel, showing that from the outset, the founders of what are now the world’s two largest Jewish communities were responding to different threats and opportunities, and had very different ideas of how to guarantee a Jewish future. | Books | US-Israel Relationship |
| books | us-israel-relationship | |
 | When Heroes Fly | Years after a bitter falling out, four Israeli military veterans reunite and travel to Colombia in search of a loved one they’d presumed to be dead. | TV Shows | IDF |
| tv-shows | idf | |
 | Years of Wrath, Days of Glory by Yitzhak Ben-Ami | Autobiography and history are combined in this chronicle of unending struggle, in the 1920s and 1930s, by the Zionist Revisionists and the Irgun Zvai Leumi to get Jews from Europe to Palestine and then to fight the British and the Arabs for independence. Some of the most interesting parts, as one might expect, have to do with the rivalry and bad blood between the Irgun and the Zionist establishment. | Books | 1948 War, Autobiography/Memoir, Etzel/Irgun, Holocaust/World War II, Pre-State |
| books | 1948-war autobiography-memoir etzel-irgun holocaust-world-war-ii pre-state | |
 | ynet News | Ynetnews is the English-language edition of Ynet, Israel’s largest and most popular news and content website. Founded in 2005, Ynetnews is part of the prominent Yedioth Media Group, which publishes Yedioth Ahronoth – Israel’s most widely-read daily newspaper – as well as several popular magazines and dozens of local publications. As such, Ynetnews is committed to the same professional standards and unwavering journalistic ethics as Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth, as well as to being an authoritative, accurate and fast source of online news and content. | News Sources |
| news-sources | |||
 | Zero Motivation | A smash hit in Israel and winner of the Best Narrative Feature Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, Zero Motivation is a unique, sometimes dark and often hilarious portrait of everyday life for a unit of young female soldiers in a remote Israeli desert outpost. Playing out like M*A*S*H meets Orange is the New Black, the film details the power struggles of three women with different agendas. | Films | IDF |
| films | idf |
