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  • IntroductionSpecial Issue: Israel at 70; Vision & Reality
  • Ilan Troen and Natan Aridan

This issue reflects the interest for perspective on the seventy years since the establishment of Israel and reflections on what might transpire in the near future. As such, the search for meaning and the evaluation of what has and might happen fits well within the Zionist experience.

The Zionist movement itself was largely launched and inspired by Theodor Herzl's utopian novel Altneuland (1902). It conjures a vision of how Palestine might be transformed under enlightened leadership and suggests plans based on progressive ideas on how to achieve not only an economically and technologically successful society, but a just and democratic one. This precedent has had many followers through the present. Noteworthy is the two-volume work Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi produced when in exile in New York from Palestine during World War I: Eretz Yisrael in the Past and Present (Hebrew and Yiddish, 1917). Despite its title, it was not only an evaluation of the country's past but a program that looked to the future. Such work was typical of Zionism from the period of Arthur Ruppin, who inaugurated the systematic study of the Yishuv in 1907. A year later he established and headed the first office for the Zionist Organization (later World Zionist Organization) to institutionalize assessment and planning. In fact, from that date to the present WZO, the Jewish Agency, and then the State of Israel have been continually engaged in self-evaluation and the generation of plans.

Such reflection was built into the early years of the settlements. Typical products are found in the Sifrei Yovel or Jubilee Books that were issued on numerous occasions: sometimes on the 5th, 10th, 13th, 18th, 20th, 25th, etc., etc. anniversary of the settlement. The production of such volumes was widespread and institutionalized. A magnificent collection of local histories on 600 communities, together with enormous primary material in the form of 400,000 newspaper clippings, may be found at the Getzel Kressel Collection at Oxford University. This archive covers only the years 1935–1980.

For the State of Israel to celebrate and inspect itself is thus within a very well-established tradition. In this special volume, rather than publish [End Page 1] essays in our regular format, we thought "out of the box" by inviting leading scholars from multiple disciplines engaging in the study of Israel. The instructions were:

to contribute a short article in which you set out what you consider to be the significant events or new concepts that have shaped Israel since independence. These may include: actual events, concepts, political movements, or individuals that have significantly affected Israeli society or politics.

Thirty scholars answered the call. Based on their responses, this collection of 29 academic essays are organized in the following sections: The State of the State; Turning Points/Watersheds; Memory; Immigration; Gender; Law & Religion—The Rule of Law; and The Conflict. They have written on these diverse topics with perspectives that are not only the product of their scholarship but often include personal reflections based on their own journeys and experiences. [End Page 2]

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