David Hazony, Ph.D., will present “Aliyah of the Mind: Zionism as Jewish Emancipation” on Monday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, as part of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies’ Shaol & Louis Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series.
Most people think Zionism is about supporting Israel. But really it means something much deeper: It’s about building and doing and Jewish pride, says Hazony, who is currently the executive director of the Israel Innovation Fund. Zionism was launched a century ago as a revolution against the stagnation of Jewish life and in the face of increasingly dangerous anti-Semitism. Hazony will focus on both public and educational aspects of this new approach to promoting Zionism and Jewish values in the 21st century. He finds that the way to attract today’s young people to Zionism is to connect them with the vibrancy and creativity of contemporary Israeli culture. He will explain how he thinks this can work and why it is important for the future of Zionism.
Hazony received his Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, was the founding editor of The Tower Magazine and was the editor-in-chief of Azure. His articles frequently appear in such periodicals as The Jerusalem Post, The New Republic, Commentary, The Jewish Chronicle, and Moment. He also is a frequent commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. He serves as a contributing editor at The Forward. He is the author or editor of several books including “The Ten Commandments: How Our Most Ancient Moral Text Can Renew Modern Life” (Scribner, 2010), which was a finalist for the 2010 National Jewish Book Award; and “New Essays on Zionism” (co-edited with Michael Oren and Yoram Hazony, Shalem Press, 2007). His translation of Uri Bar-Joseph’s “The Angel” (HarperCollins, 2016) won the 2017 National Jewish Book Award.
