Here is the third and culminating episode in a story that we have been following since season four. The Eighties saw a welding together of American Cold War policies and the struggle for Soviet Jewry in a dramatic fashion. Super power summits, glasnost, the release of Natan Sharansky and the Freedom Sunday march all came…
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As we circle in toward the end of season five, it is time to check back in with American Jewry. The 1980s were a time of economic and social security for the Jews of the US, and the overall growth of their religious communities was boosted by a surprise source – the kollel. It was…
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Menachem Begin has been part of our exploration of the Jewish Story since the uprising against the British back in 1944, and the Lebanon War was the last chapter in which he took an active role. In order to give a fitting wrap up to such an important character, here is an interview with Dr….
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Operation Peace for the Galilee begins with Israeli jets pounding Yasser Arafat’s PLO bases in southern Lebanon, but there is always a backstory. In this episode learn about the complicated history Lebanon’s civil wars fought between Christians, Moslems and Druze. Meet Ariel Sharon in his new role of Defense Minister, ever the bulldozer and now…
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Before we can discuss the outbreak of war between Israel and the PLO in Lebanon, we must lay out the political context. As Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian liberation army were massing troops along the border, and the city of Kiryat Shmona was facing bombardment, Prime Minister Menachem Begin visited US President Ronald Reagan in…
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Israel’s leadership came to be part by never forgetting the principal of “when one comes to kill you, rise early and kill first.” Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s 1981 bombing of the Iraqi reactor Osirak on the distant banks of the Tigris gave birth to the “Begin doctrine” of absolute opposition to enemy possession of…
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In politics as in physics – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s signing of the Camp David Accords with Egypt’s Anwar Sadat did not produce a singular response, but it did send shock waves through every aspect of Israeli society. Among the idealists of the settlement movement,…
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The domestic political upheaval of the Menachem Begin victory in 1977 was followed quickly by an international earthquake in 1978 when Israel and Egypt agree to make peace. Here is the story of how shifts within two societies, and two leaders, led to the signing of the Camp David Accords. Learn about the tension Egyptian…
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Menachem Begin’s upheaval victory in the 1977 Israeli elections was the beginning of revolutionary change for the Jewish State, not the end. Some who rejoiced will be bemused, others who were skeptical will be surprised. This episode explores the aftermath of Begin’s election as it intersected fault lines within his society and within himself. Learn…
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There are few events in the history of Israel’s democracy which have had a greater impact than the elections of 1977. When all the votes were counted three decades of Labor Zionist rule had come to an end and Menachem Begin and his Likud party was victorious. It is known in Israeli history as ‘the…
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