For a deeper understanding of Israel and the region

Fathom Highlight | Laurence Oliphant and British Christian Zionism + Kolbrener on Gordis / January 21 / 2020

Our Fathom Highlight this week is Philip Earl Steele’s in-depth read on the diplomatic and organisational efforts of the British Zionist politician and writer Laurence Oliphant, using hitherto neglected Polish sources to re-assess the importance of his contribution to the nascent Zionist movement and to British Christian Zionism.

Also, William Kolbrener reviews Daniel Gordis’s We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel. We are seeking new book reviewers for Fathom. If you are interested in contributing to Fathom, please see our new Fathom Book Reviews page below.

Our Voice of the Week is a Middle East Institute podcast with Senior Fellow Robert S. Ford, non-resident scholars Fatima Abo Alasra and Emad Badi and Alistair Taylor on what lies ahead for Iran, Syria, Yemen and Libya in 2020.

Our Image of the Week shows young Palestinian men preparing a flammable object to be flown via balloon toward Israel, near the Israel-Gaza border east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, 18 January 2020.

British Christian Zionism (Part 2): the work of Laurence Oliphant

by Philip Earl Steele

The literary, diplomatic and direct organisational efforts of the British Christian Zionist Laurence Oliphant were central to the coalescence of the first Zionist movement, Hovevei Zion, in the early 1880s. About this precursor of Herzl, and an important influence upon him, the historian of Zionism Nathan Gelber wrote, ‘In cities and small towns in Russia, Romania, and Galicia you could find in the houses of poor Jews a picture of Oliphant.’ Having explored George Eliot’s inspirational role in the emergence...

Voice of the Week

Image of the Week

Book Review | We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel
by William Kolbrener

Daniel Gordis’s We Stand Divided is the latest book on the growing rift between American Jews and Israelis. What distinguishes Gordis’s work is the way...

Fathom Book Reviews
by Fathom Editors

The Fathom editorial team are seeking reviewers. If you would like to review one of the books below for Fathom, suggest another book to review, or would...

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