Jerusalem as Messianic Battlefield

Hamas named its attack on October 7th the "Al-Aqsa Flood"-- and claimed that increasing numbers of religious Jews entering the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem were among the primary instigations for its actions. In turn, the attack further radicalized a growing Jewish fundamentalist movement in Israel, a movement that seeks Israeli annexation of the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa and the transformation of Israel into a biblical-style Jewish theocracy. Rachel Z. Feldman, Assistant Professor of Religion at Dartmouth, will discuss these recent events in conversation with Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature at Hebrew University, through an interdisciplinary dialogue informed by their respective disciplines (anthropology and comparative Jewish literature). Join Feldman and DeKoven Ezrahi to explore critical questions surrounding religion, nationalism, and the sacralization of state violence. Both authors will draw on insights from their recent books on Jerusalem and Jewish messianism:

Figuring Jerusalem: Politics and Poetics in the Sacred Center by Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi

Messianic Zionism in the Digital Age: Jews, Noahides, and the Third Temple Imaginary byRachel Z. Feldman