Seeing Through a Mirror: The 1948 War in the Eyes of the World with the UC Berkeley Center for Jewish Studies, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
Organizers: UC Berkeley Center for Jewish Studies, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
Date and Time: Thursday, October 22, from 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Location: Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Annual Diller Lecture
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War attracted attention from the highest levels of international society, state governments, transnational NGOs, journalism, and public opinion. Palestine and the emerging state of Israel functioned as both a mirror and a magnifier. Israel’s establishment and the Palestinian Nakba were interpreted through countries’ specific interests, histories, and cultures. These events also elicited tremendous passion. Palestine’s mirroring and magnifying effects did not originate in 1948, but the events of that year drastically augmented them, and the patterns of global reaction remain with us to this day.
Derek Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History and the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University. Derek previously taught at Indiana University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Oxford, where he was the inaugural holder of the Stanley Lewis Chair in Modern Israel Studies. Derek has published a dozen books, including Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader (2020) and Zionism: An Emotional State (2023). He is currently writing a book titled The War for Palestine, 1947-1949: A Global History. Derek is a past president of the American Academy for Jewish Research, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an Honorary Fellow of St. Anne’s College, Oxford.