Lecture: Between Determinism and Ideology, or How Zionism Invented the Halutzim
Guest Lecturer: Professor Tal Golan, Department of History, University of California, San Diego
WHAT SHAPED THE IDEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EARLY ZIONIST SETTLEMENT?
As part of his visit to the Institute for Advanced Studies as an IAS Distinguished Scholar, Prof. Golan Tal from the University of California, San Diego, will deliver a lecture titled “Between Determinism and Ideology, or How Zionism Invented the Halutzim".
This lecture explores the three strategies that shaped Jewish agricultural settlement in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine. These strategies reflected different and often conflicting ideologies, technologies, and visions. Their confrontation was inevitable, and its resolution in the early 1920s shaped the character of Jewish settlement - and of the State of Israel - for generations.
View the full invitation here
COURSE DETAILS
When: Monday, 29 June 2026, 16:00
Where: Room 281, Gilman Building
Light refreshments will be served before the lecture.
The lecture will be conducted in English and is open to the public.
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Prof. Golan Tal is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. Trained as both an engineer and a historian, his work lies at the intersection of science, law, and technology studies. His research focuses on the history of scientific expertise and the role of evidence in legal and political contexts, as well as on the development of scientific and ideological frameworks in modern Jewish history.
He is the author of Laws of Man and Laws of Nature: A History of Scientific Expert Testimony (Harvard University Press, 2004) and has published widely in leading journals and edited volumes. His current research examines Jewish agricultural settlement in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine between 1882 and 1939, with particular attention to the ideological, institutional, and scientific models that shaped it.
FULL ABSTRACT
BETWEEN DETERMINISM AND IDEOLOGY, OR HOW ZIONISM INVENTED THE HALUTZIM
Three vectors shaped the patterns of the Jewish agricultural settlement in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine. The first, philanthropic in character, was based on the colonial model of a plantation economy and was implemented in the late nineteenth century by Baron Rothschild in the coastal plain colonies. The second, animated by eugenic ideology, was implemented in the early twentieth century in the Galilee colonies by the JCA - the largest migration organization in the world at the time - which sought to improve the Jewish race through frugal dry farming. The third, socialist in character, was implemented in the Jezreel Valley after the First World War by the Zionist movement and was animated by socialist ideology and a commitment to mixed farming. These three approaches were marked by different and often conflicting ideologies, epistemologies, and visions. The confrontation among them was inevitable, and its resolution in the early 1920s shaped the character of Jewish settlement -- and of the State of Israel-- for generations.
