Dror Bondi, “Heschel on Israel: Between Christianity and Zionism” (Hybrid) 
Dr. Dror Bondi, 2025-2026 Corcoran Visiting Chair in Christian-Jewish Relations at Boston College, will examine Abraham Joshua Heschel’s subtle effort to reclaim the term Israel in the years immediately following the establishment of the State of Israel. Assigning this ancient theological designation to a modern nation-state rekindled a longstanding debate over its meaning, now reframed among Zionist leaders, Christian theologians, and diaspora Jewish thinkers. Although Heschel would later become known in the 1960s as an American Jewish intellectual who integrated religious activism, interfaith engagement, and spiritual Zionism, this lecture will turn to an earlier and less-studied phase of his thought. Through an analysis of his treatment of the term Israel as a third alternative situated between Zionism and Christianity, the lecture will present Heschel as a diasporic philosopher and an emerging critic of Zionism.

Dr. Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, will deliver a response.
 

Dr. Dror Bondi is Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Schechter Institute in Israel and the 2025-2026 Corcoran Visiting Chair in Christian-Jewish Relations at Boston College. He completed his Ph.D. and M.A. in Jewish Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University. He is an author, translator and editor of several of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s books in Hebrew. Dr. Bondi’s book Ayeca? about Heschel’s thought earned him the 2006 Shalem Prize. In 2019, his edition of Heschel’s groundbreaking Torah Min HaShamayim (Torah From Heaven) won the Mifal HaPais Prize.

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