#13: Israel’s Economy and Society Transformed, 1979 to 2021

Building the Impossible Dream: The History of Zionism

In the final episode of this podcast, Dr. Polisar revisits one of the two central questions that were posed in the opening episode: How did the Jewish people succeed in creating a country that, against all odds, developed an internal character marked by all of the following?

• A) Kibbutz Galuyot, the ingathering of the exiles on an unimaginable scale;
• B) a vital role as a national state acting to advance the interests of the Jewish people;
• C) a robust and stable democracy;
• D) an economic powerhouse that is widely seen as the “Start-Up Nation.”

Covering the period from 1979 to the present, this episode examines the key decisions and watershed moments that led Israel to be miraculously successful in each of these areas.

Supplemental Materials:

• "Israel’s Russian Wave, Thirty Years Later" by Matti Friedman.