"The Struggle for Palestine on the World Stage, 1947-1949"

This talk examines how the public in the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, and Latin America perceived the post-World War II Palestine question and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The year 1948 marked the transformation of the world’s abiding interest in the region – an interest inspired by many factors beyond actual events on the ground in Israel/Palestine.

Derek Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History and the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University. He is also the Samuel Zacks Professor of Jewish History Emeritus at the University of Toronto.  He has published a dozen books, most recently Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader (2020; German ed. 2022); and Zionism: An Emotional State (2023).  He is currently writing a book titled The War for Palestine, 1947-1949: A Global History. He is a past president of the American Society for Jewish Research, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an Honorary Fellow of St. Anne’s College, Oxford.