The 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies

Gathering the Dispersed: State Evasion and State-Making in Modern Jewish, Kurdish and Berber History

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The paper introduces the comparative research project “Gathering the Dispersed” (Heidelberg University) which seeks to contextualize Zionist state-building within a Middle Eastern setting. By exploring the dynamics of state evasion and state-making in modern Jewish, Kurdish and Berber history, the research project seeks to integrate the Zionist project into the comparative study of nation-building in the Middle East. Throughout the process of nationalizing the politics, culture and society of their non-state communities, Jewish, Kurdish and Berber nationalists encountered heavily dispersed patterns of social authority, cultural practices and settlement patterns. The systematic inclusion of the Zionist project into a comparative research design will be particularly instructive for comparative research on Kurdish and Berber nationalism.