ThoughtGallery.org > Mandatory Separation: Religion, Education, and Mass Politics in Palestine by Suzanne Schneider

Mandatory Separation: Religion, Education, and Mass Politics in Palestine by Suzanne Schneider

Is religion a source of political stability and social continuity, or an agent of radical change? This question, so central to contemporary conversations about religion and extremism, has generated varied responses over the last century. Taking Jewish and Islamic education as its objects of inquiry, Mandatory Separation sheds light on the contours of this debate in Palestine during the formative period of British rule, detailing how colonial, Zionist, and Palestinian-Muslim leaders developed competing views of the form and function of religious education in an age of mass politics. Drawing from archival records, school syllabi, textbooks, newspapers, and personal narratives, Suzanne Schneider argues that the British Mandatory government supported religious education as a supposed antidote to nationalist passions at the precise moment when the administrative, pedagogic, and curricular transformation of religious schooling rendered it a vital tool for Zionist and Palestinian leaders. This study of their policies and practices illuminates the tensions, similarities, and differences among these diverse educational and political philosophies, revealing the lasting significance of these debates for thinking about religion and political identity in the modern Middle East. Join IIJS for an insightful conversation with Suzanne Schneider.

Co-sponsored by Columbia University’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS).











When: Thu., Oct. 25, 2018 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Where: Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University
511 Fayerweather Hall, 1180 Amsterdam Ave.
212-854-2581
Price: Free
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Is religion a source of political stability and social continuity, or an agent of radical change? This question, so central to contemporary conversations about religion and extremism, has generated varied responses over the last century. Taking Jewish and Islamic education as its objects of inquiry, Mandatory Separation sheds light on the contours of this debate in Palestine during the formative period of British rule, detailing how colonial, Zionist, and Palestinian-Muslim leaders developed competing views of the form and function of religious education in an age of mass politics. Drawing from archival records, school syllabi, textbooks, newspapers, and personal narratives, Suzanne Schneider argues that the British Mandatory government supported religious education as a supposed antidote to nationalist passions at the precise moment when the administrative, pedagogic, and curricular transformation of religious schooling rendered it a vital tool for Zionist and Palestinian leaders. This study of their policies and practices illuminates the tensions, similarities, and differences among these diverse educational and political philosophies, revealing the lasting significance of these debates for thinking about religion and political identity in the modern Middle East. Join IIJS for an insightful conversation with Suzanne Schneider.

Co-sponsored by Columbia University’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS).

Buy tickets/get more info now