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Walking the Land: Religious Pilgrimage and Modern Hiking
in Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land
NEJS 193B
Spring 2014; Monday/Wednesday/Thursday; 12:00-12:50 PM
Instructor: Dr. Shay Rabineau
Office Hours: Monday 10:00-12:00 (and by appointment), Mandel 322
rabineau@brandeis.edu
Course description:
The land of Israel, known also throughout history as Palestine or the Holy Land, has
borne particular significance to religious pilgrims for thousands of years. The first
commandment of God to the patriarch Abraham in the book of Genesis is to go and walk,
and the idea of "walking the Land" is a recurring theme in the Hebrew Bible. Jerusalem
and the surrounding country are prominent in the Gospels and the rest of the New
Testament as well; the itineration of Jesus and his disciples have spurred Christian
pilgrims and ascetics to explore the Holy Land since at least the 4th century CE. With the
Islamic conquest of the Middle East in the 7th century CE, Jerusalem took on new
significance as a Muslim holy place. Since then, these and other religious traditions have
superimposed their own symbolic maps and landscapes atop the physical terrain of Eretz
Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land, covering the country with layer upon layer of spiritual
significance.
Many people who walk across the countryside of Israel and the West Bank do so today
not as pilgrims, but as hikers. The Zionist nation-building project encouraged youth to
walk to Jewish historical sites that had never served as spiritual pilgrimage destinations,
but now functioned as the "holy places" of a national movement. Later, walking across
the country took on similar significance in the framework of Palestinian nationalism.
Even in these contexts, however, old symbols and ideas bubble to the surface. Israel's
"national trail" visits rabbis' tombs that have attracted religious Jewish pilgrims for
centuries. The first Palestinian trail network connects Sufi shrines across the northern
West Bank. By the same token, religious tours and pilgrimages are colored by modern
politics: trails created for Christian Holy Land tourists are laden with political messages,
and have become the subjects of passionate debate.
Through the use of selected readings, maps, travel brochures, films, and other documents,
this course will offer students the opportunity to explore the spectrum of religious and
political meanings attached to Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land throughout history, and the
ways symbolic views of the landscape have been articulated through the act of walking
across the country.
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Course requirements:
 Prepare for each class session by reading the assigned materials.
 Submit a weekly two- to three-paragraph response to the readings.
 Write a final paper and summarize it in a class presentation.
 Participate fully in class discussions.
Assignments and grades:
 Responses to readings are due each Wednesday at the beginning of class.
 At the end of the semester, students will be required to write a ten-page final
paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor, and conduct a brief
in-class presentation.
 Work will be counted toward the final grade in the following proportions:
o Weekly journals: 25%
o Classroom discussion: 25%
o Final presentation: 10%
o Final paper: 40%
 Optional activities: Instead of submitting a weekly journal, students are
allowed (and encouraged) to occasionally submit instead a brief report
describing an intentional journey on foot in the light of readings we have
discussed. Further details regarding these reports will be given in class.
Graduate students:
Graduate students who wish to take this course are welcome and will be expected to
write a 20-to-25-page final paper, chosen in consultation with the instructor, which
will ideally bridge the course material with the student’s field of study. Supplemental
readings, or extensions of the selections offered on LATTE and in class, can also be
given. The instructor will meet with graduate students during the second and third
weeks of the semester.
Course materials:
The course will incorporate numerous materials from a wide range of primary
sources, including literary works, films, maps, and photos. Some background
materials will be read at home, but the bulk of these works will be examined and
discussed in class. All of them will be handed out in class beforehand, or will be
available for study online.
Note:
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis and wish to
have a reasonable accommodation made for you, please see the instructor after class.
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Schedule of topics and readings:
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Week 1 (Jan. 13, 15, 16): Overview and symbolic significance of walking
o Jorge Luis Borges, “On Exactitude in Science”
o David Lowenthal, “Geography, Experience, and Imagination”
o Yi-Fu Tuan, “Sanctification of Space”
o Victor Turner, “The Center out There: Pilgrim’s Goal”
Week 2 (Jan. 22, 23): Jewish, Christian, and Islamic pilgrimage I
o OFF Jan. 20
o Selections from Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Talmud
o Derwas Chitty, The Desert a City, chapter 1, on Christian pilgrimage
o Kanan Makiya, “Coming to Jerusalem,” from The Rock
Week 3 (Jan. 27, 29, 30): Jewish, Christian, and Islamic pilgrimage II
o Excerpt from Muslim Travelers, on Islamic pilgrimage
o Thomas Merton, “From Pilgrimage to Crusade”
o Bordeaux Pilgrim, Benjamin of Tudela Arnold Blumberg, “The Land;
Palestine in 1841,” in Zion Before Zionism, 3-8
Week 4 (Feb. 3, 5, 6): Western explorers and the “rediscovery” of the
Holy Land through walking
o Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the 19th
Century (selections)
o Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine (selections)
o Captain Charles Warren, “Remarks on a Visit to ‘Ain Jidy and the
Southern Shores of the Dead Sea in Mid-Summer 1867”
o Comparison: Biblical map, Ottoman map, Robinson map, PEF map
o YIVO Encyclopedia, “Landkentenish”
Week 5 (Feb. 10, 12, 13): Modern hiking, youth movements, and Zionism
in Europe
o Leo Pinsker, “Auto-Emancipation,” in Israel in the Middle East, 12-15
o Bilu Manifesto, in Israel in the Middle East, 10-11
o Walter Laqueur, Young Germany: A History of the German Youth
Movement (selections)
o Ha-Shomer Ha-Tzair, “Our World View,” in The Jew in the Modern
World
Week 6 (Feb. 17, 19, 20): OFF – February Break
Week 7 (Feb. 24, 26, 27): Zionism in Palestine and “knowing the Land of
Israel”
o Howard M. Sachar, A History of Israel, 71-80
o Boaz Neumann, Land and Desire in Early Zionism (selections)
o Arthur Hertzberg, introduction to A.D. Gordon, in The Zionist Idea
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o A.D. Gordon, “Our Tasks Ahead,” in Hertzberg, 379-383
Week 8 (March 3, 5, 6): The Judean Desert and Masada – the “centers
out there” of hiking in British Mandate Palestine
o Charles Liebman and Eliezer Don-Yehiya, Civil Religion in Israel
o Josephus on fall of Masada
o Shmaryahu Guttman, With Masada (translated excerpt)
o Yael Zerubavel, Recovered Roots (part on Masada)
o Nachman Ben-Yehuda, The Masada Myth (on early tiyulim there)
Week 9 (March 10, 12, 13): The Palmach and the militarization of Jewish
hiking
o Sachar, chapter 9 on 1936-1939 Arab Revolt, 195-226
o Oz Almog, The Sabra
o Yael Zerubavel, Recovered Roots
o Nachman Ben-Yehuda, The Masada Myth
Week 10 (March 17, 19, 20): The first hiking trails in the Middle East?
o Sachar on partition and its aftermath, 279-301
o Selections from the Palestine Post on 1947 hiking accidents
o Shay Rabineau, “The Experimental Trail-Marking Initiative”
o Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness, 334-351
o Meron Benvenisti, “The Hebrew Map,” in Sacred Landscape
o Baruch Kimmerling, Zionism and Territory (selections)
o Ya’akov Morris, Masters of the Desert (selections)
Week 11 (March 24, 26, 27): Hiking in the post-1967 Middle East
o Gershom Gorenberg, The Accidental Empire, 1-41
o “Midbar Yehuda Trail Map,” published December 1967
o “Eilat Mountains Trail Map,” published 1970
o “Mount Carmel Trail Map,” published 1974
o Meron Benvenisti, Conflicts and Contradictions, chapter 2, 17-46
Week 12 (March 31; April 2, 3): The idea of an Israeli “national trail”
o Benton MacKaye, “An Appalachian Trail”
o Selections on First Intifada through Oslo Accords from Rabinovitch
and Reinharz, Israel in the Middle East
o Map: Oslo Areas A, B, and C in West Bank
o Visual art: Michael Druks, Druksland, 1974
Week 13 (April 7, 9, 10): The rise of Palestinian hiking
o Nebi Musa and other modern Muslim pilgrimages
o Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks (selections)
o Shehadeh, A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle (selections)
o Geraldine Chatelard, “Tourism and Representations”
Week 14 (April 14): Israeli trails and Palestinian sites of memory
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o OFF April 16, 17
o Mahmoud Darwish, “The Appeal of the Palestinian People on the
Fiftieth Anniversary of al-Naqba” (Rabinovitch/Reinharz 514-516)
o Walid Khalidi, All That Remains (village of Sirin)
o Video: “Tracing All That Remains of Sirin, Palestine”
o Excerpt from Zvi Gilat, Shvil Israel, on segment of trail passing Sirin
Week 15 (April 23, 24): Hiking trails as articulations of other national
identities
o OFF April 21
o “Alternative Israel Trail” created by Jewish settlers in West Bank
o Competing pilgrimages: “Jesus Trail” vs. “Gospel Trail” in Ha’aretz
o Palestinian Nativity Trail
o Palestinian National Trail
o Sufi Trails (www.sufitrails.ps)
o Abraham’s Path (www.abrahamspath.org)
Week 16 (April 28, 30): Final class presentations; revisiting early themes
o OFF May 1
o No new readings
o In-class student presentations, scheduled in advance with instructor
FINAL PAPERS DUE: Thursday, May 8, 12:15 PM