For the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of developing and teaching a course titled “Israeli Politics in an Era of Polarization” at Washington University, as an Israel Fellow in the Department of Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (JIMES). Together with my students, I’ve engaged in teaching and learning as a way to make sense of the rapid and often disorienting changes unfolding in Israel—seeking anchors in a time when the state, the region and the world often feel like they’re turning upside down.

One of the key lenses we used to explore these dynamics was political polarization. We grappled with the foundational tensions and contradictions in the idea of a “Jewish and democratic state” and examined four of the most divisive issues in Israeli society: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the status of Arab citizens, the relationship between religion and state, and socioeconomic inequality. Students worked with a range of sources, applied political theories to illuminate the complexities, studied the structure of Israel’s political system and mapped the agendas of key players in an effort to better understand both the roots and consequences of polarization.

Beyond building understanding, the course aimed to utilize learning to foster thoughtful, independent, evidence-based engagement. At a time when university campuses are at the heart of public debates, I believe academic classrooms must equip students not just with knowledge, but with the skills and courage to engage in what our tradition calls machloket l’shem shamayim—disagreement for the sake of Heaven (Pirkei Avot 5:17).

Hope, I’ve found, is the not-so-secret ingredient that transitions such disagreements into live, productive and meaningful conversations. Scholar Kathryn Standish describes what she calls a “curriculum of hope,” built on a simple yet powerful invitation: to commit to imagining a better future, even in uncertain times.

The following commentaries are the product of that commitment. Written by WashU undergraduates in the Spring 2025 iteration of the course, they reflect personal explorations of polarizing issues in Israeli politics—offering not only critique, but a clear-eyed, hopeful vision for what might come next.

Read the students’ essays by clicking on their photo below: