Essay
Grading Guidelines
There were many ways this essay could have been organized. The two frameworks that emerged most often were the distinction between (1) Israel as a state of the Jews or a Jewish state and (2) Jews as a people/nation vs. Jews as people with a religious tradition. Either of these frameworks worked well to organize the material. Some of you chose to use the different streams of Judaism as an organizing principle, a strategy that worked if you focused on their attitudes to Judaism.
The following are some of the points that were relevant to the essay. I’ve marked with an asterisk those that I considered essential or very important.
Pre-state Period
*Herzl’s view on the state of Israel as state of the Jews
*Nature of Labor Zionists as secular and socialist
*Reason for hostility to traditional Judaism
Views about halacha as the basis for the Jewish state
Desire to rebuild Jewish culture, language institutions
Use of Jewish symbols to legitimate Zionism
*Religious Zionism
Founding and since
Role of Judaism in Proclamation of Independence
*Role of Judaism in debate over the Constitution
Role of religious parties
*Conflict over religion in education (Ackerman)
Family law entrusted to religious courts
Merely mentioning these points was not enough; the best essays explained them and made it clear to me that the authors understood what they were writing about and how it related to the question.