Prof. Chaim Gans of the Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, is the Autumn 2017 Greenberg Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies. Prof. Gans teaches legal, moral, and political theory and for the past two decades has especially focused on nationalism and Zionism. His undergraduate course, "Jews, Palestinians and Israel: Three Moralities, Three Historiographies, and Three Roadmaps," explores different approaches to issues such as pre-Zionist Jewish history, institutional and territorial arrangements in Israel/Palestine concerning the relationships between Jews and Palestinians, the relationships between Israeli Jews and world Jewry, and the implications of such approaches for the future of Israel/Palestine and of Judaism. On November 2, Prof. Gans will provide insights into these questions in a public lecture by the same title. In addition, Prof. Gans is also teaching a graduate seminar entitled, "Nationalism and Multiculturalism: General Theory and Some Israeli Applications," in which he seeks to conduct a critical discussion of the different types of multicultural and national rights, their possible justifications, and the way they should apply to Israel in comparison with other cases.
The Greenberg Visiting Professorship is funded by an endowment from Joyce Zeger Greenberg and each year brings to campus two senior scholars whose research falls within the broader area of Jewish Studies.