Dedicated to deepening student and community understanding of Israel, and the advancement of peace, through education
Charleston students on their visit to the Bank of Israel.
Photo Credit: Joshua Shanes
The Norman J. and Gerry Sue Arnold Center for Israel Studies provides students at the College of Charleston, as well as members of the broader community, a deeper understanding of Israeli history, culture, and society through academic coursework, community outreach, student events, faculty exchange, and subsidized student travel to Israel.
Our Center not only brings students to Israel – and Israeli faculty, business and technology leaders to Charleston – but also builds bridges within the college and broader community with its distinctive partnership wtih the School of Business and on Israel’s start-up culture and high-tech business environment.
Students at the SodaStream factory in Israel.
Professor Joshua M. Shanes
Professor of Jewish Studies Joshua Shanes joined the College of Charleston in 2006 and was named head of the Center for Israel Studies in 2019. Professor Shanes teaches ancient and modern Jewish history, Zionism and modern Jewish politics, nationalism, and various courses on Jewish religion.
He has published widely on modern Jewish history, Israel, religion, politics, and antisemitism in both academic and popular outlets such as the Washington Post, Slate, The Conversation, and Haaretz. His first book, “Diaspora Nationalism and Jewish Identity in Habsburg Galicia” (Cambridge, 2012) explained the birth of Zionism in late 19th-century Europe. He is currently completing a history of Jewish Orthodoxy from its German origins until today.
Events
Religious discourse in Israel since the attacks of October 7 is deeply focused on national pride and vengeance, topics that lay at the center of Manekin's recent study of his Religious Zionist community.
Charleston, SC United States
We invite you to join Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Noor A’wad as they share their personal, interconnected stories and present the groundbreaking and challenging grassroots work of Roots. They do …
