“We are a normal country living an abnormal existence.”

Israel’s creation fulfilled the Zionist hopes of millions of Jews, spawned some of the largest humanitarian rescue operations in history, set forth a new course for the Jewish People, and proved the power of the ideas of redemption and nation renewal. It was also a nation of paradoxes: seeking peace amidst war, pushing out the Palestinians while taking in hundreds of thousands of Jews, grappling with the cultural and ethnic differences between European and Middle Eastern Jews, and living up to the promises made in its founding document, the Declaration of Independence. Its first 19 years of existence, from 1948-1967, offer a gripping story of triumph and tragedy, great achievement and grave mistakes, heroes and villains, and the kinds of complexities that make for provocative, entertaining, and compelling learning.

Photograph: Independence Hall, Tel Aviv. Formerly the home of Tel Aviv’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, this room was where David Ben Gurion and the Zionist Movement leadership proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948.

Episodes

Episode 1: The Declaration

Episode 2: The First Day

Episode 3: The Almost Civil War

Episode 4: Twenty Miles from Tel Aviv

Episode 5: Expulsion

Episode 6: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Just Vote Left All the Time

Episode 7: Narratives

Episode 8: The Nakba (Catastrophe)

Episode 9: On Wings of Eagles

Episode 10: The Law of Return

Episode 11: Blood Money

Episode 12: The Jewish State, Secular Version

Episode 13: The Jewish State, Religious Version

Episode 14: Sde Boker

Episode 15: Eulogy for Roi Rotberg

Episode 16: The Sinai Campaign

Episode 17: The Samson Option

Episodes 18-22: The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichmann

Episode 23: Current Events: Black-Jewish Relations

Episode 24: Current Events: Are Jews White?

Episode 25: The Teenage Years

Episode 26: The Events of Wadi Salib

Episode 27: Water, Water!

Episode 28: The Spies

Episode 29: Current Events: Israel-UAE Peace Deal

Episode 30: Meet Yasser Arafat

Episode 31: Israel & America

Episode 32: The Waiting Period

Episode 33: The Israeli Dream