By Susan Peterson

Gazette Staff

One century ago, a political movement was born that would go on to shape and influence Jewish culture and identity throughout the world.

When Theodor Herzl published the book Der Judenstaat in 1896, political Zionism, an all-encompassing movement of Jewish transformation through which the state of Israel was established, became a focus of public debate and a source of international controversy.

In 1897 Herzl also organized the Zionist Congress, which laid the foundation for the Zionist political movement.

In honor of these anniversaries, scholars from around the world are gathering for an international conference on both the Harvard and Brandeis campuses this Oct. 7-10 and will reassemble in Jerusalem in May 1997.

"This looms in my mind as one of the largest commemorative occasions in modern Jewish studies, because it marks the reconstitution of Jewish sovereignty in this century," said Ruth Wisse, one of the conference organizers and professor of Yiddish literature and of comparative literature. "There has been a great deal of interest in Jewish return to the land of Israel since the 19th century, and it will be interesting to hear what scholars have to say about the process."

During the conference, participants will attend sessions examining the history of the Zionist movement and Jewish identity in the 20th century, as well as establishing an agenda for future research.

"No other social or political movement has so fundamentally altered the self-image of the Jewish people and its relations with the non-Jewish world," said Jehuda Reinharz, Brandeis University president, who, along with Wisse, helped to organize the conference.

Wisse has been looking forward to this centennial, and when she came to Harvard three years ago, she pursued the idea of organizing a conference honoring the occasion. She planned the conference together with Reinharz and Anita Shapira of Tel Aviv University, two of the foremost historians of Zionism.

"The Congress of 1897 marks the beginning of Zionism as a political movement," Wisse explained. "In a century that has been very bleak for the Jewish people, I think it's particularly important to recognize the brighter side of the historical picture."

The speakers include Shlomo Avineri of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author Conor Cruise O'Brien, David Vital of Tel Aviv University, and Martin Peretz of The New Republic.

The conference is sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard, the Jacob and Libby Goodman Institute for the Study of Zionism at Brandeis University, and the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History in Jerusalem. The sessions are free and open to the public, but advance registration is encouraged. For more information, contact the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies at 496-2315.