HONORS + ENRICHED: Migration, the Irish Potato Famine, and Zionism (for people absent on Weds or Thurs)

There were a lot of absences Weds and Thurs due to the art field trip.  If you were not here (physically or mentally), please read the readings linked here (on the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-49 and the creation of Zionism) and add the following to your class notes:

Migration = human movement (usually refers to lots of people moving for long-term periods)

People are motivated to migrate because of "push factors" and "pull factors." Push factors "push" people away from a place (encourage people to emigrate, migrate out of a place), and pull factors "pull" people toward a place (encourage people to immigrate, migrate into a place).

Examples of push factors: war, political instability, political or religious persecution, famine, lack of economic opportunity, natural and manmade disasters. Examples of pull factors: economic opportunity, higher living standards (wealthier society), family and marriage, desire for political or religious freedom.

The Irish potato famine (1845-49) described in the reading is an example of a major push factor (hunger, economic disaster) that drove millions of Irish people to emigrate to the United States in the mid-1800s.


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Zionism = the quest for a Jewish nation-state.  In 1896, Theodor Herzl, an Austrian Jew, published a book called The Jewish State in which he called for the creation of a Jewish nation-state (country) in Palestine as a way to escape the anti-Semitism (anti-Jewish discrimination) that prevailed in Europe and the U.S.

Supporters of Zionism achieved their goal after World War II and the Holocaust, in which anti-Semitism led to the murder of 6 million Jews in the death camps of Nazi Germany.  In 1949, the state of Israel was created by the United Nations in the former British colony of Palestine.  Because the land was predominantly occupied at that time by Palestinian Arabs, this has resulted in an ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.  Palestinians currently do not have a nation-state of their own; many live in countries around Israel, and many live in the Palestinian (a.k.a. Occupied) Territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - see the map above) within Israel.  The Palestinian Territories are self-governing, but do not have many of the protections of statehood.