Spread over three countries (though the US will dominate) and featuring a record 48 teams, this will surely be the most extravagant Men’s Football World Cup in history – for better or for worse. President Trump has his fingers all over it. One moment he wants to withhold games from Democrat-controlled cities; the next he is threatening to invade co-hosts Mexico. In this course, we will use the World Cup as a case study to explore how football is increasingly being shaped by geopolitics.

The Jewish Labour Bund was once one of the most powerful forces in Jewish life. Founded in 1897, the Bund championed a radical vision: Jewish liberation through solidarity, not statehood. They believed in do’ikayt – "hereness” – fighting for freedom exactly where they stood. Though largely destroyed by Nazi Germany and suppressed by the Soviet Union, the Bund's absence from contemporary consciousness has another cause: their principled opposition to Zionism. This course recovers that lost history.