This year marks the 60th anniversary of the film Exodus, based on Leon Uris’s popular historical novel about the 1947 immigration ship Exodus and the founding of the State of Israel. David Ben-Gurion remarked on the book: “As a piece of propaganda, it’s the greatest thing ever written about Israel.” In this four-week course, led by poet and Jewish Renaissance’s executive director Aviva Dautch, the group will read extracts and watch clips, exploring the impression they made on wider popular culture as well as the criticisms of racism levied against them. Participants will also reflect on the long-term impact on the families of both the real-life refugees, whose story it was based on, and the British soldiers who turned them away. No previous knowledge or reading/viewing necessary.

£10, £40 whole series. www.jw3.org.uk/whats-on/leon-uriss-exodus