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Religion Can Be the Bridge Linking Jews and Muslims

Judaism and Islam are sister religions with many similarities. Nevertheless, the prevailing belief among members of both faiths is that an abyss separates them, and politically, they view one another as a threat. Yet the overlaps between the religions, coupled with the positive attitudes toward religion in general on both sides, can be transformed into a bridge. Jewish familiarity with…
15/10/2017

Religion and State in Israel: Charting a New Course for 5778

The past year has brought into even greater focus the disputes that bitterly divide the Israeli public on questions of religion and state. There were dramatic events related to all major issues, some of which threatened, and continue to threaten, the government coalition, and all of which threatened the integrity of Israeli society and the Jewish People as a whole.…
28/09/2017

This Yom Kippur, Let’s Turn Down the Volume

A Jew who lives in Israel and lets Yom Kippur go by like just another ordinary day is missing something very significant. A country that comes to a standstill for one day but doesn’t derive anything significant out of it misses out. On a personal level, Yom Kippur, in the simplest sense, invites introspection. On a national level, it provides…
27/09/2017
Memories of an Anti-Semitic State Department
Geopolitics

Memories of an Anti-Semitic State Department

This article was originally published by the New York Times The former C.I.A. officer Valerie Plame Wilson made news with her Twitter account last week when, on the first day of Rosh Hashana, she shared an article that said, “America’s Jews are driving America’s wars: Shouldn’t they recuse themselves when dealing with the Middle East?” The article, which appeared on…
26/09/2017
Geopolitics

Is the Chief Rabbinate’s Monopoly on Kashrut Over?

Earlier this week the High Court of Justice ended the Chief Rabbinate’s kashrut monopoly. Thus one era in kashrut services ends and a new one begins – in which the kashrut industry will operate freely, without supervision. The court’s decision was about kashrut, but its significance is much broader. The court’s ruling weakens the Chief Rabbinate, and brings the State of Israel…
17/09/2017
2017 Annual Assessment

2017 Annual Assessment

Annual Assessment 2017 5777 PROJECT HEAD Dr. Shlomo Fischer CONTRIBUTORS Avinoam Bar-Yosef, Chaya Ekstein, Dan Feferman, Matthew Gerson Avi Gil, Inbal Hakman, Yossi Chen, Michael Herzog, Dov Maimon, Gitit Paz-Levi, Steven Popper, Uzi Rebhun, Shmuel Rosner, John Ruskay, Noah Slepkov, Shalom Salomon Wald EDITORS Barry Geltman Rami Tal Download the PDF Version:
02/09/2017

What remains of the religious status quo?

Relations between the Jewish religion and the State of Israel began to take form even before the state was founded. Since then, and over the past 70 years, it has been customary to speak about a “status quo” on matters of religion and state. Politicians, the courts, the media and the wider public regularly refer to this status quo. But…
24/07/2017

Israel’s ‘Status Quo’ On Religion Is In Chaos

In this document, the future prime minister promised that in the future Jewish state, Shabbat would be the statutory day off for Jews; that all official kitchens would observe kashrut; that marriage and divorce would be conducted according to religious law; and that the educational institutions of the various religious streams would be allowed autonomy beyond the definition of a…
06/07/2017

Leviathans, Minnows and the Rule of Law

One of the talmudic sages, R. Hananiah the Temple prefect, made the same point: “Pray for the welfare of the government. For if it were not for fear of it, one man would swallow his fellow alive (Avot 3:3).” But the powers we voluntarily surrender to the leviathan are incomparably vast and dangerous. The government employs institutionalized violence internally (the…
06/07/2017
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