Article Library

Op-Ed: Remembering Jack Kay, ‘A Giant in the Jewish World’

With the passing of Jack Kay, the Jewish world has lost one of its most committed community leaders and forward thinking philanthropists. A resident of Chevy Chase, Maryland and Palm Beach, Florida, Kay died on April 21 at the age of 87. Kay was chairman of the board of the Kay Management Company in Silver Spring, Maryland, and one of…

Israel at 65: The Tale of a Sleeping Beauty

Has Israel been fulfilling its historic mission? There is abundant evidence that it has. Since the founding of the state in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Israel’s Jewish population has grown by more than 1000%. The prophetic vision of the Return to Zion has been realized, with the Jewish people’s historic homeland now home to the largest Jewish community in…

The Haredi Draft: The Need for an Alliance of the Moderates

Although a great many issues are awaiting resolution on Israel’s national table, the parties involved in the current coalition negotiations have been focusing on one topic: the ultra-Orthodox. The headlines have focused on the political aspect of this issue, and have concerned themselves with the question of whether or not the coalition will include the ultra-Orthodox parties. But regardless of…
Haredim

“The Haredi Challenge”

Abstract
Haredim

A Coalition of Hope

This is the political coming of age of a cultural and social movement that is not willing to content itself with the obsessive debate about Israel’s borders conducted under the code name of “right” and “left”, but chooses instead to focus on the desired nature of the state that will exist within those borders, wherever they end up. In addition…

Habayit Hayehudi and Refusal of Orders: The Real Question

There are different kinds of calls for military insubordination. Some people who advocate refusal of orders are motivated by the desire to thwart the implementation of national decisions that have been made democratically; consequently, they call for mass civil disobedience or for disobedience by those who would be responsible for implementing the national decision, such as air force pilots ordered,…

Religious Zionism: Integration or Isolation?

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, one of the most important rabbis of the Religious Zionist community, has stated that it is forbidden for women to serve in the Knesset because it is a breach of modesty. As he sees it, the public exposure that is involved in political life is not reconcilable with the religious principle of “all the honor of the…
Jewish Communities Worldwide

Jewish Demographic Policies

The JPPI’s new, action-oriented book “Jewish Demographic Policies: Population Trends and Options in Israel and in the Diaspora” makes recommendations to meet the current Jewish demographic challenges, all of which are worthy of serious debate. Among the main recommendations: establishing final borders of the State of Israel; facilitating cultural absorption of non-Jewish members of Jewish households into a Jewish context and…
Jewish Communities Worldwide
Europe's Jewry

The Circumcision Crisis

A new report by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) concludes that an immediate, coordinated Jewish – including Israeli – response is needed to thwart the possible implications of recent attempts to ban circumcision and limit other Jewish practices in Western Europe. JPPI characterizes the German court’s decision against circumcision as a “historic ruling” that might threaten the future thriving…
Europe's Jewry