Since pre-state times, the founders and leaders of the State of Israel have been secular. As a result, the state is not run according to halacha or to a religious vision, but according to principles of modern Western law. This being the case, those who have a religious vision for the state have had to resort to religious politics. Judaism…

This article was originally published in the Sunday Guardian, India   On January 14th, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in India, for a four-day state visit that will take him to Delhi, Gujarat, Prime Minister Modi’s home state and Mumbai. At the airport Modi gave him a royal welcome. No living Israel leader has done more to forge a…

On the one hand, Jews have never been stronger and more influential, and have never had a state with such power. On the other, in terms of maintaining Jewish identity and of the relations between the Jewish communities (and not in terms of physical threat, of course), it would seem to be the worst of times, at least in comparison…

The Israeli discourse is full to the brim with harsh criticism about “the situation.” The background music to our public lives is a depressing dirge, an endless symphony of Israeli sorrow. With this in mind, the findings of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Democracy Index 2017, presented to the President of Israel, are astonishing. It turns out that when asked to…

Is a judge’s identity relevant to the verdicts and rulings she hands down? Some believe that the judicial task is objective by its very nature, neutral and quasi-scientific. In their view, judges are professionals who have no personal preferences; it is their legal expertise that determines the outcome, and not their identity. Just as compliance with the rules of the…

The Declaration of Independence, Israel’s founding document, states that the country is a “Jewish state.” This is not merely a description of a demographic reality, but a fundamental assertion of identity: a state which expresses the unique characteristics of the Jewish people. Indeed, a Jewish demographic majority exists in both Brooklyn and Beverly Hills, but the Jews in those cities…

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…

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.…

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…