Identity
The 2022 Annual Assessment
The Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People Project Head: Shmuel Rosner Contributors: Gabriel Abensour, Nadia Beider, Dan Feferman, Shlomo Fischer, Shuki Friedman, Avi Gil, Noa Israeli, Dov Maimon, Steven Popper, John Ruskay, Adar Schieber, Noah Slepkov, Yedidia Stern, Shalom Salomon Wald, Haim Zicherman Editor: Barry Geltman
New Subjects in the Field
The Lag BaOmer Bonfire and Cultural Depth
I wish that among the criticisms of the custom of lighting bonfires, substantive claims would also be heard and discussed.
The new Israeli officials seeking to redefine Jewish identity
Religious Zionism’s focus on rebranding Israeli society could test the Jewish state’s already fragile relationship with more liberal Diaspora Jewish communities
Rosh Hashanah or January 1st?
When does the year start for Israelis – the first of January or the first of Tishrei? Most of us conduct our daily lives according to the Gregorian (non-Hebrew) calendar and are not aware of the Hebrew date on any given day.
The Secular in Israel Must Enter the Jewish Arena
In the current equation, the religious and the Haredim are “responsible” for defining what is “Jewish” in the Jewish state, and the secular and the religious alike quarrel over the meaning of “democracy.” This is a fundamentally distorted equation. A recurring but often missed motif of the Tishrei holidays refers to the outside world, with the Jewish aspiration – well assimilated…
The View Through Big-Data: An Initial Analysis of 15 Million Tweets by AIPAC and J Street Followers
Main Findings Twitter followers of AIPAC and J Street are equally likely to have bios that contain the word “Jewish”, while AIPAC supporters are significantly more likely to have “Israel” in their bios. Around the same percent of AIPAC followers (48.1%) and J Street followers (39.5%) mention Israel at least once in their previous 200 tweets. J Street followers are…
Israeli And Diaspora Jews: ‘We Are Siblings, Not Cousins’
For an Israeli like me, the recent visit to Israel of 450 members of the Park Avenue Synagogue is very encouraging. The questions and consternation raised by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, the congregation’s leader in his online Opinion piece (“Are We A Nation Or A Religion?” Jan. 14), are evident, and the aspiration to retrieve a common language and to acknowledge…
Op-Ed: Putting the Kotel Decision in Context
The following was published as an op-ed by eJewish Philanthropy. The recent Israeli government decision from June 25, 2017, to freeze the Western Wall (Kotel) agreement, and advance a conversion bill, was dramatic, as were the responses from Jewish leaders and organizations in the United States, Israel and other countries. This, of course, did not occur in a vacuum, and…
What JPPI’s 2017 Global Jewish Dialogue on Jerusalem Teaches us about the Kotel Crisis
JPPI’s 2017 Global Jewish Dialogue on Jerusalem and the Jewish People offers data that explains why the Jewish world uses the word “betrayal” in reaction to recent Israeli government decisions freezing the Kotel compromise and initiating a new law on conversion.[1] One could assert that policy input from Diaspora Jews has a place in decisions Israel takes that impact Jews…
Researchers Team
Dr. Gitit Levy-Paz
Fellow
Bio
Dr. Gitit Levy-Paz is a fellow at JPPI. She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Bar-Ilan University, an M.A. in Hebrew Literature from Ben Gurion University, and a B.A. in Political Science and Communication from Bar-Ilan University. Her work focuses on contemporary Jewish American identity from an interdisciplinary – sociological, political and literary - viewpoint. In addition to her work at the JPPI, she is a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University.
Gitit was selected as a research fellow for the Israel Democracy Institute's program on Judaism and Human Rights and has received several other fellowships. She worked as a literary editor and wrote literary criticism for the literary section of Haaretz.
