In God They Trust?

 

Stick an average alumnus of the Israeli public school system into a synagogue during morning prayers, and chances are they would be bewildered. Even if they could recollect an arid Bible class they had to endure long ago, what good would it do them? They'd still be lost.

A Portrait of Israeli Jews  Asher Arian, Ayala Keissar-Sugarmen,  Avi Chai and Israel Democracy Institute.  Most Israeli Jews feel a sense of affinity—variously defined—to their country and the Jewish people. (PDF)  SAVE

A Jewish Public School  Ben Hartman,  Jerusalem Post.  Parents in Ra'anana, a middle class Israeli town, successfully lobby for a "pluralist, traditional public school." It only took 14 years.  SAVE

Returning to God  Haim Shine,  Israel Hayom.  Some of Israel's founders may have envisioned Jews without God, but their descendants are coming home in droves.  SAVE

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From New Year to Arbor Day

 

The holiday of Tu Bishvat ("the fifteenth of Shvat") falls this year on Wednesday, February 8. What are its origins, and when and why did it become incorporated into the calendar as the Jewish "Arbor Day"?

When Have "Most of the Rains Passed"?  Yair Goldreich,  Bar-Ilan University.  Analyzing the climatic factors that help determine the date of Tu Bishvat.  SAVE

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The Pale God

 

Imagine God not as a benign force infusing the universe with love and sustaining it with mercy, and not as a stern judge smiting sinners from on high with his cosmic zap-gun, but as a grandfatherly figure, kind but, truth be told, somewhat out of it, sitting in a corner, tolerant of the various paths his children have chosen.

A Portrait of Israeli Jewry  Asher Arian, Ayala Keissar-Sugarmen,  Avi Chai Foundation.  A comprehensive study of religious behavior among Israeli Jews, worshiping Spinoza's pale God. (PDF)  SAVE

Secularism and Its Discontents  Yehudah Mirsky,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  A dependence on the idea of Jewish "tradition" has been a hallmark of Jewish secularists and proto-secularists for nine centuries or so.  SAVE

Spinoza: A Life  Steven Nadler,  Cambridge University Press.  The first complete biography of Spinoza in any language—and a portrait of 17th-century Jewish Amsterdam.  SAVE

Gender Trouble  Yehudah Mirsky,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Israel's secularists have their work cut out for them in implementing their vision of a moderate, state-friendly Judaism.  SAVE

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Hear, O Friends of Israel

 

In 1987, exactly a quarter-century ago, the appearance of a work of Jewish history caused a stir. For one thing, the author was not Jewish; for another, the book was unashamedly supportive of the State of Israel, which even then was enough to provoke hostility, especially on the Left.

The Miracle  Paul Johnson,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  The creation of Israel was the quintessential event of the last century, and the only one that can fairly be called a miracle.  SAVE

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View More in Israel Culture

Insight & Analysis

On the Hatred of Haredim  Gil Troy.  New Republic.  Contrary to media hype, Israel is not becoming an ultra-Orthodox theocracy. Rather, the recent violence is a reaction to increasing integration, and a symptom of the Haredi leadership losing its grip.  SAVE

Blurring the Issue  Hadassah Levy.  Torah Musings.  Blurring or removing photographs of women might be understandable in the ultra-Orthodox world, but it should have no place in Modern Orthodoxy.  SAVE

Our Ethiopian Brothers  Elad Uzan.  Jerusalem Post.  Why haven't Israelis come to the aid of Ethiopian Jews, as they have for African non-Jews?.  SAVE

The Seed of Israel  David Ellenson.  Jewish Review of Books.  He has been accused of heresy and expelled from Shas, but Haim Amsalem's lenient approach to conversion in Israel may yet be a blueprint for a more unified nation.  SAVE

After Tal  Jerusalem Post.  The "melting pot" ethos, which aimed to resocialize young soldiers, has been replaced by a softer, multicultural approach—as a result of which, more Haredim have been integrated into the IDF, and more are joining.  SAVE

How Fruitful?  Shmuel Rosner.  New York Times.  By funding IVF for women in their fifties and now requiring women who want to give birth at home to prove their sanity, is Israel taking its involvement in procreation a little too far?.  SAVE

Talking Security, Thinking Demographics  Yoram Rabin.  Haaretz.  Israel's Supreme Court is discussing the security implications of immigration law without explicitly addressing the demographic implications. That will have to change.  SAVE

Jerusalem Letter

Poets and Warriors

 

Aryeh Tepper

Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873–1934) was the poet of Jewish national rebirth and a leading light of cultural Zionism. To be more precise, he was a power station. Composing poems, writing essays, founding journals, raising up the sparks of Israel's past, Bialik became an essential source of energy for Jewish cultural revival.  

Continue Reading "Poets and Warriors"  Aryeh Tepper,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  SAVE

Grand Things to Write a Poem On  Hillel Halkin,  Gefen.  An "autobiography" of Shmuel Hanagid in 64 poems, translated and introduced.  SAVE

Shmuel Hanagid  Peter Cole,  Princeton University Press.  Selected poems, including the lines cited above, in translation.  SAVE

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