Who Owns Maimonides?

Abraham Joshua Heschel once suggested that if one didn't know that "Maimonides" was a person, one would assume it was the name of a university. Heschel was referring to the monumental breadth and influence of the 12th-century philosopher's work.

Perplexed by Maimonides?  Natan Slifkin,  Rationalist Judaism.  A chart of the various approaches to Maimonides' theology, from the academic to the ultra-Orthodox.  SAVE

Mediterranean Maimonides  Jewish Ideas Daily.  For Maimonides, Islamic culture was not just background but shaping influence.  SAVE

The Tale of Maimonides and Peter  Fred MacDowell,  On the Main Line.  Was the great religious philosopher a heretic, as some medieval rabbis thought? A legend extant in many versions tells how he dramatically and successfully dispelled the charge.  SAVE

Sifting the Cairo Genizah  Lawrence Grossman,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  The centuries-old materials found in the loft of a Cairo synagogue include handwritten letters and documents of Maimonides.  SAVE

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Dershowitz, Stone.

Before the Law

The holiday of Shavuot, which falls this year on June 8 and 9, commemorates the giving of the Law. In video interviews conducted by the Israeli media agency Leadel, the prominent legal scholars Suzanne Last Stone and Alan M. Dershowitz explain the differences between Jewish law and Western law, and how their own interest in the former has informed their careers in the latter. —The Editors

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Beyond "Religious" and "Secular"

What should be the place of the Jewish religion in a Jewish state? There are many putative answers to this question, and the answers have changed over time. When Zionism was still an aspiration, a great blank yet to be filled in, the terms of debate were set by a self-confidently secular dispensation preoccupied with state- and institution-building. In the first few decades of statehood, religion, though state-established, was clearly subservient.

Toward a Cultural Judaism  Michael Pitkowsky,  Menachem Mendel.  A brief summary of the arguments presented by Ariel Picard and Yoav Sorek, with links to the original Hebrew articles in Makor Rishon.  SAVE

The Complete, Broken Jew  Be'eri Zimmerman,  Eretz Acheret.  A tribute to Bialik, the poet who "poured a living, breathing midrash into the ailing throat of Judaism."  SAVE

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Eichmann Goes Digital

This year, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Eichmann trial, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, together with the Israel State Archives, has posted to YouTube an extraordinary series of videos: over 200 hours of courtroom sessions and testimonies in the original Hebrew, German, and Yiddish, as well as a parallel set with English voiceover. What do they tell us?

The Eichmann Trial  Yad Vashem.  Video of the entire Eichmann trial is now accessible for the first time.  SAVE

Trial and Error  Deborah E. Lipstadt,  Tablet.  In an interview, Lipstadt discusses her new book and the importance of confronting contemporary Holocaust deniers like David Irving and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  SAVE

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