A Very English Institution

Last week some 600 Jews converged on the hamlet of Kerhonkson in upstate New York for Limmud NY, a three-day "marketplace of Jewish ideas." Now in its eighth year, the volunteer-run Limmud NY is open to professional teachers and amateurs alike.

Talking Heads  Nathan Lopes Cardozo,  Cardozo Academy.  Is wearing a kippah all the time equivalent to not wearing it at all? Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo tells Limmud how his kippah has come between him and God.  SAVE

Renaissance in Russia  Alex Weisler,  JTA.  The idea of bringing Limmud to the former Soviet Union was dismissed as ridiculous. But now, with a network from Odessa to Beersheba, it is rejuvenating the Russian-speaking Jewish community.  SAVE

Unity in Adversity  Ofra Bengio,  Haaretz.  Deteriorating Israeli-Turkish relations have caught Turkish Jews in the crossfire. Yet Limmud Istanbul testifies to a community as resolute and vibrant as ever.  SAVE

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Jewish Farm School.

Eating Your Values

The many Jewish laws regarding food—how it gets from the ground and into our mouths in a kosher manner—are central to Jewish life.  But what ethical framework underlies the system of kashrut? Maimonides' justifications for kashrut range from avoiding cruelty to animals and eschewing the idolatrous practices of antiquity to considerations of health.

Yiddish Farm  Devra Ferst,  The Jew and the Carrot.  Where Yiddish-language immersion meets sustainable agriculture. (Interview with Naftali Ejdelman)  SAVE

Locusts, Giraffes, and the Meaning of Kashrut  Meir Soloveichik,  Azure.  Sifting historical and contemporary explanations, one Orthodox intellectual settles in the end on divine love and Jewish difference. (PDF)  SAVE

They Were What They Ate  Susan Marks,  H-Net.  A new volume on the role of food in shaping ancient Jewish identity goes farther and deeper than earlier studies of the subject.  SAVE

Slaughterhouse Rules  Elli Fischer,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  As Jewish ritual slaughter makes multiple provisions for the minimization of animal pain, it's evident that those who seek to ban the practice often have something other than animal welfare in mind.  SAVE

Going Kosher  Sue Fishkoff,  JTA.  Reform rabbis of late are challenging their constituents to develop a dietary practice based on such values as sustainability, morality—and, yes, kashrut.  SAVE

Kosher Nation  Jenna Weissman Joselit,  New Republic.  The expansion of the kosher food industry has, ironically, caused kosher food to become invisible.  SAVE

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Career Corps

The United States has its military academies at West Point and Annapolis. The British put their officers through Sandhurst. But how will the Israeli Defense Forces, a citizen army, train its officers for the 21st century?

Brass Tactics  Yuval Bazak,  Military and Strategic Affairs.  The IDF remains a people's army, but the Second Lebanon War made clear the need for professionalization and adaptation. (PDF)  SAVE

The Jewish Way in War  Elliot Jager,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  What does Judaism have to say about the rules of war? Jewish and Israeli theoreticians have mined Jewish tradition for a moral reality check.  SAVE

Assessing General Ashkenazi  Avi Kober,  BESA Perspectives.  Ashkenazi helped restore faith in the IDF, but when he stepped down, shortcomings in clarifying battle doctrine and educating commanders remained.  SAVE

Beyond Tanks  Alex Joffe,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Israel has fought large-scale conventional wars and it has faced down terrorists. In the next war, just as enemy tactics will be different, so too will be the response.  SAVE

In the Officer's Course  YouTube.  Docudrama about the rigors IDF cadets must endure to obtain their lieutenants' bars. (Video)  SAVE

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Israel Studies 101

The modern American research university is a house of many rooms. The field of Israel Studies, which has emerged in the past decade, occupies one of the newest—and smallest—of those rooms.

Studying Israel  Jan Jaben-Eilon,  Jerusalem Post.  The growth of interest in Israel as a field of serious academic study is not just American but worldwide.  SAVE

Multicultural Israel in a Global Perspective  Association for Israel Studies.  The Association for Israel Studies, in existence since 1985, plans its 2012 conference in Haifa.  SAVE

Follow the Money  Alex Joffe,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Between 1995 and 2008, Arab Gulf states gave $234 million in contracts and about $88 million in gifts to American universities. What has their money purchased?  SAVE

Jewish Studies in Decline?  Alex Joffe,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Retiring faculty are not replaced, less research money is allocated, and fewer students enter the field. Is there a future for the academic study of Judaism?  SAVE

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Photo by Natalie Weinberg.

Rosh Hashanah with the Chief Rabbi

Ten years ago, the first day of Rosh Hashanah—the two-day Jewish New Year—fell on September 18. That was one week after September 11, 2001, when almost 3,000 people were killed by Muslim terrorists. On that Rosh Hashanah, rabbis did not lack for sermon topics.

Endless Devotion  Hillel Halkin,  Jewish Review of Books.  Prayer, says Sacks, is the "language of the soul in conversation with God."  But the struggle to keep it from becoming routine is intrinsic to every religion in which prayer is a regular duty.  SAVE

The Chief Rabbi's Achievement  David Wolpe,  Jewish Review of Books.  Sacks has a gift for providing plausible, if not entirely sufficient, interpretations of the most problematic questions of theology.  SAVE

Where Faith is Weak, Life is Weak  Jonathan Sacks,  Jewish Chronicle.  Intermarriage, assimilation, and vulnerability are not the causes but the symptoms of a transcendent malaise affecting a people once aflame with devotion.  SAVE

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