News from Shalem Center, Jerusalem:
Natan Sharansky Appointed Chairman of Jewish Agency
Natan Sharansky, who joined the Shalem Center as a Distinguished Fellow in 2005 and founded the Center’s Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies in 2007, was elected as chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel this June. A former Prisoner of Zion and winner of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of his tireless struggle for human rights, Sharansky served as a minister and as deputy prime minister in successive Israeli governments before joining Shalem, where he wrote Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy. Under his leadership, the Adelson Institute has worked to articulate and build support for the strategic principles needed to address the challenges facing Israel and the West. For an article on Sharansky’s appointment to the Jewish Agency, click here.
Menachem Kellner, Noted Scholar of Jewish Thought, Joins Shalem Center
Noted professor of Jewish thought Menachem Kellner, who is slated to be the chairman of the Shalem College Department of Philosophy, Political Theory, and Religion, gave his first public lecture since joining the Shalem Center as a senior fellow. Speaking at the World Congress of Jewish Studies in August, he discussed “The Election of Israel: Maimonidean and Contemporary Perspectives.” Kellner, author of two Koret Jewish Book Award finalists and more than seven dozen articles on Jewish philosophy and issues of contemporary Jewish concern, is a professor of Jewish thought at the University of Haifa, where he has also served as dean of students. For a full biography and links to Professor Kellner’s publications, click here.
Michael Walzer’s Nation and Universe Published by Shalem Press
Political philosopher Michael Walzer’s 1989 Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Nation, and Universe were made available to a Hebrew audience for the first time with the release this June of a translated edition by Shalem Press. The lectures address a key problem of modern political thought, and one with special relevance to the Israeli reader: the tension between particularism and universalism. Moreover, in making the case for nationalism, Walzer relies in part on a political reading of the Hebrew Bible. For an article by Walzer on the political teachings of the Bible, which appeared in a recent issue of the Shalem Center’s quarterly journal, Hebraic Political Studies, click here.
Israel Prize Winner Sara Japhet Gives Keynote at World Congress of Jewish Studies
Sara Japhet, distinguished professor emerita of Bible at the Hebrew University and member of the newly formed Shalem College Academic Council, marked the completion of her four-year term as president of the World Congress of Jewish Studies by giving the opening keynote address at its annual World Congress of Jewish Studies this August in Jerusalem. Japhet, who was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize in 2004 for her contribution to biblical scholarship, spoke before the largest and most important gathering of academics in the field of Jewish studies on the subject of the struggle for identity during the period of the return to Zion. For a full biography and links to Professor Japhet’s publications, click here.
Adelson Institute Launches Project to Connect Democracy Advocates Across Mideast
On July 31st, the Adelson Institute took part in launching cyberdissidents.org, whose aim is to research and focus attention on the online activities of democracy advocates and dissidents in the Middle East, in the hope of empowering them at home and raising awareness of their plight abroad. Directed by David Keyes, the coordinator for democracy programs at the Adelson Institute, cyberdissidents.org’s website includes a who’s who of democracy advocates and a “blog of blogs” that brings together the translated postings of leading online activists. For more information, visit cyberdissidents.org by clicking here.
Eugene Kandel Appointed Chairman of National Economic Advisory Council
Eugene Kandel, a Hebrew University professor of economics and a founding member of the Shalem College Academic Council, was appointed chairman of the Prime Minister’s national economic advisory council this June. The advisory committee, which comprises experts and experienced executives from the fields of academia, business, and the public sector, is charged with formulating initiatives to encourage economic growth and to prepare opinions on state budget proposals and government decisions. Kandel's appointment comes shortly after Omer Moav, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center since 2004, was tapped to head the parallel Council of Economic Advisors in Israel’s Ministry of Finance. For more information about Professor Kandel, click here.
Ben-Gurion U. Lecturer Calls for Boycott of Israel, Sparks Debate on Academic Freedom
Neve Gordon, head of the political science department at Ben-Gurion University, unleashed a firestorm in Israeli academia when he penned an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on August 20th declaring Israel an apartheid state, and calling on the world to boycott it in order to “save [it] from itself.” Some Israeli academics leapt to his defense, citing academic freedom, while others, including Ben-Gurion University President Rivka Carmi, called Gordon’s views irresponsible and an abuse of the freedom of speech prevailing in Israeli universities. American Jews also joined the fray, with Israel’s Consul-General in Los Angeles, Yaakov Dayan, explaining in an article in Haaretz that since Gordon’s article was published, he had received calls from benefactors of Ben-Gurion threatening to withhold donations. Dayan went on to write that he believed that “the definitive answer to anti-Zionist lectures like Gordon is to set up a center for Zionist studies, which unfortunately does not exist in Israeli academia”—a sentiment powerfully articulated in a September 2nd Jerusalem Post article by Shalem senior vice president Daniel Gordis, which argues that “Gordon is correct—Israel needs to be saved from itself. What Israel needs now is a reconceived notion of the educated Israeli. It needs a liberal arts college, and the young people prepared to speak constructively about Jewish sovereignty, its challenges, its failures, and its future that only that kind of college can produce.” For the full text of Gordon’s op-ed, click here. For Carmi’s response, and the Haaretz article about the reaction of American Jews, click here and here. For the full text of Gordis’s article on the situation in Israeli academia, click here.
Hebrew U. President Calls on Israeli Academics to Move Out of Ivory Tower
Menachem Ben-Sasson, who was recently chosen as the President of Hebrew University, gave a wide-ranging interview this August in Haaretz, in which he argued that institutions of higher learning in Israel must improve their relationship with the public if they want to survive. “We enjoy the public’s taxes and we have to give them our knowledge in return,” he explained. “Many of us avoid public forums because we believe our medium must be scientific journals. But that is not true…. Every scientist must be able to explain why Israeli society will lose out if he stops studying his field of expertise.” For the full text of the article, click here.
History Matriculation Exam “Degrades, Abuses” Subject, Warn Israeli History Profs
Three leading Israeli history professors wrote an open letter this July criticizing the fact that the questions asked of high schoolers on Israel's matriculation exams in history have changed little in the past three decades, and test “neither skill nor thought, values nor appraisals,” limiting themselves instead to answers that require memorization. Insisting that history is taught “not only to ‘transmit the material’ but to develop historical thinking and research skills, and to draw personal moral implications,” the three scholars urged Israel’s Ministry of Education to make the exam more interesting and relevant, and to challenge students to display real understanding and analysis. For the full text of the article, click here.
Bible Studies Doesn’t Have to Be Boring, Argues Popular Israeli Author
Yochi Brandes, author of six novels and a noted scholar of Jewish studies, opined in a June feature article in Haaretz that although Bible is generally considered one of the most boring subjects taught in Israeli high schools, exceptional schools and their teachers prove that it can be done differently. Lamenting that even students who choose to focus on Bible as an elective fail consistently to see it as a source of Jewish identity and culture, Brandes urged teachers of Bible to view the literal explanation of biblical passages as points of departure for discussion, and to focus on the ideas contained in the text. Otherwise, she warned, Israel will lose its most important cultural asset. For the full text of Brandes’s article, click here.
Joshua Berman’s Created Equal Wins Accolades in Review of Biblical Literature
Shalem associate fellow Joshua Berman’s Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought (Oxford, 2008), was the subject of a positive review in the June issue of Review of Biblical Literature, a leading journal of biblical studies. The book, a finalist in the scholarship category of the National Jewish Book Awards and listed among the top 20 bestsellers in academic books on religion, argues that the Torah can be read as the earliest recorded blueprint for the establishment of an egalitarian polity. Temple University’s Mark Leuchter writes that “any scholar interested in the history of Israel will benefit tremendously from this sophisticated and substantial contribution to the field.” An essay by Berman based on the ideas in Created Equal, entitled, “The Biblical Origins of Equality,” is featured in the summer issue of Azure, The Shalem Center’s journal of Jewish thought. To read the text of this article, click here.
Daniel Gordis’s Saving Israel Continues to Earn Praise
Shalem senior vice president Daniel Gordis’s new book, Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End, was the subject of a major review in the August 13th issue of the Washington Jewish Week. The book, which offers a new defense of the Jewish state, has been lauded by scholars and commentators such as Cynthia Ozick for addressing “the exigencies of our time with the urgency they overridingly demand, and with the depth of feeling they inspire.” For the full text of the Washington Jewish Week review, click here.
Michael Oren’s Power, Faith, and Fantasy Released in Arabic
Power, Faith and Fantasy by Michael Oren, a long-time Shalem distinguished fellow appointed in May as Israeli ambassador to the United States, will soon be available in Arabic. In August, it was announced that the book, which analyzes the history of America’s relations with the Middle East from 1776 to the present, has been tapped by Project Kalima, an initiative of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage that selects 100 titles of classic, contemporary, and modern writing of quality from around the world to be translated each year. Click here to see a video of Oren speaking at the Shalem Center just days before accepting his appointment as Ambassador to the US.
Yoram Hazony Speaks on Human Nature at Annual Hume Society Conference
Shalem provost and senior fellow Yoram Hazony presented a paper on human nature theory before the 36th Annual Meeting of the Hume Society on August 5th in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Hazony’s presentation, entitled “Hume’s Program as an Alternative to Contemporary Naturalism in the Philosophy of Mind,” explored ways in which Hume’s philosophy may be able to help overcome current difficulties in the relationship between the study of the mind and physical science. For the full conference program, including a list of speakers and their lecture titles, click here.
Tsahi Weiss Heads to University of Chicago for Rothschild Fellowship
Tsahi Weiss, a post-doctoral fellow at the Shalem Center and educational co-director of its Rimon College Leadership Institute Program, won one of six Rothschild Fellowships at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, for which more than 200 applicants compete each year. The fellowship—considered the most prestigious of any granted to Israelis working in the humanities—is a one-year award for advanced study designed to stymie Israel’s “brain drain” problem by supporting young Israeli academics committed to returning to the Jewish state after completion of their studies abroad. Click here for a bio of Tzahi Weiss.
Hannah Hashkes Joins Shalem as Post-Doctoral Fellow
Hannah Hashkes, an assistant professor at Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Cleveland, Ohio, has joined Shalem’s post-doctorate fellowship program. She will spend the coming year exploring questions in Jewish philosophy through the prism of American post-pragmatism, as well as feminist Jewish theology and contemporary and post-modern American Jewish thought. Hashkes, who received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the Hebrew University in 2005, has taught philosophy and Jewish studies at the University of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky University, and Xavier University. For a full biography and links to Hashkes’s publications, click here.
Shalem Fellow Amichai Magen Co-Edits Two New Books on Democracy Promotion and International Law
Amichai Magen, Shalem associate fellow and managing director of academic programs, co-edited a volume of essays with Thomas Risse and Michael A. McFaul that debunks the myth of a transatlantic divide over democracy promotion. Published by Palgrave Macmillan in August, Promoting Democracy and the Rule of Law: American and European Strategies can be viewed here. In June, Magen’s second co-edited volume of essays, International Actors, Democratization, and the Rule of Law: Anchoring Democracy?, which studies how external actors influence democratic development, was published by Routledge. To view this book, click here.
Tamar Szabo Gendler of Yale Lectures on “Human Minds, Human Nature”
Yale University philosophy professor Tamar Szabo Gendler delivered a talk on “What Philosophers Got Right about Human Nature” to an overflow crowd at the second seminar in Shalem’s Human Minds, Human Nature Series. The event was held on July 14th at the Shalem Center's facility on Hatzfira Street, in Jerusalem's German Colony. A program of lectures and conferences marking Shalem Press’s publication of the first complete Hebrew editions of Hobbes’ Leviathan (2009), the series explores the history of the “human nature tradition” in philosophy, and examines whether it still has something significant to contribute to philosophy and the natural sciences. To view a web video of Szabo Gendler’s lecture, click here.
First-Ever Philosophy of Bible Conference to Be Hosted by Shalem in October
In recent years, philosophers, theologians, and scholars of the Bible have asked whether the tradition of “theistic” philosophy, which begins with the medieval thesis that the God of the Bible is “the most perfect being,” accurately reflects the worldview of the biblical authors, and whether this discourse exhausts the possible subjects for fruitful philosophical investigation of the biblical texts. To begin to address these questions, Shalem’s Institute of Philosophy, Political Theory, and Religion is convening an international conference on “The Bible and Philosophy: Rethinking the Fundamentals,” to be held in Jerusalem on October 25-28, 2009. A limited number of seats are available to the public; registration is open until September 30. For the current version of the conference schedule, click here.
Giora Eliraz Delivers Talk in Adelson’s Strategic Studies Platform Series
Giora Eliraz, a research fellow at the Hebrew University’s Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, lectured on “Indonesia: The Democratic Revolution in the World’s Largest Muslim Country” as part of the Adelson Institute’s Strategic Studies Platform Series. Arguing that the success of the democratic revolution in Indonesia is the realization of its political leaders that it is not religion, but rather Indonesia’s unity that is the country’s top priority, Dr. Eliraz nonetheless warned that the freedom of speech enabled by democracy allows radical Islam to be heard much more freely there—and to pose a greater threat. To view a video clip of Dr. Eliraz discussing this subject, click here.
Adelson Kicks Off Scholarship Program for Democracy Studies
On July 16 and August 16, the Adelson Institute held the first two sessions of its Scholarship Program for Democracy Studies under the leadership of program director and Adelson associate fellow Dr. Uriyah Shavit. The project brings together outstanding university students, journalists, and diplomats selected to conduct research on topics ranging from Egypt’s liberal leadership’s attitude toward Israel to women’s rights in Iran, with the aim of raising international awareness on the state of democracy in Middle Eastern societies and creating a network of future academic and diplomatic leaders who will advocate for greater freedom in the region. For more on the scholarship program, including a list of recipients and their areas of study, click here.
Rimon College Leadership Institute Ends First Year with High Ratings
In June and July, outstanding sophomores from among Israel’s top high schools came together in Jerusalem to participate in the Rimon College Leadership Institute’s final seminar of the program’s pilot year. The Institute, made possible through a grant from the Jewish Funders Network, provides idea- and text-focused educational experiences that aim to encourage the next generation of Israelis to contribute to the success of the Jewish state. Focusing on “The Influence of Biblical Ideas on Modern Concepts,” the seminar combined a tour of the City of David archeological site, biblical text study, and lectures by Shalem scholars, headed by Rimon educational co-director Dr. Ido Hevroni, which explored the themes of individual responsibility and social justice in the Bible. Participating students gave the seminars a high overall rating—an average score of 4.41 out of 5—and expressed interest in pursuing the ideas raised in the seminar both on their own and through continued involvement in the Rimon program. Three additional seminars for this group of students are planned for the 2009-2010 academic year. For more information on the Rimon College Leadership Institute, click here.
Students from Top American Universities Complete Summer Internship at Shalem
Nine students from Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Wellesley, Bowdoin, and Middlebury took part in an 8-week summer internship, during which time they assisted Shalem scholars with their research projects. The interns worked with Daniel Polisar on the spread of liberal arts education around the world; Yoram Hazony on a philosophical investigation of Hebrew scripture and on a project examining the aims of higher education; Daniel Gordis in researching his next book on nationalism, Zionism, and human flourishing; and Yossi Klein Halevi on his forthcoming book on the paratroopers who captured the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six Day War. As Gordis, who heads Shalem's educational programming, explained regarding his own team of interns, “The summer interns not only did outstanding research and writing, but were courageous enough to challenge some assumptions of the project, suggest alternate lines of argument, and think creatively about how to craft the book for the audience we have in mind. Drawn to Shalem by its reputation for excellence and its commitment to Zionism, they were able, through their work here, to advance those causes and make their own contributions to Shalem’s vision.” For more information on Shalem’s summer internship program, click here.
Daniel Polisar Addresses Wexner Leadership Group from New Jersey
The MetroWest participants in the Wexner Heritage Program, which offers 20 outstanding Jewish lay leaders two years of intensive Jewish study with a world-class cadre of professors, rabbis, and professionals, met with Shalem president Daniel Polisar this July during their Summer Institute in Israel. Polisar briefed participants on the internal and external threats facing Israel, and spoke of the need for new initiatives in education to address these threats and take advantage of the opportunities Israel has. To view an article on the program, click here.
Yossi Klein Halevi Explains How Israel Should Fight the Swedish Blood Libel
Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Adelson Institute, wrote in an August 26 article for The New Republic that the Aftonbladet blood libel has offered Israel a critical opportunity to place the wider problem of anti-Zionism on the European agenda. Insisting that Israel was right to respond with outrage to the Swedish newspaper’s claim that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians in order to harvest their organs, Halevi urges Israel to go further, and to use this affair to challenge the general climate of demonization of Israel in Sweden and throughout Europe, and to confront the conceptual links between European anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. For the full text of the article, click here.
Daniel Gordis Debates Avraham Burg’s Claim of an Israeli “Holocaust Obsession”
Shalem senior vice president Daniel Gordis responded to former speaker of the Knesset Avraham Burg’s insistence that Israel is “stuck in the Holocaust” and uses the Holocaust as the defining experience of Jewish identity in an interview aired on Interfaith Radio on June 5th While Gordis agreed that Israel is focused on the Holocaust, he argues that Israel’s mandate to remember has been the source of much of the country’s positive actions and achievements. To hear a podcast of Burg’s and Gordis’s debate, click here.
Place Pressure on Hamas, Keep Gaza Civilians Uninvolved, Urges Yagil Henkin
In an August 8 op-ed in the Jerusalem Post, Adelson Institute associate fellow Yagil Henkin argued that while international discussion has focused on whether Israel should continue applying sanctions against the Hamas-led regime in Gaza, it would be better to ask a different question: What sanctions should be applied, and what can they achieve? Pointing out that history offers limited examples of sanctions effectively forcing the hand of a regime—in fact, more often they have the opposite effect—Henkin maintains that the best way to apply pressure on Hamas is not to pressure it indirectly via actions that harm the residents of Gaza, but rather to prevent its leaders from traveling abroad and meeting with diplomats, ignoring organizations affiliated with it, and applying economic sanctions against individuals and businesses connected to it. For the full text of the article, click here.
The following web addresses provide an easy to access directory of all Shalem Center sites:
The Shalem Center: www.shalemcenter.com
Azure: www.azure.org.il
Techelet: www.techelet.org.il
Hebraic Political Studies: www.hpstudies.org
The undergraduate program: www.shalemstudents.org
Daniel Gordis: www.danielgordis.org
