The Shalom Hartman Institute is pleased to invite the public to attend The Edward Bronfman Family Foundation Annual Lecture on Religious Pluralism, “Holy Living in Human Bodies,” Tuesday, February 16, 2010, at 20:00 (8 PM).
Speakers are Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed, Shalom Hartman Institute, Prof. Rusmir Mahmutćehajić, University of Sarajevo, President, International Forum Bosnia, and Rev. David M. Neuhaus, SJ, Vicar for the Hebrew and Russian-speaking Catholic communities in Israel, Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Opening remarks will be made by Rabbi Prof. David Hartman. The moderator is Dr. Hami Verbin, Shalom Hartman Institute. For more information, contact Brenda Yagod, +972-2-567-5320.
The lecture is affiliated with the Institute’s annual International Theology Conference, which is being held, February 14-18, 2010. Click here for more information on the 2010 conference.
The invitation-only conference will address questions such as: What does it mean to be made “in God’s image” in these mortal bodies? What moral implications arise from a serious engagement with the animal nature in which our rational self-awareness dwells?
Noam Zion is in a “historic one-month scholar-in-residence program” at Congregation Shearith Israel, Dallas, Texas: “The Bernard “Beanie” Siegel Scholar-in-Residence Program – “GPS Judaism: Finding Your Place in the Jewish Tradition.” Click here to see the entire month-long program. More details here and here.
Alick Isaacs spoke on the subject, “The Meaning of Israel in Contemporary Jewish Life,” at University of California, Irvine, on January 27, 2010.
Menachem Lorberbaum spoke on the subject, “Religion and Politics in a Post-Secular Age,” on January 25, 2010, at Taube Center on Jewish Studies, and Department of Literatures, Cultures and Languages, Stanford University.
Moshe Halbertal is scheduled to speak at the upcoming AIPAC Policy Conference, March 21-23, in Washington, DC, on a panel titled, “Israel Today – Ethical Defense: Israel’s Unparalleled Moral Battle Code.” For more information, click here.
Halbertal is also scheduled to speak at the University of Chicago, on the subject, “The Moral Challenges of Asymmetrical War: The Case of Israel,” on February 18, 2010. Click here for details.
Halbertal will also speak at the University of Chicago Divinity School as part of a three-lecture series titled, Political Theory. Legal Theory. Classical Jewish Texts: Three interdisciplinary presentations engaging the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic Literature.” His February 17, 2010, lecture is titled, “At the Threshold of Forgiveness: Law and Narrative in the Talmud.” Details here.
Bill Berk is scheduled to give a Passover teaching at Congregation Beit Shalom, Visalia, California, on the topics, “What Was the Real Pesach Miracle?,” and “How to Prepare for a Transformational Seder?” on March 28, 2010. Click here for details.
Hartman Institute Rabbinic Fellows have concluded their Winter 2010 retreat at the Institute. They are nearing the end of their three-year program. Some of their comments from recent blog posts give you a sense of how highly they have valued the program:
Rabbi Jonah Layman: “Another week of study at the Shalom Hartman Institute has concluded and I am still amazed at how wonderful the program is. No matter the topic of study for the week – this week it was individual and community – the classes are first rate and engaging. The teaching is engaging and provocative and there is always something that I can bring home to shul to teach.” Rabbi Layman posted a nice gallery of photos on Picasa. Click here to view them.
Rabbi Steve Moskowitz: “Rabbi David Hartman created the Shalom Hartman Institute where I am now studying. He is a remarkable rabbi. It is an honor and privilege to study with him….He is unafraid of questions. He is unafraid of struggle, and therefore no stranger to controversy. What is most remarkable is that I have found him to be loving and caring when addressing people and especially us, his students, yet tenacious and unforgiving when struggling with our texts.”
Rabbi Moskowitz also posted several videos on YouTube. Here’s one he titled, “Jerusalem Montage”
The Shalom Hartman Institute is pleased to announce that the Charles E. Smith Experimental High School for Boys has won the National Education Award, one of the highest possible honors that can be conferred upon an academic institution in Israel. A number of schools are selected for the award in each category. The Smith High School is in the religious school system category.
If I ever decide to make aliyah and move to Israel, I can blame it on Micah Goodman. On a chilly and wet Sunday night last week at The Mark — a reception hall on Pico Boulevard that used to house Mamash restaurant — Goodman spoke on “The Crash of Old Paradigms: Why the Left and the Right No Longer Exist in Israel.” Professor Goodman, who was hosted by the Israeli Consulate as part of their new speaker series for young professionals, is part of a new generation of young and bright Israelis who are seeking nothing less than a renewal of the Zionist idea.
Goodman, who’s only 33, studied in a variety of yeshivas over the years and got a doctorate of philosophy from Hebrew University. He teaches, among other places, at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, has his own weekly television show and runs a “leadership academy” called Ein Prat, which he founded. On the invitation for his Sunday night talk, Ein Prat was described as follows: “Seeking to lead a sea change in behavior and culture, we hope to awaken Israeli society from its slumber.”
I can tell you that he woke about a hundred young professionals in Los Angeles from their slumber, yours truly included.”
With Quentin Tarantino’s war-fantasy film, “Inglourious Basterds” up for four Golden Globe Awards on January 17, 2010, including, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz), Best Director (Quentin Tarantino himself), and Best Screenplay (yup, Quentin Tarantino again),the controversial film is surely going to be the starting point for many conversations.
The Jewish community has taken the film on with special showings and conversations both public and private. In this article, Shalom Hartman Institute Rabbinic FellowMark S. Diamond offers his take on the film – he sees it as a Purim-style midrash – and drops a few celebrity names who attended the screening he saw (well, he is head of the Southern California Board of Rabbis, after all).
In his piece, Hartman Institute Senior Fellow Yoske Achituv meditates on the true nature of revenge in Jewish history and philosophy.
Two different views, each interesting and certain to offer fuel for discussion. Just what you expect from the Hartman Institute.
One year after Israel’s Operation “Cast Lead” sent Israeli troops, tanks and missiles into Gaza with the stated goal of ending rocket fire on southern and eastern Israeli cities, the anniversary is being marked more outside of Israel than inside. Other than brief words, Israeli politicians did little to mark the war’s anniversary. A rally in Sderot is set for December 31, 2009.
Israeli media, notoriously short of attention span, are preoccupied with the latest internal political maneuvering. Will all or part of the Kadima party join the government? Will Kadima leader Tzipi Livni be toppled by Shaul Mofaz? Is Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s politicking brilliant, opportunist, desperate, or all three?
Surely, the political gamesmanship in Israel is influenced by the fallout from the Gaza War, the harshly critical Goldstone Report, increasing global isolation, and pressure from West Bank Palestinians, if not Gaza’s Hamas leaders.
Israel is seemingly united on its combined defensive crouch and counter-offensive efforts to delegitimize Goldstone. However, cracks in the façade of unity are coming through on the seemingly solid support for the effort to bring home captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held for more than three years now by Hamas (presumably) in Gaza. Netanyahu played down expectations of Shalit’s imminent release in advance of his Tuesday, December 29, 2009, trip to Egypt.
Political leaders and media from outside Israel commenting on the Gaza War are tending to reflect their built-in biases. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon bemoaned the conditions in Gaza. An Al-Jazeera TV special claimed Israel’s incursion into Gaza failed to achieve its goal of reducing Palestinian rocket fire (even as many other media and Israel itself noted that 2009 was a year of relative quiet but for isolated incidents.
Hamas efforts to whip up its populace seem to have fallen flat. Independentreports indicate that the first day of a planned 22 days of rallies (for each day of the war) went by with a whimper not a bang. Egypt has cracked down on a group of pro-Palestinian activists who sought to mark the event from the Egyptian side of the Gaza border.
Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman will speak at Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center, Aventura, Florida, (305-935-0666) on Shabbat morning, January 9, 2009, as part of the synagogue’s Distinguished Guest Speaker Series.
Rani Jaeger: Esther and Purim – Shalom Hartman Institute’s Rani Jaeger talks to Israeli high school students in the Be’eri program about Purim and the hidden meaning of Esther in the Megillah. (Video is in Hebrew). Click on the picture to view the video, or click here to view on the Hartman Institute website.
