Edgar Bronfman Quotes David Hartman on Israel

Philanthropist Edgar M. Bronfman, in the final part of a five-part series of articles on Huffington Post, talks about the need to rethink and update the relationship between Israel and the world’s Jews, and quotes Hartman Institute Founding President David Hartman on the subject: As my dear friend, the philosopher David Hartman once said to me, “Israel [...]

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Donniel Hartman Commentary on “Rotem Conversion Bill” Receiving Wide Attention

Donniel Hartman’s commentary on the “Rotem Conversion Bill” controversy, “Relationship of Israel and World Jewry Depends on Meaning, Not Claims of Necessity,” is receiving widespread attention in Israel and North America, including citations and reprints by The New York Times, Forward, and Ynet, among others: Israel Puts Off Crisis Over Conversion Law (The New York Times, 23/07/2010) Donniel [...]

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Hartman Institute Scholars to Coordinate Knesset Conference on Jewish Identity in a Democratic State of Israel

The question of how to sustain and maintain Jewish identity in a democratic State of Israel will be the subject of a daylong conference at the Knesset, May 27, 2010, expected to draw more than 400 participants and leading rabbis from all streams of religious thought in Israel. The conference was set up by Kadima [...]

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Comments on the news of the day: Jewish peoplehood, for one thing

A controversial new book, The Invention of the Jewish People, by Tel Aviv University historian Shlomo Sand, is now in English, after kicking up a dust storm of controversy in its original Hebrew incarnation. This is a summary of the book’s thesis, as explained in a recent review on Tablet, an online Jewish cultural magazine: [...]

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Two articles from new Havruta journal now online

Two articles from the third issue of Havruta, “The Spiritual Quest,” are now available online: Beyond Maimonides: The search for God in postmodern America, by Alfredo Borodowski A song for many voices: The soul of secular Israel, by Rani Jaeger

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Shooting of gay teens in Tel Aviv, Israel, a shocking attack

Israel – parts of it at least – promotes itself as the most tolerant country in the Middle East. Gays and lesbians have a freedom to live openly unheard of in the Arab world. Transsexual singer Dana International is a popular entertainer and TV personality. Yet… Yet… Late Saturday an unidentified shooter opened fire in [...]

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Israel and North American Jews – Do we need each other? Do we understand each other?

Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic Monthly interviewed Michael Oren, a New York state native who is now Israel’s ambassador to the United States in Aspen, CO, recently. In the interview (click here to see the entire interview on video; click here to read the Israel-Diaspora relations segment edited down for you), Oren discusses the need [...]

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Hartman Institute creating ‘North American Scholars Circle’

This is a new program designed to draw 15-16 North American scholars out of their universities and into larger, deeper projects on top-level Jewish, Israeli, and continuity issues, among others. Invites are going out soon to potential participants. Details of the program here.

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Heated commentary on Donniel Hartman ‘blog’ about Obama’s Cairo speech

President Obama’s speech in Cairo occurred more than a week ago, and Donniel Hartman’s commentary on the speech (“Are Jews Ready for Obama?“) also has been online for more than a week, but the debate – about the speech, and about Donniel’s commentary has yet to die down. Several dozen comments have been published (and [...]

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Donniel Hartman comments on President Obama’s speech in Cairo

UPDATE: Yes, Donniel’s post is already online, and has been so for several days. Sorry it took a while to get back to this post. See Donniel’s post here: “Are Jews Ready for Obama?“: While President Obama’s speech in Cairo was also about settlements, and about the Road Map, in essence it was about neither. [...]

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