Education Policy at a Crossroads Between Change and Continuity: 'Aucation in Israel in the Past Decade
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Sefer Haner on Mesechet Bava Kamma,Benefits
Sefer HaNer on Mesechet Bava Kamma Sefer HaNer on Mesechet Bava Kamma: A Review by:Rabbi Yosaif Mordechai Dubovick Not every important work written by a Rishon is blessed with popularity.[1] While many texts were available throughout the generations and utilized to their utmost; others were relegated to obscurity, being published as recently as this century, or even this year. Nearly a month doesn't pass without a "new" Rishon being made available to the public, and often enough in a critical edition. While each work must be evaluated on its own merit, as a whole, every commentary, every volume of Halachic rulings adds to our knowledge and Torah study.[2] From the Geonic era through the Rishonim, North Africa was blessed with flourishing Torah centers, Kairouan in Tunisia (800-1057),[3] Fostat (Old Cairo) in Egypt, and many smaller cities as well. Perhaps the crown jewel of "pre-Rambam" Torah study was the sefer Hilchot Alfasi by R' Yitchock Alfasi (the Rif).[4] Many Rishonim focused their novella around the study of Rif,[5] the Rambam taught Rif in lieu of Talmud,[6] and a pseudo-Rashi and Tosefot were developed to encompass the texts used and accompany its study.[7] In Aghmat, a little known city in Morocco, circa the Rambam's lifetime, rose up a little known Chacham whose work is invaluable in studying Rif, and by correlation, the Talmud Bavli as a whole. Yet, this Chacham was unheard of, for the most part, until the past half century. R' Zechariya b. Yehuda of Aghmat, authored a compendium of Geonim, Rishonim, and personal exegesis on Rif. -
The Audacity of Holiness Orthodox Jewish Women’S Theater עַ זּוּת שֶׁ Israelבִּ קְ Inדוּשָׁ ה
ׁׁ ְִֶַָּּּהבשות שעזּ Reina Rutlinger-Reiner The Audacity of Holiness Orthodox Jewish Women’s Theater ַעזּּו ֶׁת ש in Israelִּבְקּדו ָׁשה Translated by Jeffrey M. Green Cover photography: Avigail Reiner Book design: Bethany Wolfe Published with the support of: Dr. Phyllis Hammer The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA Talpiot Academic College, Holon, Israel 2014 Contents Introduction 7 Chapter One: The Uniqueness of the Phenomenon 12 The Complexity of Orthodox Jewish Society in Israel 16 Chapter Two: General Survey of the Theater Groups 21 Theater among ultra-Orthodox Women 22 Born-again1 Actresses and Directors in Ultra-Orthodox Society 26 Theater Groups of National-Religious Women 31 The Settlements: The Forge of Orthodox Women’s Theater 38 Orthodox Women’s Theater Groups in the Cities 73 Orthodox Men’s Theater 79 Summary: “Is there such a thing as Orthodox women’s theater?” 80 Chapter Three: “The Right Hand Draws in, the Left Hand Pushes Away”: The Involvement of Rabbis in the Theater 84 Is Innovation Desirable According to the Torah? 84 Judaism and the Theater–a Fertile Stage in the Culture War 87 The Goal: Creation of a Theater “of Our Own” 88 Differences of Opinion 91 Asking the Rabbi: The Women’s Demand for Rabbinical Involvement 94 “Engaged Theater” or “Emasculated Theater”? 96 Developments in the Relations Between the Rabbis and the Artists 98 1 I use this term, which is laden with Christian connotations, with some trepidation. Here it refers to a large and varied group of people who were not brought up as Orthodox Jews but adopted Orthodoxy, often with great intensity, later in life. -
Israel: Growing Pains at 60
Viewpoints Special Edition Israel: Growing Pains at 60 The Middle East Institute Washington, DC Middle East Institute The mission of the Middle East Institute is to promote knowledge of the Middle East in Amer- ica and strengthen understanding of the United States by the people and governments of the region. For more than 60 years, MEI has dealt with the momentous events in the Middle East — from the birth of the state of Israel to the invasion of Iraq. Today, MEI is a foremost authority on contemporary Middle East issues. It pro- vides a vital forum for honest and open debate that attracts politicians, scholars, government officials, and policy experts from the US, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. MEI enjoys wide access to political and business leaders in countries throughout the region. Along with information exchanges, facilities for research, objective analysis, and thoughtful commentary, MEI’s programs and publications help counter simplistic notions about the Middle East and America. We are at the forefront of private sector public diplomacy. Viewpoints are another MEI service to audiences interested in learning more about the complexities of issues affecting the Middle East and US rela- tions with the region. To learn more about the Middle East Institute, visit our website at http://www.mideasti.org The maps on pages 96-103 are copyright The Foundation for Middle East Peace. Our thanks to the Foundation for graciously allowing the inclusion of the maps in this publication. Cover photo in the top row, middle is © Tom Spender/IRIN, as is the photo in the bottom row, extreme left. -
Aliyah and Settlement Process?
Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel HBI SERIES ON JEWISH WOMEN Shulamit Reinharz, General Editor Joyce Antler, Associate Editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor The HBI Series on Jewish Women, created by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, pub- lishes a wide range of books by and about Jewish women in diverse contexts and time periods. Of interest to scholars and the educated public, the HBI Series on Jewish Women fills major gaps in Jewish Studies and in Women and Gender Studies as well as their intersection. For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com and www.upne.com/series/BSJW.html. Ruth Kark, Margalit Shilo, and Galit Hasan-Rokem, editors, Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel: Life History, Politics, and Culture Tova Hartman, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation Anne Lapidus Lerner, Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry Margalit Shilo, Princess or Prisoner? Jewish Women in Jerusalem, 1840–1914 Marcia Falk, translator, The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible Sylvia Barack Fishman, Double or Nothing? Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage Avraham Grossman, Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe Iris Parush, Reading Jewish Women: Marginality and Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Eastern European Jewish Society Shulamit Reinharz and Mark A. Raider, editors, American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise Tamar Ross, Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism Farideh Goldin, Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman Elizabeth Wyner Mark, editor, The Covenant of Circumcision: New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite Rochelle L. -
1 the Real Reason the Gaza War Broke
The real reason the Gaza war broke out Adam Raz | Haaretz There’s no shortage of pieces in Haaretz based on the political theory that the great ones – to borrow from Bertolt Brecht – often slip on banana peels as they go about the work of government. Consider Haaretz’s Hebrew edition this past Wednesday: Columnist and business editor Sami Peretz explained to his readers that the current round of violence “began with a series of mistakes by the Israel Police” in Jerusalem. Senior Middle Eastern affairs analyst Zvi Bar’el wrote that “thanks to Israel’s mismanagement, Hamas identified an opportunity” to marginalize the Palestinian Authority. And top Military correspondent and defense analyst Amos Harel added that in recent days Israel “underestimated Hamas’ intentions and operational capabilities. But it’s possible that now the Hamas leadership in Gaza is making the same critical mistake.” Another Haaretz military correspondent, Yaniv Kubovich, reported on that same day that defense officials incorrectly believed that Hamas would be deterred from fighting, while chief intelligence and strategic affairs columnist Yossi Melman adopted Barbara Tuchman’s “March of Folly’’ thesis to explain how sometimes leaders act just plain foolishly. As Melman put it, the measures being taken now “violate the self-interest” of Benjamin Netanyahu. In other words, according to Wednesday’s Haaretz, the prime minister and Israel’s other decision-makers are, to put it crudely, thickheaded – as if they were making mistakes day in and day out. Mr. Melman, like other writers, insured himself against the risk that facts would emerge to destroy his thesis, so he added that we can’t rule out that “folly doesn’t apply to what’s happening to us right now.” Mr. -
The Structure of Quarks and Leptons
The Structure of Quarks and Leptons They have been , considered the elementary particles ofmatter, but instead they may consist of still smaller entities confjned within a volume less than a thousandth the size of a proton by Haim Harari n the past 100 years the search for the the quark model that brought relief. In imagination: they suggest a way of I ultimate constituents of matter has the initial formulation of the model all building a complex world out of a few penetrated four layers of structure. hadrons could be explained as combina simple parts. All matter has been shown to consist of tions of just three kinds of quarks. atoms. The atom itself has been found Now it is the quarks and leptons Any theory of the elementary particles to have a dense nucleus surrounded by a themselves whose proliferation is begin fl. of matter must also take into ac cloud of electrons. The nucleus in turn ning to stir interest in the possibility of a count the forces that act between them has been broken down into its compo simpler-scheme. Whereas the original and the laws of nature that govern the nent protons and neutrons. More recent model had three quarks, there are now forces. Little would be gained in simpli ly it has become apparent that the pro thought to be at least 18, as well as six fying the spectrum of particles if the ton and the neutron are also composite leptons and a dozen other particles that number of forces and laws were thereby particles; they are made up of the small act as carriers of forces. -
The Working Group on the Status of Palestinian Women in Israel ______
The Working Group on the Status of Palestinian Women in Israel ____________________________________________________________ NGO Report: The Status of Palestinian Women Citizens of Israel Contents Page I. ‘The Working Group on the Status of Palestinian Women in Israel’..........................2 II. Forward - Rina Rosenberg...........................................................................................5 III. Palestinian Women in Israel - ‘Herstory’- Nabila Espanioly......................................8 IV. Political Participation, Public Life, and International Representation - Aida Toma Suliman & Nabila Espanioly..........................................................18 V. Education - Dr. Hala Espanioly Hazzan, Arabiya Mansour, & A’reen Usama Howari.................................................................................23 VI. Palestinian Women and Employment - Nabila Espanioly.........................................31 VII. Palestinian Women’s Health - Siham Badarne..........................................................45 VIII. Personal Status and Family Laws - Suhad Bishara, Advocate, & Aida Toma Suliman...........................................................................................56 IX. Violence Against Women - Iman Kandalaft & Hoda Rohana..................................63 X. Recommendations - All Members..............................................................................75 XI. Selected Bibliography................................................................................................83 -
Gandhi's View on Judaism and Zionism in Light of an Interreligious
religions Article Gandhi’s View on Judaism and Zionism in Light of an Interreligious Theology Ephraim Meir 1,2 1 Department of Jewish Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; [email protected] 2 Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa Abstract: This article describes Gandhi’s view on Judaism and Zionism and places it in the framework of an interreligious theology. In such a theology, the notion of “trans-difference” appreciates the differences between cultures and religions with the aim of building bridges between them. It is argued that Gandhi’s understanding of Judaism was limited, mainly because he looked at Judaism through Christian lenses. He reduced Judaism to a religion without considering its peoplehood dimension. This reduction, together with his political endeavors in favor of the Hindu–Muslim unity and with his advice of satyagraha to the Jews in the 1930s determined his view on Zionism. Notwithstanding Gandhi’s problematic views on Judaism and Zionism, his satyagraha opens a wide-open window to possibilities and challenges in the Near East. In the spirit of an interreligious theology, bridges are built between Gandhi’s satyagraha and Jewish transformational dialogical thinking. Keywords: Gandhi; interreligious theology; Judaism; Zionism; satyagraha satyagraha This article situates Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s in the perspective of a Jewish dialogical philosophy and theology. I focus upon the question to what extent Citation: Meir, Ephraim. 2021. Gandhi’s religious outlook and satyagraha, initiated during his period in South Africa, con- Gandhi’s View on Judaism and tribute to intercultural and interreligious understanding and communication. -
Paths in Education
Introduction ................................................................................... 461 The Knesset ................................................................................... 461 The parties ..................................................................................... 462 The budget ..................................................................................... 467 The local authorities....................................................................... 469 The professional organizations (Teachers' Unions) ....................... 470 The parents..................................................................................... 476 The Academy ................................................................................. 483 The Media ...................................................................................... 487 The State Comptroller .................................................................... 488 Chapter Five: Events that occurred in the Israeli education system and illustrate the policy-making processes .............. 489 Introduction ................................................................................... 489 Problems within the area of social integration in education ........... 489 Integration versus differentiation ................................................... 505 Education in the developmental areas ............................................ 514 The phenomenon of "Bussing" ...................................................... 526 Local government -
The Normative Cycle of Shaping Judicial Independence in Domestic
Chicago Journal of International Law Volume 10 Number 1 Article 13 6-1-2009 The Normative Cycle of Shaping Judicial Independence in Domestic and International Law: The Mutual Impact of National and International Jurisprudence and Contemporary Practical and Conceptual Challenges Shimon Shetreet Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cjil Recommended Citation Shetreet, Shimon (2009) "The Normative Cycle of Shaping Judicial Independence in Domestic and International Law: The Mutual Impact of National and International Jurisprudence and Contemporary Practical and Conceptual Challenges," Chicago Journal of International Law: Vol. 10: No. 1, Article 13. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cjil/vol10/iss1/13 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chicago Journal of International Law by an authorized editor of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Normative Cycle of Shaping Judicial Independence in Domestic and International Law: The Mutual Impact of National and International Jurisprudence and Contemporary Practical and Conceptual Challenges Shimon Shetreet* I. INTRODUCTION The creation of the culture of judicial independence has been a combined process of national and international developments. The process consists of a cycle of normative and conceptual impact of national law on international law and later, of international law on national law. In the cycle's first phase, which began in 1701 with England's enactment of the Act of Settlement,' judicial independence was conceived domestically. In the second phase, which began shortly thereafter, this domestic development crossed national boundaries and impacted the thinking of scholars and political leaders in the international community. -
Regulations and the Rule of Law: a Look at the First Decade of Israel
Keele Law Review, Volume 2 (2021), 45-62 45 ISSN 2732-5679 ‘Hidden’ Regulations and the Rule of Law: A Look at the First decade of Israel Gal Amir* Abstract This article reviews the history of issuing regulations without due promulgation in the first decade of Israel. ‘Covert’ secondary legislation was widely used in two contexts – the ‘austerity policy’ and ‘security’ issues, both contexts intersecting in the state's attitude toward the Palestinian minority, at the time living under military rule. This article will demonstrate that, although analytically the state’s branches were committed to upholding the ‘Rule of Law’, the state used methods of covert legislation, that were in contrast to this principle. I. Introduction Regimes and states like to be associated with the term ‘Rule of Law’, as it is often associated with such terms as ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’.1 Israel’s Declaration of Independence speaks of a state that will be democratic, egalitarian, and aspiring to the rule of law. Although the term ‘Rule of Law’ in itself is not mentioned in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the declaration speaks of ‘… the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948.’2 Even when it became clear, in the early 1950s, that a constitution would not be drafted in the foreseeable future, courts and legislators still spoke of ‘Rule of Law’ as an ideal. Following Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper, one must examine the existence of the rule of law in young Israel as a ‘category of practice’ requiring reference to a citizen's daily experience, detached from the ‘analytical’ definitions of social scientists, or the high rhetoric of legislators and judges.3 Viewing ‘Rule of Law’ as a category of practice finds Israel in the first decades of its existence in a very different place than its legislators and judges aspired to be. -
Introduction
Notes Introduction 1. The exact Hebrew name for this affair is the “Yemenite children Affair.” I use the word babies instead of children since at least two thirds of the kidnapped were in fact infants. 2. 1,053 complaints were submitted to all three commissions combined (1033 complaints of disappearances from camps and hospitals in Israel, and 20 from camp Hashed in Yemen). Rabbi Meshulam’s organization claimed to have information about 1,700 babies kidnapped prior to 1952 (450 of them from other Mizrahi ethnic groups) and about 4,500 babies kidnapped prior to 1956. These figures were neither discredited nor vali- dated by the last commission (Shoshi Zaid, The Child is Gone [Jerusalem: Geffen Books, 2001], 19–22). 3. During the immigrants’ stay in transit and absorption camps, the babies were taken to stone structures called baby houses. Mothers were allowed entry only a few times each day to nurse their babies. 4. See, for instance, the testimony of Naomi Gavra in Tzipi Talmor’s film Down a One Way Road (1997) and the testimony of Shoshana Farhi on the show Uvda (1996). 5. The transit camp Hashed in Yemen housed most of the immigrants before the flight to Israel. 6. This story is based on my interview with the Ovadiya family for a story I wrote for the newspaper Shishi in 1994 and a subsequent interview for the show Uvda in 1996. I should also note that this story as well as my aunt’s story does not represent the typical kidnapping scenario. 7. The Hebrew term “Sephardic” means “from Spain.” 8.