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Shalem Publishes First Hebrew Translation of Hobbes' Leviathan.
October 2009 | Cheshvan 5770
Greetings from Jerusalem. In this issue of E-News, you’ll find details of a major publishing event at the Center, a video message from former Shalem senior fellow Omer Moav--who is now Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Israeli Finance Ministry--and analysis from Shalem scholars on the Goldstone report on the Gaza war of January 2009.
This issue also contains news on a number of the Center's major academic initiatives in areas including philosophy, Bible, political theory, and Jewish thought, as well as updates on a young scholar who has joined Shalem as a post-doctoral fellow. All these are part of Shalem's overarching efforts to establish Israel's first liberal arts college, and to prepare generations of students for a lifetime of learning, service, and leadership.
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Hobbes’ Leviathan Published in Hebrew to Critical Acclaim
A wealth of reviews, events and interviews has greeted publication this month of the first-ever complete Hebrew-language edition of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. First published in 1651, this book, which analyses the social contract as the basis for government, is widely considered the most significant work of modern political theory. The Shalem Press edition was translated by Israel Prize winner Aharon Amir and edited by Prof. Menachem Lorberbaum, Chair of the department of Jewish Philosophy, Talmud and Kabbala at Tel Aviv University. Hobbes' classic is the twentieth title in the Shalem Press Leviathan series, which brings classic works of Western political thought to Israeli readers. The book’s publication was covered in all of Israel’s leading newspapers, including Yediot Achranot and Haaretz as well as at national radio outlets Reshet Bet and Galei Tzahal. Bookstores across the country have created storefront window displays featuring the title and professors at Israel's leading universities are adopting the book as a core teaching text. Click here to read review excerpts:
Shalem College President Martin Kramer At Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Yale this Fall
Martin Kramer, who was recently announced as the founding president of Shalem College, is in the United States for a busy conference and lecture tour. In addition to awarding the Washington Institute Book Prize and serving as a fellow at Harvard University’s National Security Studies Program, Kramer will be lecturing at Yale, Princeton, and Columbia Universities. News of Kramer’s appointment has been covered in the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz; to read the Post magazine interview in which he outlines his vision for Shalem College, click here:
Former Shalem Senior Fellow Omer Moav, Now in Public Service, Credits Shalem for Support
Since his official appointment as economic adviser to the Finance Minister, Omer Moav, “one of the most brilliant and original economists of recent years,” according to Haaretz, has been working to solve the economy’s problems and, according to the newspaper, to “keep our best and brightest here, maintain a strong middle class…and increase the rate of participation in the labor market.” In a video interview, he credits the Shalem Center for supporting his research on these and other topics. Click here to learn more about Moav’s Shalem experience.
Shalem to Host International Conference on “The Human Nature Tradition in Anglo-Scottish Philosophy”
From December 14-17, the Shalem Center will host 24 leading philosophers and historians at an international conference on “The Human Nature Tradition in Anglo-Scottish Philosophy: Its History and Future Prospects.” The conference marks publication of the first complete Hebrew edition of Hobbes’ Leviathan (2009, see above) and the forthcoming publication of Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature by Shalem Press. The conference will explore the rise and decline of a unique tradition of philosophical “human nature” studies in England and Scotland in 17th-19th centuries, and consider the relevance of this tradition to current thought, from morals to cognitive science. Presenters include Stephen Darwall (Yale), Aaron Garrett (Boston University), Daniel Garber (Princeton), Knud Haakonssen (Sussex), Fania Oz-Salzberger (Haifa), Jesse Prinz (CUNY Graduate), Geoffrey Sayre-McCord (UNC—Chapel Hill), Silvia Sebastiani (Istituto Italiano delle Scienze Umane, Florence). Click here to read the conference announcement:
Goldstone Report May “Change the Scale” of the Next Mid-East War, Say Shalem Scholars
In a piece originally published on the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies website, Yossi Klein Halevi, Senior Fellow at the Institute, urges a far-reaching strategic reading of the Goldstone report on the Gaza war of January 2009. He argues that the effects of the report may signal “the end of Israel's limited wars against terrorist groups. Israel cannot afford to continue to be drawn into mini-wars against terrorists hiding behind their own civilians to attack Israeli civilians, given that each such conflict inexorably draws the Jewish state one step closer toward pariah status. Limited victories on the battlefield are being turned into major defeats in the arena of world opinion.” Click here to read Klein Halevi’s analysis, and here to read "The Demons of Normalization" by Adelson Director of Programs in Democracy, Uriya Shavit and "When Everything is a Crime" by Associate Fellow Yagil Henkin.
No Right to Exhaustion: Shalem Senior Vice President Daniel Gordis Takes On Forward Columnist
In a passionate response to a column in the Forward by Jay Michaelson, “How I’m Losing My Love for Israel,” Shalem Center Senior Vice President and senior fellow Daniel Gordis writes: “The real question, I think, is not whether we’re exhausted, but rather what we do with our exhaustion… I can’t imagine leaving this place, and angry as I sometimes get, I could never write about losing my love for what we’re building here. Because I know that this is our last chance, and I know without a shred of doubt that the robust Jewish life that exists everywhere – in Manhattan as well as in Los Angeles, in London no less than in Johannesburg – exists because of Israel.” Both pieces have generated considerable discussion, and you can read them in full here:
A New College in Jerusalem Imports a Liberal Arts Education for Palestinians
The October 9 issue of the Forward goes back to school with 42 new Palestinian liberal arts students as they begin the semester at the new Honors College for Liberal Arts and Sciences. The college is a joint project of Bard College, a New York liberal arts institution, with Al Quds University in East Jerusalem and is designed to offer the region’s first four-year, American-Palestinian dual-degree undergraduate program. According to the article, “Apart from encouraging open inquiry and cross-disciplinary learning, the founders of the new college hold out hope that the liberal arts can equip Palestinians to help build a future independent state. Click here to read the article in full:
Ada Yonath’s Nobel Prize Evidence of Israel’s World Class “Contribution to Scientific Knowledge”
Dr. Ada Yonath, a scientist at Israel’s Weizmann Institute, was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry earlier this month, only the fourth woman in history to secure the prize. She joined two Americans in winning the prize for mapping ribosomes, the mechanisms that manufacture proteins within cells. The work has helped medical researchers tailor antibiotics for diseases. Relative to the size of its labor force, Israel has a significantly large number of scientists and scholars who have published in the natural sciences, engineering, agriculture and medicine as compared to other countries. In a comprehensive study of the global marketplace published in 2006 by the National Science Board of the U.S. National Science Foundation, Israel “ranked first in national orientation based on strong governmental and cultural support promoting technology production, and first in socioeconomic infrastructure because of its large number of trained scientists and engineers, its highly regarded industrial research enterprise, and its contribution to scientific knowledge.” Click here to read portions of the study:
Shalem College Public Council Member, Aharon Ze’evi Farkash, Appointed President of Jewish People Policy Planning Institute
Major General Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash, a member of the Shalem College Public Council, has been appointed president of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, effective November 1, 2009. Ze’evi-Farkash is the former Director of Military Intelligence for the IDF and a senior research fellow at Tel Aviv University's National Institute for Security Studies. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School’s International Senior Manager's Program. The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute engages in “policy-oriented study and analysis aimed at identifying critical issues affecting world Jewry, developing creative, policy options and analyzing their potential impacts.” Speaking at Yad Vashem recently, he noted: “ At times I share the sense that the youth of this nation and many of the state’s citizens are not sufficiently aware of the roots of their identity and the sources of their culture. I believe with my whole heart in the need to know ‘where you are from’ in order to know ‘where you are going.’” Click here to learn more about Ze’evi-Farkash.
Shalem Senior Fellow R. Isaac Lifshitz Selected to Participate in Tikvah Project on Jewish Thought at Princeton University
Shalem senior fellow R. Isaac Lifshitz has been selected to participate in one of a series of thematic working groups at Princeton University, designed to spur new thinking and writing on important subjects and thinkers. The Tikvah Project on Jewish Thought Working Group on holiness is exploring the significance of biblical and post-biblical concepts of kedusha, or sanctity. The team of eight scholars represents the fields of biblical studies, rabbinics, Jewish mysticism, and medieval and modern philosophy. Prof. Alan Mittleman, Professor of Jewish Thought at The Jewish Theological Seminary is the group’s leader, and other scholars selected include Jonathan Jacobs, Director of the Center for the Arts & Humanities at Colgate University, as well as Sharon Portnoff, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Connecticut College. Each participant is expected to write a publishable new essay or commentary as the culmination of the group’s work. Click here to learn more about the Tikvah Project on Jewish Thought at Princeton University:
Spotlight: Dr. Micha’el T. Rindner, Post Doctoral Fellow, From Harvard to Shalem
The Shalem Center faculty and staff welcome Micha’el T. Rindner to the Center’s Institute for Middle East and Zionist History, where he is a newly arrived Post-Doctoral fellow. He will be conducting comparative research on issues of religious identity, national identity, state ideology, and governance. Dr. Rindner earned his Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from Harvard University, and employs sociological and anthropological methods to examine the interaction between religion and politics in contemporary Muslim societies. He spoke to Shalem faculty earlier this month on “From Clerics to Caliphate: Islam, The State, and the Deobandi Movement in Pakistan.” Click here to read Micha’el T. Rindner’s biography:
In Memoriam: Irving Kristol, Inaugural Zalman C Bernstein Lecturer
The Shalem Foundation Board, Academic and Public Councils, Management and Faculty mourn the loss of Irving Kristol z’l.
Father of Shalem Foundation board member, William Kristol and inaugural lecturer in the Zalman C. Bernstein Memorial Lecture in Jewish Political Thought, Kristol was a believer in the power of ideas, an intellectual pioneer and a courageous defender of Israel and the Jewish people. He was a source of inspiration to many and will be sorely missed. Click here to read Irving Kristol’s essay in Azure No.8, “On the Political Stupidity of the Jews:”
“Human Nature, Human Mind” Visiting Scholar Lecture Series: Prof. Eric Schliesser on Spinoza and Hume
Earlier this month, the PPR Institute at the Shalem Center hosted Eric Schliesser, who presented a seminar to the members of Shalem's academic community and delivered a public lecture at the Shalem Center as part of the “Human Nature, Human Mind” series. Professor Schliesser is Professor of Philosophy at Leiden University. In the lecture to Shalem faculty, he spoke on “Hume’s Invention of Philosophical Traditions.” His public lecture at the Center focused on “Spinoza and Hume: Two Critiques of Natural Science.” Click here to read more about the Visiting Scholar Lecture Series:
Hebrew Translation of Leon Kass’ “The Beginning of Wisdom” Celebrated at Israel’s Major Event of Jewish Identity and Culture
To mark the publication of Leon Kass’s The Beginning of Wisdom in Hebrew, Shalem Associate Fellow Ido Hevroni participated in the Hakhel Festival of Jewish identity and Israeli culture. The program, held this year in Sderot, included more than 100 parallel study sessions, panel discussions, lectures, and creative workshops. The festival attracts a diverse audience of more than 4,000 Israelis, reflecting the full spectrum of religious backgrounds and orientations. Hevroni discussed Kass’s book, which explores the philosophical meaning of the Book of Genesis. Click here to read Leon Kass’ Azure essay, “Keeping Life Human”:
Associate Fellow Ofir Haivry Calls for “Common Values” in Israeli National Newspaper, Yediot Achranot
In a column published September 11 in the national Israeli newspaper Yediot Acharonot, Shalem Associate Fellow Ofir Haivry calls for an emphasis on the “common values” that unite all Israelis. His piece comes after a government initiative to promote shared values among all sections of Israeli society was met with strong opposition from groups including the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee and a coalition of Orthodox parties, who argued that each group must be able to define its own value system, and that not having the freedom to do so is anti-democratic. Haivry, who wrote the introduction to the Shalem Press edition of de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, counters that “core values…reinforce the ties of the citizenry to their country and justify the country’s existence…and while a certain degree of freedom is necessary to educate young people in accordance with their culture and religion, any democracy that does not insist on common shared core values is effectively undermining its own existence” Click here to read an English translation of his column:
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.tchelet.org.il
The undergraduate program: www.shalemstudents.org
Hebraic Political Studies: www.hpstudies.org
Daniel Gordis: www.danielgordis.org
Michael Oren: www.michaeloren.com
IDF Lt. Gen.(Res.) Moshe Yaalon: www.mosheyaalon.com
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