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$1.5 Million Gift Endows Top Teaching Fellowship For Shalem College
May 2008 | Nissan/Iyar 5768
Yom Ha’atzmaut Sameah! Greetings from Israel on her birthday. The country is celebrating sixty years of extraordinary achievement. We at Shalem are celebrating Israel’s past accomplishments by laying the intellectual groundwork for the next sixty years and beyond. We’re glad to count you among our friends. We encourage you to send us the email addresses of your friends who you think might like to receive news of our activities. Please email us at e-news@shalem.org.il. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe to the E-News list please follow the instructions at the end of this email.
$1.5 Million Gift Endows Master Teaching Fellowship for Shalem College
An anonymous donor has pledged a $1.5 Million gift for the establishment of a new Master Teaching Fellowship for Shalem College. The gift reflects a commitment to the profound vision at the core of the planned college, a home for prestige liberal arts education in Israel. The funds, beginning in the academic year 2008-2009 will be awarded every year to one outstanding young scholar who has shown exceptional promise as an educator. (The college itself will be opening subsequently, but the fellowship begins right away, and aims to attract and develop future faculty members.) Scholars will be invited to develop new and innovative courses that contribute to the academic experience Shalem College plans to offer to the finest students in Israel and the Diaspora. Shalem currently provides fellowships and advanced courses in politics, philosophy, economics and religion to select students. Click here to read Shalem College’s Mission Statement:
Defending Identity: New Book by Natan Sharansky to Publish June 4
The Shalem Center announces publication of Adelson Institute Chairman Natan Sharansky’s Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy. The book, a response to those who see national identity as the enemy of freedom, argues that identity is freedom’s greatest ally in the struggle against tyranny. “Identity gives freedom purpose,” he writes, “directs it towards a goal, makes it part of a destiny: At stake is not only what your life is like but what your life is for.” Sharansky is author of the influential New York Times best-seller The Case for Democracy (Public Affairs), which draws on his unique experience as a crusader for human rights since his own imprisonment in a Soviet gulag. Click here to read an excerpt from Defending Identity:
Izhak Lax Named Chief Operating Officer of the Shalem Center
Attorney and business leader Izhak Lax has been appointed General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of the Shalem Center. Lax comes to Shalem after six years as a leading figure at Sharei Mishpat, a private law college outside Tel Aviv, first as a member of the board and later as General Manager of the college. “We are delighted to welcome Lax, and are certain that his knowledge, experience, and leadership abilities will help bring us to the next stage in establishing Shalem College,” said Shalem President Daniel Polisar. Click here to read about Shalem’s leadership:
If You Celebrate It, It is No Dream
Herzl Day was held across Israel on May 15. This year’s commemoration of the birth of the founder of modern Zionism marks the fourth celebration since a 2004 Knesset law resulted from a public campaign spearheaded by the Shalem Center. Since his appointment by Prime Minister Olmert in 2006, Shalem President Daniel Polisar has served as Chairman of the National Council for Commemorating Theodor Herzl's Legacy. This year, activities were held in schools across the country, with major events including a conference, a book and film fair, exhibitions at sites across Israel visited by Herzl in 1898, a graphic art exhibition in Holon, and the “What’s Your Dream” competition for children. Click here to read more about Herzl Day:
Israeli Business Leader Recanati at JFN Meeting: Not Enough Jewish Funding Going to Jewish and Israel Causes
Oudi Recanati, an Israeli businessman and noted philanthropist, believes that American Jews “are not as attached to their Jewish identity as they could be.” Recanati, who has donated to the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya and Beilinson Hospital, and served as the former president of the Maccabi World Union, thinks Jewish philanthropy is crucial to the Jewish future. "I joined Jewish Funders Network when I discovered that major Jewish donors in the United States give maybe $10-12 billion each year. Only about 6 percent of that goes to Jewish activities or Israel. That scared me. When I saw that I said, 'we're moving away from Judaism and Israel.'” Click here to read the Jerusalem Post Article:
Economist Special Report: Overhaul Israel’s Electoral System
Amotz Asa-El’s Azure essay, ‘Israel’s Electoral Complex’ (Winter 2008) is the centerpiece of a wide ranging special report in The Economist marking Israel’s sixtieth birthday. Under the heading ‘A Systematic Problem’ the Economist quotes Asa-El extensively, and argues that Israel’s electoral system is in need of a vast overhaul. “The best 60th birthday present Israel could give itself is a new political system” asserts the editorial that accompanies the report. Since its debut in 1996, Azure, the Shalem Center’s widely read quarterly journal of philosophy and public affairs brings together a wide range of writers on Judaism, Zionism, philosophy and public policy in both English and Hebrew editions. Click here to read The Economist report:
Hebrew University Psychology Prof: Moses’ Encounters With God May Have Been Drug-Induced
Benny Shanon, a Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the Hebrew University and former head of its Psychology Department, recently published a study in Time and Mind arguing for the prevalent use of psychedelic drugs in ancient Israelite culture. Drawing on parallels to his personal experiences with psychedelic substances, Shanon concludes, “Remarkably, several key episodes in the life of Moses exhibit features that are prominent symptoms of the Ayahuasca [psychedelic] experience. These episodes include Moses’ first encounter with the Divine and the Theophany at Mt. Sinai.” Click here to read “Biblical Entheogens: a Speculative Hypothesis”:
Kramer Versus Kramer: The New Yorker, Nadia El-Haj and ‘Facts on the Ground’
Barnard College anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj’s 2001 book, “Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society” argues that archaeology in Israel “created the fact of an ancient Israelite/Jewish nation and nation-state rooted therein,” and “fabricated both history and historicity.” El-Haj writes in the book’s conclusion that “one can understand why it was that ‘thousands of Palestinians stormed the site’ of Joseph’s Tomb… looting it and setting it alight… It needs to be understood in relation to a colonial-national history.” Public protest at El-Haj’s work and tenure bid was the subject of a recent article in the New Yorker by Jane Kramer. Kramer argues that El-Haj, possessed of an “original and scrupulous mind” and not “known ever to have brought politics into the classroom” has galvanized the Jewish population “into a kind of collective panic,” creating an atmosphere that makes vulnerable “every scholar who had ever dealt with Israel.” Click here to read Senior Fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies Martin Kramer’s (no relation) response to Jane Kramer’s piece:
Anthology of Best Essays from Azure Published in Russian
An anthology of essays from Azure, Shalem’s quarterly journal of Jewish thought, will be published in Russian. Published by Gishrey Tarbut in cooperation with the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University, ‘The Jewish State at the Beginning of the 21st Century: An Anthology of Contemporary Israeli Social and Political Thought’ presents Russians for the first time with direct access to the ideas being developed at the Shalem Center. “The Russian Jewish and academic communities have a strong interest in Israeli thought and few resources. We are excited to be able to offer these 12 outstanding essays as a contribution,” said Azure editor in chief Assaf Sagiv. Click here to read about Azure:
French Philosopher Shmuel Trigano Lectures at Shalem
Shmuel Trigano, one of the leading intellectual voices of French Jewry, delivered a lecture to Shalem students and faculty titled “The Levite Element in Biblical Thought.” The talk, delivered on March 27, focused on the role of the Levite tribe in Biblical Israel, a role which required them to remain a tribe while lacking any tribal territory. Living in cities scattered amongst the other tribes, the Levites served to remind the whole people that they must define themselves in terms of the covenant and not, like the pagan nations, in terms of being "born from the earth." In this way, Trigano argued, it becomes possible for Israel to own and cultivate their land while preserving their connection to transcendence. Trigano is Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris-Nanterre. Click here to read his 2005 Azure article on the future of French Jewry:
“They Come to Banish the Darkness”: Israeli Financial Daily Globes on Azure, Shalem Economics
Globes, the leading Israeli daily of economic affairs, has published a lengthy feature article featuring Azure and the ideas of Shalem economist and Senior Fellow Omer Moav. “Azure has assumed the dual task of presenting the vast intellectual resources of Israel to the world,” begins the piece, “while combating the encroaching ignorance afflicting Israeli society. It condemns no critical or provocative view so long as it is well-structured and eschews superficiality.” The feature moves to a detailed consideration of Moav’s recent Azure article “Who Needs Employment Security,” which argues that worker protections sometimes hurt weaker sectors of society. Click here to read the Globes feature:
Israel at 60: Michael Oren Reflects on Israeli-American Relations
On the occasion of Israel's 60th birthday, Shalem Senior Fellow Michael Oren addressed NPR's Morning Edition on the anniversary’s significance. The invitation came on the heels of Oren's lead May 7 editorial in the Wall Street Journal, "Israel Is Now America's Closest Ally," which muses on the history and future of Israeli-American relations. Oren locates the enduring quality of today's close relationship "most fundamentally… [in] the amity between the two countries' peoples." A change in administration will have an effect, he writes, "but such vicissitudes are unlikely to cause a major schism in what has proven to be one of history's most resilient, ardent and atypical partnerships." Click here to read the article:
Shalem Graduate Student Presents Research on European Israel Policy
Shalem Post-Doctoral Student Jan Fingerland of the Charles University in Prague recently presented preliminary conclusions from his research into European policy towards Israel before Shalem students and faculty. Fingerland analyzed the causes drawing an ideological dividing line within Europe concerning Middle East policy. “European policy toward Israel is neither uniform nor a foregone conclusion,” Fingerland told E-news. “The new EU countries can be swayed by an informed diplomacy.” The research was presented at the weekly Work in Progress seminar which brings Shalem Fellows and guest speakers together to share their scholarship. Click here to read about Shalem’s post-doctoral programs:
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
We want to hear from you. Please send comments and questions to e-news@shalem.org.il.
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