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Academic year 2006-2007 opens at the Shalem Center
October 2007 | Cheshvan 5768
In Israel, there's a special time zone known as "acharei ha'chagim" -- after the high holidays. At Shalem, rather than tentative steps back into work, that period has been bursting with activity as we opened our new semester of classes and make moves toward Shalem's most significant objective yet. Read on to find out more.
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Shalem Center: Aiming to establish Israel's first Jewish liberal arts college
In the fourteen years since its founding, the Shalem Center has put out scholarship, programming and publications designed to produce the ideas needed to guide the Jewish state and the Jewish people around the world. This year, the Center began to move rapidly toward its most important goal yet: Establishing a Jewish liberal arts college, an educational institution devoted to nurturing a different kind of Israeli and Jewish leadership in the fields affecting the public life of the Jews as a nation. We're looking to partner with you to bring this dream into fruition. To read more about the college of the Jewish people and Shalem's educational philosophy, click here.
Fall 2007 semester kicks off at Shalem; 170 undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in 22 courses
One hundred and seventy undergraduate students from Israeli universities began classes on Oct. 14 for the fifth semester of full educational programming at the Shalem Center. A total of 22 courses are offered, including 8 taught in English for the overseas-focused graduate and post-doctoral fellowship program (see below). Among this semester's course offerings are "The Political Thought of the Bible," "Civilian and Military in Israeli Decision-making," "Judaism and Christianity in the Eyes of Islam," as well as the undergraduate writing seminar. To read more about the fall semester and see the class schedules, click here.
2007-2008 graduate and post-doctoral fellows arrive from Israel, North America, and Europe
Fourteen graduate and three post-doctoral fellows began their fellowships at Shalem in October. Including scholars from the U.S., Europe, and Israel, the fellows are graduates of some of the world's finest educational institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, McGill, and Chicago; European universities including Cambridge and L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales; and Hebrew and Tel Aviv Universities in Israel. Several of this year's fellows rose through the ranks of Shalem's undergraduate and summer intern programs. To read more about this year's graduate and post-doctoral fellows, click here.
Sharansky calls for French TV to release full al-Dura footage
For years, French journalist and media watchdog Phillipe Karsenty was one of only a few voices questioning the veracity of the 2000 footage aired by French TV 2 that purported to show the killing of Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura by the IDF. French television sued him for defamation. Adelson Institute Chairman Natan Sharansky weighed in on the case in an essay published in the Wall Street Journal, calling publicly on the network, if they really have nothing to hide, to release the full tape. To read more, click here.
Leading Israeli jurist Gavison: Not only Palestinians, but Jews also entitled to self-determination
While Israeli leaders are floating various bridging proposals regarding the Palestinian Arabs' "right of return," which designed to get the parties to the negotiating table, jurist Ruth Gavison argues in Ha'aretz that Israel cannot compromise on the key issue of Israel's standing as the state of the Jewish people: "Israel's red line is not merely preventing the refugees' return in actuality; rather, it is the fact that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. This is so not only because that is indeed the situation in Israel, but because such a situation is legitimate and justified. The Jewish people, too, has a right to self-determination in part of its historic homeland. Not only the Palestinians." To read more, click here.
NYT book review: The "canon wars" may have been won, but the battle is still raging
In a recent essay in the New York Times book review, Rachel Donadio traces how the "canon wars"--once considered a conflict the multi-culturalists won--are still being fought: Some scholars are re-evaluating their hostility to the Western canon, while humanities departments are feeling the impact of undergraduates who choose majors based exclusively on career concerns. "Bloom believed education should be transformative," Donadio writes, "that it should remove students from the confines of their own backgrounds to engage with books that open up new realms of meaning." Whether today's universities do that remains an open question. To read more, click here.
Gordis: What treadmills, Darfur and re-imagined higher education have to do with Shalem College
In a moving essay, recently published, that touches on his personal commitment to the well-being of the Jewish state, Shalem Senior Vice President and Senior Fellow Daniel Gordis asks, "What if we could produce generations of university students who didn't succumb to cynicism? ... What if we could produce students who were profoundly prepared to be citizens of the Jewish State, of the Jewish people, and of the world, who could speak intelligently about nations and states, and political philosophy, and religion and morality, and who eventually rose to become Israel's political leadership, its great jurists, academics and social entrepreneurs?" To read more, click here.
Yale Law Prof: Higher education has stopped addressing life's big questions
The Humanities need to speak to the meaning of life from a perspective that is broader than either research or established religion, writes Anthony Kronman, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale University, in the Boston Globe. "Over the past century and a half, our top universities have embraced a research-driven ideal that has squeezed the question of life's meaning from the college curriculum," he writes, "limiting the range of questions teachers feel they have the right and authority to teach. The encouraging news is that there is, today, a growing hunger among students to explore these topics." To read more, click here.
Ya'alon: Proposed British Gas deal harmful to Israeli security interests
For years, British Gas has been negotiating with Israel over rights to a natural gas field off Gaza that the company operates together with Lebanese and Palestinian businessmen. In an article published together with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Distinguished Fellow Lt. Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya'alon, argues that a deal could imperil Israeli security. In fact, he wrote, the proposed sale already may have "played a major role in the cabinet's decision not to order an IDF incursion in Gaza, despite the some 1,000 rockets fired on Israel's south since Hamas took over the Strip in June of 2007.".
Haivry discusses nationalism, Selden in Pisa
Shalem Associate Fellow Ofir Haivry has been researching one of the leading English political theorists of the 17th century, John Selden - whose writings are based on his extensive knowledge of the Talmud, Maimonides, and other Jewish sources. In September, Haivry presented a paper at the European Consortium of Political Research in Pisa on Selden's studies of Jewish tradition as a model of the importance of national identity in politics and law. To read more about Ofir Haivry, click here. To read about Shalem's project in political Hebraism and Hebraic Political Studies, click here.
Germans' mistaken understanding of history undermines commitment to not repeat it, Halevi writes
After taking part in a "roving seminar" on Iran and nuclear weapons which traveled to Paris, Brussels and Berlin earlier this year, Shalem Senor Fellow Yossi Klein Halevi argued in the Wall Street Journal that Europeans are surprisingly realistic about the threat posed by a nuclear Iran--with the notable exception of the Germans. While noting that business interests play some role, he argues that the primary cause of German squeamishness is mistaken lessons taken from their own history. To read more, click here.
Cardozo Jurist Stone asks whether there is justice in history at 9th annual Bernstein Lecture
Suzanne Last Stone of Cardozo Law School delivered the ninth annual Zalman C. Bernstein Memorial Lecture in Jewish Political Thought at an invitation-only event in Jerusalem on Oct. 1. In addition to Stone's talk on "Is There Justice in History? A Talmudic Approach," the evening kicked off the Shalem Center's 2007-2008 academic year: Shalem students who'd won prizes for submitting the best course papers during the past year were given the honor of asking the initial questions at the beginning of what proved to be a lively question-and-answer period (read more below). To read coverage of the event in Ha'aretz, click here.
Undergraduate Hagai Klein awarded prize for best undergraduate paper of 2006-2007
Prizes for the best 2006-2007 undergraduate paper were awarded during the opening events for the fall semester at the Oct. 1 Bernstein lecture. Seven students were recognized for their outstanding work. Hagai Klein received the first prize for his paper on "Wartime Decision-Making in Israel," written for Ran Baratz's course on Strategy and War; Rafael Poch received the second prize for "One Step Closer to the Cave: A Study of Hieroglyphics," written for Tzachi Weiss's The Holy Language and Holiness in Language Course; and Tzila Lavie was awarded third price for her paper on the "Phenomenology of God" for Yitzhak Lifshitz's course in Jewish theology. To reach more about this year's courses, click here.
Applications now being accepted for 2008 Shalem interns, student fellowships
Though the new semester has just begun, planning is already underway for programming for the summer and for the 2008-2009 academic year. Summer interns, who participate in a weekly seminar while working with Shalem scholars or in departments like Azure, Shalem Press or Hebraic Political Studies, should apply by Feb. 1, 2008. Graduate and post-doctoral fellows receive stipends to support an independent research project, as well as participation in Shalem courses; a weekly works-in-progress seminar; and lectures by visiting scholars and other members of the Shalem intellectual community. Applications must be received by Jan. 31, 2008. To read more about the programs or request an application, click here.
Shalem graduates return to teach in educational programs
A familiar face is among the new lecturers at Shalem this semester: Rona Yona, a graduate fellow from 2005-2007, is returning to teach "Studies in Zionist Thought" in the under-graduate program. She joins fellow alum Ido Hevroni, a post-doctoral fellow at the Shalem Center in 2005-2006, who has been a lecturer at Shalem for two semesters. Hevroni has proven one of Shalem's most popular teachers: His lecture course on "The Literary World of the Talmudic Rabbis" was the most widely-subscribed course offered at Shalem in the area of Jewish thought. To read more about lecturers at Shalem, click here.
Azure student journal editor, summer intern criticizes Columbia over Ahmandinejad invite
Shalem's summer interns continue racking up publication credits: Most recently, intern David Feith, who is editor of The Current, the Azure-sponsoredstudent journal at Columbia University, took his college to task in National Review Online for inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad to speak, but for a different reason than most pundits: Feith argues that the invitation's legitimizing effect on American soil is far less relevant than the impact it might have on the Ahmandinejad leader's stature back home: "If he can demonstrate that he is treated abroad as a respected leader, he will be better able to counter his critics at home." To read more, click here.
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
Hebraic Political Studies: www.hpstudies.org
Michael Oren: www.michaeloren.com
IDF Lt. Gen.(Res.) Moshe Yaalon: www.mosheyaalon.com
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