Elul and Jewish pluralism

By Roberto Loiederman
Published on May 15, 2013

A typical study session for Elul, a pluralistic Israel-based beit midrash (house of study), doesn’t confine itself to a discussion of Abraham’s journey in Genesis.

Ruth Calderon — Mother of Redemption?

Published on March 7, 2013

Ruth Calderon’s Knesset speech has created more buzz around the Jewish world than any speech like it in the history of the State of Israel. Probably because nothing remotely like it has ever happened before. The unexpected, unprecedented, yet incredibly moving sight of a non-Orthodox woman passionately teaching Gemara in the Knesset has captured the attention of Jews everywhere. Most of the reaction has been extremely enthusiastic. I think it might turn out to be one of the most pivotal moments in the last 300 years of Jewish history.

Ruth Calderon - Mother of Redemption?

By Rav Yosef Kanefsky
Published on February 26, 2013

Q&A:  ‘Israel is also the country of the Jewish people, not only of the Israeli people’

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on February 26, 2013

Meet some of Israel’s new Knesset members

Published on January 28, 2013

Last week’s Israeli election saw a major shakeup in the country's government, with 53 new members elected to its parliament, the Knesset. Some already have received wide attention, including Yair Lapid, the middle class-focused chairman of Yesh Atid; Naftali Bennett, the high-tech entrepreneur who chairs the new Jewish Home party; technocrat Yair Shamir, Yisrael Beiteinu’s No. 2; and Moshe Feiglin, the nationalist settler who finally landed a Knesset seat with the ruling Likud Party. Though lesser known, many of the other new faces in the Knesset are no less interesting. Meet five of them: a woman with a doctorate in Talmud, an Ethiopian immigrant, a mother of 11 from Hebron, a socially conscious venture capitalist and an American-born rabbi.