Formed in 1948 as a Jewish state, the intersection of politics and religion is at Israel’s core. A 2015 Pew Research poll reports that Israeli Jews are largely united in their need for their nation to be a homeland for Jews, regardless of their origins, but they disagree profoundly about the nature of the religious establishment. As a result, Jewish groups consistently disagree on a range of specific public policy issues. Professor Adam Ferziger will discuss the present realities and nuances of politics and religion in Israel.
Professor Adam S. Ferziger is the Norman and Gerry Sue Arnold Distinguished Visiting Chair in Jewish Studies for the Spring 2017 semester, during which time he will offer a course on Religious Leadership in Modern and Contemporary Judaism. Ferziger is an intellectual and social historian whose research focuses on Jewish religious movements and religious responses to secularization and assimilation in modern and contemporary North America, Europe and Israel. He holds the Samson Raphael Hirsch Chair for Research of the Torah with the Derekh Erez Movement in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. Ferziger’s recent book, Beyond Sectarianism, was the winner of a National Jewish Book Award for 2015.
Sponsor: Jewish Studies Program