This Week in The Tikvah Fund (12/27)
David Shasha
The Tikvah White Jewish Neo-Con Triumph of Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Last Sunday night we received word of perhaps the most ambitious Soloveichik lecture series:
I was surprised that Jared Kushner was not included in the series:
Jewish Political Greatness: Ten Studies in Statesmanship with Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Here is the full megillah:
Over the past two millennia, Jews have compiled a remarkable corpus of texts on the great human questions: masterworks of legal reasoning, philosophy, ethics, and mysticism. And in the modern era, Jews attained brilliant achievements in natural science, art, and literature. Yet in the realm of political thought and statesmanship, Jewish writings seem to be few and far between. Maimonides’s Guide for the Perplexed is a Jewish version of Aristotle’s Ethics but not his Politics. Yehuda Halevi’s Kuzari rightly reminds us of some of Plato’s wisdom-seeking dialogues but not his Republic. This tragic and intriguing gap in Jewish thinking reflects the fact that during centuries of powerlessness, Jewish statesmen were rare; great affairs of state were less critical to the Jewish people than religious law and communal survival.
Yet as we study the remarkable history and great texts of the Jewish people, we can discover Jewish political leaders of enormous import: some firmly bound to Judaic religious teachings and others less so, but all of them men and women whose Jewish identity played an important role in their careers and achievements. And surely the great founders of modern Israel looked back to their great forebears for guidance and inspiration in advancing one of the greatest political feats in human history: the re-founding of the sovereign Jewish state.
In this series of ten lectures, we will study some of the most interesting and important Jewish political figures over the past two millennia—from King David to Queen Esther, from Yochanan Ben Zakkai to Don Isaac Abravanel, from Benjamin Disraeli to Herzl and Begin. In the process, we will ponder what Jewish tradition uniquely teaches about the nature of statesmanship, and what we must bear in mind as we prepare and mold the Jewish and Zionist political leaders of the future.
Registrants will be emailed a link to each live lecture on the day of each session, with an additional reminder sent approximately one hour before the stream begins.
Every lecture will also be recorded and sent to registrants within 36 hours of each lecture’s conclusion.
1. King David: The Perfect Political Personality
Monday, January 18, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
What Abraham is to Jewish fatherhood and Moses is to Jewish faith, David is to Jewish politics. David is without question the greatest king in Jewish history, the standard against which all others are measured. As we study his story, we encounter stunning successes and tragic failings. Why is David considered the Jewish political ideal? A study of David’s life and character reveals what is unique about the Jewish understanding of statesmanship, and why truly great Jewish political personalities are always judged by the manner in which they imitate this remarkable monarch.
2. Esther: The Birth of Diaspora Politics
Monday, January 25, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
The book of Esther introduces us to a Jewish woman in a Persian court, her religious and national identity hidden, trapped in an impossible political situation. As we proceed in the text, Esther’s personality evolves from hesitant queen to bold political actor. What lessons does Esther teach us about the nature of Jewish political leadership in a Gentile world? What is the Esther paradigm of Jewish political guile and courage in the face of powerful enemies and potential allies?
3. Shlomzion: The Greatest Jewish Queen
Monday, February 1, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
The Hasmonean Dynasty, popularly known as the “Maccabees,” established the first independent Jewish monarchy in the Second Temple era. Yet the family that began with the military heroism of Mathias and Judah and the miracle of Hanukkah devolved into a disastrous dynasty marked by infighting and scandal. One striking exception stands out: Shlomzion, or Salome Alexandra, known as the only true queen regnant in Jewish history. Her reign is recorded by the rabbis as a rare golden age. But who was this great political heroine, and how did she overcome all the obstacles in her life to reign forever as the queen of Jewish hearts?
4. Yochanan Ben Zakkai and the Endurance of Israel
Monday, February 8, 2020 | 8:00 PM EDT
The sage Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai did not devote his life to politics, but his legacy is bound up with two defining political moments: his dawning realization that Jerusalem was doomed to destruction at the hands of the Romans, and his initiative in ensuring a haven for Jewish continuity outside of the Judean capital. To study his life is to learn the heartbreaking and terrifying decisions he was forced to make as a Jewish leader in a time of crisis, and the astonishing sacrifices and tragic judgments that he made for the sake of preserving the Jewish future.
5. Spain, Portugal, Venice: The Tragic Life and Triumphant Legacy of Don Isaac Abravanel
Monday, February 15, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
Isaac Abravanel is sui generis in Jewish history: the statesman rabbi who combined his experience in statecraft with an enduring commentary on the most political texts in the Bible. His own career was marked by dizzying highs and terrifying lows: from wealth and power in Portugal to fleeing for his life from the country; from minister of Ferdinand and Isabella to expulsion from Spain; from serving kings to falling in love with the structure of the Venetian republic. This man combined faith in Providence with an understanding of politics in way not seen in Judaism for some time, and his legacy impacted one very important modern Jewish family named Netanyahu in a way that impacts the Jewish people to this day.
6. The Many Dreams of Menasseh Ben Israel
Monday, February 22, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
Menasseh Ben Israel went from living secretly as a Jew in Catholic Portugal to becoming a friend of Rembrandt and the most widely read Jewish author in the Christian world. Toward the end of his life, he undertook an astonishing political goal: to ensure restoration of the Jews in England. His attempt at statesmanship must be taken in tandem with his remarkable religious vision, and a rediscovered appreciation of his achievements allows us to learn important lessons about Jewish visionaries throughout our history.
7. Noah’s Ark: Mordecai Manuel Noah, Proto-Zionist and American Jewish Leader
Monday, March 1, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
Barely known today, Mordecai Manuel Noah was the most famous American Jew of the first half of the nineteenth century. This idiosyncratic individual conceived of a Zionist return to the holy land decades before Herzl, and he understood the promise of America at a time when Jewish leaders in Europe were blind to America’s promise for Jews and significance for world history. A closer examination of his life and legacy provides new perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing American Jewry today.
8. A Blank Page: The Complex Identity of Benjamin Disraeli
Monday, March 8, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
Baptized by his father as a young boy, Benjamin Disraeli was granted entry into the halls of British parliamentary power because of his status as a Christian. But the man never ceased to speak with pride of his Jewish ancestry, and he was seen as a Jew by fellow statesmen who came to admire his great political skill. What role did Disraeli’s Jewish identity and attachments play in life, and what can Jews learn from his myriad political achievements?
9. Miracle Man: The Emergence of Theodore Herzl
Monday, March 15, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
The miraculous nature of Theodore Herzl can be appreciated by studying the paradoxes that marked his life. An assimilated Austrian journalist suddenly became one of the greatest guarantors of Jewish identity; a man who sought a pragmatic place of refuge for the Jews came to appreciate the religious nature of his heritage; a man who believed a Jewish state would cure the world of anti-Semitism by normalizing the Jewish people instead proved that the Jews are anything but normal. What are we to make of this remarkable man, and what lessons can be learnt from his life for the future of the Jewish state that vindicated his dream?
10. A Boy from Brisk: The Covenantal Zionism of Menachem Begin
Monday, March 22, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
Menachem Begin was not the most important figure in the birth of Israel, but he was the Israeli founding father who placed Judaism, and the covenantal bonds joining the Jewish people, at the heart of his Zionism. That is why, perhaps more than any other modern Jewish leader, his story continues to inspire us—and perhaps why he is so missed in modern Israel today. This boy from Brisk (the very community led by the Soloveichik family) married his thick Jewish identity with the revisionist politics of Jabotinsky. What allowed this very humble man to embody, more than any other leader of his era, the essence of Jewish statesmanship?
Concluding Lecture: Miracle at the U.N.: 1947 and the Future of Jewish Statesmanship
Monday, April 5, 2020 | 8:00 PM EST
As we look back on the many miraculous moments leading up to the birth of the modern State of Israel, few are more remarkable than the events surrounding the United Nations vote on partition. It is a tale of President Truman overriding George Marshall thanks in part to the president’s friendship with the Jewish Eddie Jacobson; of the Soviet Bloc joining the West in a rare moment of unity; and many other astonishing events. But what seems supernatural is also a story of statesmanship: of the efforts of Chaim Weizmann, Abba Ebban, and others who toiled on behalf of Zionist diplomacy. In a concluding lecture, we will look back at the partition vote, and use it, and all we learned during these lectures, to look ahead and ponder the Jewish political future.
Registration
- We kindly suggest a donation of $100 to support Tikvah’s important educational programming on Jewish and Zionist ideas.
- If you make a donation $250 or more, we will send you a complimentary signed copy of Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land, co-edited by Rabbi Soloveichik. This book is full of rich primary sources from American history; in it, you will hear the Jewish echoes that formed the cultural vocabulary of America.
- Registrants will be emailed a link to each livestream on the day of each session, with an additional reminder sent approximately one hour before the stream begins. For more information or to ask a question, please contact us at in...@tikvahfund.org.
About Rabbi Soloveichik
Rabbi Dr. Meir Y. Soloveichik is the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan, the oldest Jewish community in the United States, founded in 1654. He is also director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Soloveichik has lectured internationally to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on topics relating to faith in America, the Hebraic roots of the American founding, Jewish theology, bioethics, wartime ethics, and Jewish-Christian relations. His essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Mosaic, the Jewish Review of Books, Commentary, First Things, Azure, Tradition, and the Torah U-Madda Journal. Rabbi Soloveichik is a descendent of one of the great dynasties of Orthodox Judaism. He graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva University, received his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and studied at its Beren Kollel Elyon. He has also studied at Yale Divinity School, and in 2010, he received his doctorate in religion from Princeton University.
The series does not include one Jewish figure from the from the Arab-Muslim world.
It does include perennial Soloveichik favorites like Menasseh Ben Israel, because of his connection to Rembrandt, and Mordechai Manuel Noah, who is seen as a precursor to Herzl.
Soloveichik is sure to attack both Maimonides and Judah Halevi for being “Greek,” while he embraces the Christian Disraeli, who is a hero to the Neo-Cons.
The trajectory of the series is clear, with Zionism being the sole motivating factor, and Religious Humanism being occluded and sent to the proverbial ash-heap of Jewish history.
It is both an arrogant and a truly shameful performance, that once again reminds us of the perfidy that has become emblematic of formerly-Sephardic Congregation Shearith Israel – a fully owned subsidiary of The Tikvah Fund.
The Tikvah Online Academy
In my article on the Mosaic magazine best books of the year list, I closed with my admiration for the power of Tikvah:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/ihDpdBeGvZY
Might Makes Right!
A short time after posting the article, we received word of that power:
It is a primer in how Tikvah wants to own the Jewish future:
Tikvah Online Academy offers high-level seminars—with small classes, master teachers, and spirited discussions—for students interested in Jewish ideas, Israel and Zionism, and Western civilization. It’s the ideal supplement to your shana ba’aretz (gap-year) experience, providing a unique opportunity to discuss the important philosophical and policy debates of our era.
Winter 2021 courses for gap-year students in Israel will take place from the end of January until early March. Each seminar will include 10-15 students.
Each class meets every other week for four or five sessions. All classes are offered at times which will not conflict with your regular program schedule. Tikvah programs will take place over Zoom and students are requested to go online from an individual device. If the Israel Health Ministry directives and gap-year program guidelines permit in-person gatherings, we hope to schedule one or two formal or informal outdoor meetings.
The application process is simple but selective. The gap-year courses are free of charge. Students must commit to preparing short reading assignments and active participation.
Courses are open to students regardless of their educational backgrounds.
The full menu of courses is listed below. All applicants who are new to Tikvah are asked to fill out a short application and schedule a brief planning & placement Zoom meeting upon submitting their application. Tikvah alumni who participated in a formal Tikvah program before Winter 2021 will be invited to complete the same short application, but will have an accelerated admissions process without a preliminary meeting.
The high school graduates go for free, the rest have to pay!
The program comes with the Kosher stamp of the best Neo-Cons:
Tikvah Online Academy has already educated many hundreds of serious students—from Jewish schools and secular schools, from the U.S. and abroad, from backgrounds across the denominational spectrum. We have been endorsed by a wide spectrum of Jewish leaders, writers, and thinkers—like Rabbi David Wolpe, Bari Weiss, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Dan Senor, Liel Leibovitz, Ruth Wisse, and many others.
This is the Sephardic nightmare and the triumph of White Jewish Supremacy.
Alana Newhouse Does Christmas in Tikvah Style!
We have already seen Liel Leibovitz’s Trumpist FOX paean to Jesus:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/merry-christmas-merry-christmas
Now we get the full megillah:
Chinese food:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/food/articles/jewish-christmas
A Jewish Convert and Christmas:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/giving-up-christmas
Soviet Jewish Christmas Trees:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/why-soviet-jews-have-christmas-trees
Christmas cookies:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/food/articles/christmas-cookie-jewish-lives
And Santa Claus!
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/secret-santa
There is certainly no “War on Christmas” in Tikvah Tablet land.
David Shasha