Tag: liberal Judaism
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Appearance on Prof. Alon Ben-Meir’s Podcast, “On the Issues.”
Rabbinic Judaism was liberal, in the older sense, at its core. It was blown off course in an illiberal direction during the Geonic era. The Jewish Enlightenment gave birth to liberal movements, but the isolated Haredi communities remained oppressive and authoritarian. This has had profound, negative repercussions for Israeli culture and politics. Read more
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Interview on “Third Opinion” Podcast
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Mike Deeson, an Emmy-award winning investigative journalist, on the above podcast. It was an open-ended discussion that gave me ample opportunity to describe the main themes of of my book. I appear around the 34th minute of this 56 minute episode. I invite you to listen Read more
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How Haredi Judaism Became Illiberal
In Come Now, Let Us Reason Together I present an extended argument that rabbinic Judaism, the iteration that emerged following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and reigned until the closing of the (Babylonian) Talmud at the start of the 7th century, was liberal in the classical sense. That is, open-minded, tolerant, Read more