Jewish Ideas to Change the World
Religion & Spirituality:Judaism
A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Mirsky
The event was co-sponsored by Temple Emanuel
About the Event:
Liberalism is in crisis everywhere, and everywhere the crises bear similarities and real differences. We will look at what has been going on in Israel, to understand it on its terms, as a Jewish and Democratic state, and about liberalism’s vicissitudes around the world.
About the Speaker:
Yehudah Mirsky is a Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University and is on the faculty of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. He was, in the Spring Semesters of 2022 and 2023, a Visiting Professor at Harvard University. A native New Yorker, he lives in Jerusalem with his family and is both an active scholar and committed activist.
His scholarship and teaching focus on the intersections of politics and religion, the historical and theological underpinnings of liberalism and human rights, and, in recent years, on ecological ethics. He teaches courses in Jewish Thought (medieval and modern), history of Zionism and the State of Israel, and political and ethical thought.
He served in the US State Department’s human rights bureau during the Clinton Administration as a Public Affairs Officer and Special Advisor and has written on religion, politics, and culture for The New York Times, The Washington Post, New Republic, The Economist, Foreign Policy, New Lines and many other publications. He also was an aide to then-Senators Bob Kerrey and Al Gore and worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the ACLU, and other NGOs. An ordained rabbi, he was the chaplain with the Red Cross after 9-11.
In Israel, he was in the early 2000s a Fellow at the Van Leer Institute and Jewish People Policy Institute and was among the founders of the grass-roots Yerushalmit Movement for a pluralist, livable Jerusalem. Currently, he is deeply involved in the protest movements against the current governing coalition's attempts to undo Israeli democracy, working with both the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv wings of the movement. He is also a longtime student of Arabic and Islam.
His Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution (Yale, 2014) won the Jewish Book Council’s Choice Prize. It appeared in 2021 in a revised Hebrew edition as Rav Kook: Mabat Hadash (Kinneret) which was named by Ha-Aretz as one of the 50 best books of 2021. That year also saw the publication of his Towards the Mystical Experience of Modernity: The Making of Rav Kook, 1865-1904 (Academic Studies Press).
B.A. Yeshiva College, J.D. Yale Law School, Ph.D. Harvard University
★ Support this podcast ★Zeichick Family Lecture: Kol Kolot – Every Voice, Every Vote
Antisemitism and Racism: An Interview with Rabbi Jonah Pesner from the RAC
The Bridge Between Science and Faith: A Conversation with Rabbis Elie Feder and Aaron Zimmer
What is Jewish Spirituality, and Why is it Vital for the Jewish Present and Future?
Has Religious Zionism Lost its Way? Reclaiming Important Lost Voices
Working with Shattered Vessels: Ecology and Environmental Ethics in Jewish Law and Theology
Was the Apostle Paul a Jewish Thinker?
"It Takes Two to Torah": A Book Interview with Rabbi Dov Linzer & His Co-Author Abigail Pogrebin
Why We Gather: Exploring the Transformative Power of Community
A Discussion on Judicial Integrity
Jewish Languages Today: Endangered, Surviving, and Thriving
The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism
Unleash Your Potential
Are We REALLY in Mourning for the Temple? And if Not What’s the Point of Tisha B’Av?
The Biblical Roots of Anti-Semitism
Yalta and the Place of Anger in Leadership
The Great (Non-Jewish) Kings of Jewish History: (Cyrus, Alexander, and Julian)
How Do We Remain Optimistic in These Troubling Times?
The Torah of Rav Yehuda Leon Ashkenazi: A Conversation with Rav Gavriel Reiss
A Settler's View and Journey on Peace
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Tablet Studios
For Heaven’s Sake
Unpacking Israeli History
Judaism Unbound
Chutzpod!