Virtual Reality Comes to Canadian Jewry: The Case of the Canadian Jewish Congress Plenary
This article deals with the issue of the changing nature of the “public square” of contemporary Jewry through an account of the Canadian Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1998. The CJC Plenary has historically been, par excellence, Canadian Jewry’s “public square.” The program of the 1998 Plenary differed from that of previous Plenaries in that a major portion of the event’s schedule was shifted from “traditional” activities, such as speeches and resolutions, to a “talk show” format of sessions on issues of contemporary Jewish concern. This major shift in format raises questions – most particularly that of the control of public discourse in the Jewish polity.
Defining Limits on Religious Expression in Public Institutions: The Turkish Crisis over Headscarves
On June 10, 1998, Turkish police and Islamist students scuffled at Istanbul University after authorities refused to allow eleven women wearing Muslim headscarves to take final exams.
French Jewry Facing Haredization
Jewish communal Judaism in France and a second return to more traditional practices.
Prospects for the Israeli Economy in Light of the Global Crisis
Public Funding for Religious Education in Ontario: A Dilemma for Canadian Jews?
Minorities seek funding for religious schools, and pluralistic religious education is considered as an option by the Jewish community.
Israel’s (5759) 1998 Local Elections
The religious factions in Jerusalem and voting centrist are discussed.
The Who, Where, and What of WYE
The signing of the WYE agreement in Washington and its potential impact on the Israelis and Palestinians.
The State of Israel in Its Jubilee Year
Scriptural law does not designate the Jubilee Year as a time for the celebration of achievements. On the contrary, it is a year of reformative and renewing examination. Mosaic law relates to the passage from bondage to freedom.
The State of Israel in it’s Jubilee Year
The need for political reform and crisis in leadership and culture are addressed.
The Socio-Economic Patterns of Iraqi Jewry in the Twentieth Century by Moshe Gat
The majority of the Jews of Iraq in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries lived in three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul. In the first half of the nineteenth century a process of modernization began in the Jewish community, paralleling the policy of Westernization and modernization in the Ottoman Empire, as reflected in the Tanzimet. The Jewish community was declared a millet, a religious community enjoying internal autonomy in religion and education. Like other minorities within the empire, the Jewish community was granted equal rights and security of life.
Who is an Israeli?: “Halakhah” and Citizenship in the Jewish State by Martin Edelman
Mishpat HaMelukhah and the Jewish Political Tradition in the Thought of R. Shimon Federbush
R. Shimon Federbush, a Mizrachi leader, proposed a blueprint for reconciling Jewish law with the law of modern, democratic Israel. He developed a traditional category, mishpat hamelukhah, as a highly flexible mechanism for accomodating the decisions of a Jewish legislature to the pre-state Jewish legal tradition. Federbush represents a comprehensive attempt to reconcile inherited Judaism and modern republicanism. His contribution shows both the promise and the limits of that still urgent project.
Jewish Tort Law Remedies Not Based on Torah Law – An Approach Based on the Ran and the Rivash by Steven Friedell
This essay examines how two of the leading rabbis of fourteenth century Spain defined the roles of the rabbinic courts and the secular Jewish community in the governance of tort
disputes that arose within the community. Recognizing the impracticalities of the Torah’s legal system, the Ran developed a theory of Jewish self-government that gave much power
to the secular Jewish leaders. His responses reveal that he applied this approach not just in criminal cases as some have suggested, but also in torts cases. He also limited the rabbinic court’s power to punish even religious offenses. The Ran ‘s disciple, the Rivash, took a similar view, and recognized broad authority of the Jewish community to legislate without rabbinic oversight.
Maimonides on the Renewal of “Semikha”: Some Historical Perceptive by Gerald Blidstein
This article proposes that the Maimonidean suggestion that semikha can be renewed should be seen in historic, as well as jurisprudential, perspective. Maimonides denied the
right of any contemporary institution, especially the Babylonain gaonate (which vigorously claimed the priviledge) to grant semikha. But since semikha is an essential component of messianic redemption in its rabbinic version, the Maimonidean position could be undermined by the argument that it denied the messianic possibility. By providing a mechanism for the renewal of semikha, Maimon ides could negate that claim.
