Digital Library > Jewish Political Thought > Does Judaism Create Great Statesmen?

Does Judaism Create Great Statesmen?

July 24, 2014
Image for Does Judaism Create Great Statesmen?

Tikvah’s executive director Eric Cohen, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, and Hoover Institution scholar Peter Berkowitz ponder the question of whether Judaism offers political wisdom in addition to a code of familial and communal ethics. Scholars are often inclined to argue that Jewish texts—most of which were written at a time when the Jews had no state—fail to provide sufficient tutorship in the world of politics. At the same time, Eric Cohen suggests, we must be impressed by the awesome statesmanship of the Zionist founders. How do we reconcile these facts? If not Judaism, on what sort of moral-political tradition did great Jewish statesmen like David Ben-Gurion stand on?

More podcasts: