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New York City

The Tikvah Summer Fellowship on
Jewish Thought & Citizenship

July 27, 2014 - August 8, 2014

Responsible Jewish citizenship requires both the careful study of perennial ideas and active engagement in the most pressing public issues particular to our day and age. The “Jewish Citizen” series is the central occasion of the summer fellowship when the cohort as a whole—all of the fellows and only the fellows—come together to deliberate in common about the challenges and issues that confront leaders of the Jewish community. Israelis and Americans/Europeans, religious and secular people, rabbis and politicos—we all have an interest in, and points of view on, the political and civic future of the Jewish people and the Jewish State. In the past, the Jewish Citizen series has taken on subjects like the IDF draft, the day school tuition crisis in North America, conversion, abortion, Israeli settlement policy, and marriage law in the United States and in Israel. We provide very brief background readings for each session, and after two hours of debate, we actually vote on competing policies—modeling, we hope, the spirit of high-level democratic discourse. Four panels with leading thinkers from across the spectrum of Jewish thought and practice will frame the discussions, providing the broad conceptual considerations that inform each of the specific policy conversations. Our slate of topics for this summer’s program includes: 

 

Jews and Power

Monday, July 28

with guest speakers: 

Moshe Halbertal

Halbertal

and Ruth Wisse


Debates in Jewish Theology

Wednesday, July 30

with guest speakers:

Meir Soloveichik

and Shai Held


  Religion and Politics in Israel

Sunday, August 3

with guest speakers:

Daniel Gordis

and Yehoshua Pfeffer


The Future of Judaism in the Diaspora

Wednesday, August 6

with guest speakers: 

Eric Cohen

and Elliot Cosgrove