Idit Silman, What Are You Afraid of?

Silman's resignation is soft coercion, to be sure, but it is counterproductive; Judaism and the Jewish character of the State of Israel will suffer for it.

Zev Farber

April 7, 2022

April 7, 2022

Zev Farber

Zev Farber is a research fellow at the Kogod Center of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and the Senior Editor of thetorah.com at Project TABS. He received a PhD in Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible from Emory University (2013) and an MA from Hebrew University in Jewish History (2002). He also received ordination, Yoreh Yoreh (2006), and advanced ordination, Yadin Yadin (2010) from YCT Rabbinical School. Zev is the author of Images of Joshua

Politics, Public Policy, Jewish Identity, Orthodoxy, Israel, Jewish Peoplehood, Jewish and Democratic Israel

“What makes Israel a Jewish state? As someone who moved to this country from the US, I would say that the dominance of Jewish cultural norms makes Israel’s Jewish character unequivocal. The holidays in Israel are Jewish holidays, Sunday is a workday, the day off is Shabbat, kosher food is readily available in any official setting and in most malls and shopping centers. The language is Hebrew, synagogues and mikvaot are ubiquitous, Jewish history is the default perspective in schools, there is a bagrut in Bible and in Jewish thought, etc.”

Read the full opinion piece on Times of Israel