Professor Lawrence Kaplan McGill University, Montreal Jonathan Garb recently took note of the revival in contemporary Israeli Haredi society of spiritualist practice and doctrine. While further research is required, there appear to be parallel ... Continue Reading ➨
‘Modern’ Orthodoxy in Antiquity and the Present Day
Professor James Kugel Bar-Ilan University Modern Orthodoxy(1) has been defined and redefined so many times in recent years, and by so many distinguished practitioners, that there seems hardly any point in adding to the glut of paper and megabytes ... Continue Reading ➨
From Jacobs to the New Materialism: Revelation in Judaism after Metaphysics
Professor Paul Morris Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Professor, Rabbi, Dr Louis Jacobs contended that a Jewish theologian must develop his theology ‘without subterfuge’ and with ‘intellectual honesty’.(1) Intellectual honesty ... Continue Reading ➨
Torah as the Word of God
Professor Jacob Ross University of Tel-Aviv The US philosopher of religion Nicholas Wolterstorff (b. 1932) opened his book Divine Discourse, based on his Wilde lectures at the University of Oxford in 1993,(1) with a quotation from the French ... Continue Reading ➨
Orthodoxy and the Challenge of Biblical Criticism: Some Reflections on the Importance of Asking the Right Question
Professor Tamar Ross Bar-Ilan University Moses Maimonides’s eighth principle of faith emphasizes belief in a divine Torah, entailing the notion that the biblical text in our hands today was transmitted by God to Moses, that every word of this text ... Continue Reading ➨
Orthodox Judaism in Transition – An Oxymoron?
Professor Chaim I. Waxman Rutgers University, New Jersey, and Van Leer Jerusalem Institute A commonsense answer to the question in the title above might seem to be: ‘Of course not!’ Yet there are those, typically Ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Jews, who ... Continue Reading ➨
We Have Reason to Inquire: The Life and Works of Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs
Dr Cesar Merchan-Hamann, Jane Barlow, Dr Zsafia Buda, Milena Zeidler Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs, arguably the greatest Anglo-Jewish scholar and rabbi and certainly one of the most popular, was voted by readers of the Jewish Chronicle ‘the greatest ... Continue Reading ➨
Biblical Criticism and Late-Modern Orthodoxy in Israel
Dr Ari Engelberg The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Rabbi Louis Jacobs famously attempted in his We Have Reason to Believe to show that not all academic biblical research need be labelled heretical by Orthodox religious authorities, but his stand ... Continue Reading ➨
Rabbi Louis Jacobs mentioned in the Jewish Chronicle
Dear Friend, In this week's Jewish Chronicle you may have read an article by Simon Rocker mentioning Rabbi Louis Jacobs and Rabbi Zev Farber who has challenged American Orthodoxy to face up to the same issues that majorly featured in the UK 50 ... Continue Reading ➨
Organic Growth Vs Petrification
Originally published in the New York Jewish Spectator in November 1952. In a well-known passage, Pepys, the diarist describes with disdainful mockery his visit to a Synagogue on Simchat Torah and his disgust on observing the antics of the ... Continue Reading ➨
A Chanukah Thought
Originally published in the Manchester Jewish Gazette in December 1957. THE MIDRASH comments on the verse "And it came to pass at the end of two full years (Genesis 41:1) that God brings darkness to an end when the time is ripe. Joseph is obliged ... Continue Reading ➨
Open Orthodoxy comes to the UK
Do you worry that Orthodoxy is neglecting the left? Don't miss your only opportunity to hear Rabbi Asher Lopatin, one of America's leading authorities on Open Modern Orthodoxy and the high-profile president of Rabbi Avi Weiss's rabbinical school in ... Continue Reading ➨
Full text of letter published in the Jewish Chronicle
The JC edited a letter that Ivor Jacobs wrote for publication. Dear Editor, Miriam Shaviv in her column (last week's JC) notes the "thirst amongst some orthodox Jews for sophisticated discussion on theological issues". At the same time she ... Continue Reading ➨
Oxford Seminar in Advanced Jewish Studies
Orthodoxy, Theological Debate, and Contemporary Judaism: Exploring Questions Raised in the Thought of Louis Jacobs This Oxford Seminar in Advanced Jewish Studies will examine the state of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Within this framework the ... Continue Reading ➨
The Legacy of Rabbi Jacobs and the Limits of Theological Debate in Judaism
The Friends of LouisJacobs.org and the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Held a very successful event entitled THE LEGACY OF RABBI JACOBS AND THE LIMITS OF THEOLOGICAL DEBATE IN JUDAISM PANEL Dr Miri Freud-Kandel Lecturer in Modern ... Continue Reading ➨
Events, News & Latest Postings Archive
Keep up to date with our latest additions and read general news about the site Dear Friend, In this week's Jewish Chronicle you may have read an article by Simon Rocker mentioning Louis Jacobs and Rabbi Zev Farber who has challenged American ... Continue Reading ➨