Israel

Ari Zivotofsky responds to two letters criticizing his recent article regarding the alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners at Sde Teiman.

In this essay, Aviva Lauer analyzes the Biblical prohibition against cutting down fruit trees in wartime, and connects it to messages about human dignity.

Yosef Blau and Jonah Winer respond to Ari Zivitofsky's recent article regarding the alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners at Sde Teiman.

The propriety of celebrating the downfall of enemies presents a complex web of questions and seemingly contradictory Jewish texts. Michael Kurin makes sense of this subject and proposes a framework for applying it to matters of Israeli public policy.

In the summer of 2024, IDF police raided the Sde Teiman base as part of an investigation into reports of serious abuse of alleged terrorist detainees. The many turns of the resulting controversy divided Israeli society during wartime and brought global attention to Israel's military prisons. Ari Zivitofsky reflects on these events and argues that senior officials in the Israeli government and media failed to heed the dictates of the Jewish ethical tradition.

Following the World Zionist Congress, Gabriel Slamovits reflects on the significance of the event and how the journey of Avraham and Sarah in Parshat Lech Lecha informs the future.

The Haredi community in Israel and its institutions have resisted army service and other forms of societal integration since the founding of the State. As the controversy over drafting Haredi citizens continues to feature in headlines, Nathaniel Helfgot revisits a well-known but underexplored episode in early Israeli history: the meeting and correspondence between Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, known as the Hazon Ish.

David Polsky explores a passage in the Sifrei that is key to articulating a Halakahic position on withholding food as a military tactic.

Roy Pinchot responds to Zach Truboff's article decrying the ethical and spiritual costs of the war.

As the war in Israel approaches its third year, Zach Truboff calls upon Israeli society and its friends abroad to confront the spiritual and moral cost of the violence.