Judaism and Politics

David Polsky meticulously explores officer immunity in Halakha and compares it with the American legal standard of qualified immunity.

Historian Jonathan Sarna places a recent decision by an Orthodox synagogue to modify the "prayer for the government" into sharp historical focus.

With a novel reading of Josephus and Gittin, Shana Schwartz proposes that the tragedy of the second hurban and the mystery of subsequent Jewish survival may be understood by reference to the physiological knowledge available in classical antiquity.

Shaul Seidler-Feller Introduction Early last week, a friend forwarded me a recently-published video produced in Israel. When it began to play, I was quickly taken in...

Ethan Schwartz reviews Yitchak Etshalom’s new volume on the prophet Amos, considering ways in which the author succeeds and fails to recreate the divine roar of Amos’ message.

The biblical figure of Esther is often interpreted by traditional and modern commentators as a heroine of active leadership. Naama Sadan offers a novel perspective, according to which Esther confronts national crisis in female-coded ways, triumphing and saving her people through internally-focused activism.

Eliezer Finkelman offers his thoughts on politicizing from the pulpit.

Fix the Israeli Rabbinate, says Elli Fischer, but first identify the problem.

Ari Lamm explores a recent instance of talmudic censorship, as well as its implications for thinking about Jewish-Christian relations and American society at large.

Why do Orthodox Jews vote the way they do? Zev Eleff builds a case, using some unconventional data.