Israel’s diversity is reflected in the range of responses to four months of war since Hamas and others killed 1,200 people and took more than 240 hostages Oct. 7. Amid many examples: Areas in which…
Since Hamas viciously killed more than 1,200 Israelis, unleashed brutal sexual assaults, and dragged away some 240 hostages, global focus has increasingly turned to the situation in Gaza as Israel tries to destroy Hamas and…
As Israel turns 75 this spring, it is in the throes of a dynamic controversy over governance. Where might this ‘crisis’ or potential ‘political earthquake’ fit into Zionism’s history, and Israel’s tomorrows still to come?
Rabbi Michael Berger, a professor in Emory University’s religion department, and CIE President Ken Stein, an Emory emeritus professor, trace 3,000 years of Jewish connection to the Land of Israel and the strategies that prepared…
Live and recorded online discussions lasting less than an hour go in depth into specific aspects of the State of Israel, from its international relations to its domestic culture.
Applying demographic statistics and polling data, Professor Jonathan Rynhold lucidly examines Israel’s politics through the lenses of ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity. He concludes that Israeli society and its political priorities are ever changing, evidenced by the June 2021 formation of Israel’s most ethnically and politically diverse government coalition ever formed.
Speaking Feb. 14 to Jewish teen leaders, former Israeli Supreme Court clerk Gal Levy Ben Haim explains the Israeli judiciary and its role in society, using cases about LGBTQ and women’s rights as examples.
June 30, 2020 Even as Israel, like America, guarantees religious freedom, it has been connected from its inception to Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people. Nevertheless, that connection has been fraught with tension, from…
This whiteboard video explains the structure of Israel’s education system, including the country’s commitment to early childhood learning programs, challenges of educational equality and funding for different segments of the population, and a comparison of Israel’s academic success with other nations.
During the 2019 CIE/ISMI Educator Workshop on Modern Israel, Emory University Professor Michael Berger traces the evolution of religious Zionism from its roots in Europe to its participation in current Israeli politics.
During the 2019 CIE/ISMI Educator Workshop on Modern Israel, Emory University Professor Michael Berger discusses how Hasidism was one of the most important Jewish innovations of its time, the evolution of ultra-Orthodoxy, and the status of Haredim within Israel today.
In this four part video series, CIE Vice President Rich Walter speaks with Emory University Professor Rabbi Michael Berger about the influence of religion in Israel’s politics.
Our latest Whiteboard video explores the history and context of ultra-Orthodox deferments from the Israel Defense Forces. Beginning with the 1947 status-quo agreement between David Ben-Gurion and Agudat Israel, we explain the origins of the policy and why it has become so divisive in contemporary Israeli society.
ISMI’s Eli Sperling presented this discussion on Religious Pluralism in Israel for the Anti-Defamation League on October 25, 2018.
Dr. Rabbi Michael Berger analyzes the history of Judaism and the origins of Jewish nationhood — from the initial settling of Eretz Yisrael to the aftermath of the Bar-Kochba Revolt — at the 2018 CIE Educator Enrichment Workshop.
Israel is only 70 years old. It is certainly more developed and different than the US was in 1846. What are the domestic and foreign policy issues that remain open-ended? Which issues have settled into consensus acceptance? CIE President and Founder Professor Ken Stein explores these questions and more in this webinar from May 2018.
February 26, 2013 If Jews do not own and tell their own story, then others will show falsehoods about who we are and what Israel is about.
