Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
With Israeli election results still in motion, let’s take a look at David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, and one of the most significant Zionist leaders of the 20th century. He remains a fascinating figure in Israeli history.
Dr. Ari Ackerman, Golinkin Chair of TALI Jewish Education at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, describes an extraordinary press conference Ben Gurion held devoted entirely to his understanding of the Biblical account of the Exodus from Egypt. What was problematic about Ben Gurion’s approach and how does Schechter’s approach to Bible education differ?
Full transcription below:
In 1960, David Ben Gurion held a very atypical press conference. He asked journalists to bring to this press conference a Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and he devoted the entire press conference to his understanding of the biblical account of the Exodus from Egypt.
Now I don’t want to detail Ben Gurion’s innovative and controversial understanding of this Biblical episode, but I want to emphasize what an important political, social and cultural event this was in Israel society in the 1960s. It grabbed the headlines for a number of days and it is difficult to imagine a parallel event occurring in Israel society today.
Our relationships with the Tanakh is much more tenuous. It has a much more minimal role in Israel public discourse and in the educational system. I want to try to understand what caused this disconnect and how we can create a renewed connection to the most important book in the Jewish canon. I think if we look a little deeper into Ben-Gurion’s approach we’ll see that his approach was actually somewhat problematic.
He was interested in the Tanakh for a specific reason, he wanted to create a connection between Israeli youth in the Land of Israel. He saw the Tanakh as an important educational text, it could increase the willingness of people – of Israelis – to defend and settle the land. Therefore, he was interested in only certain sections of the Tanakh and he wasn’t interested in integrating the Tanakh into the cultural creativity of the Jews throughout the years. Therefore, if we want to create a different, stronger relationship with Tanakh, we have to build it on a different foundation. That is what we’re trying to do at Schechter in our Bible track. We encourage students to creative dialogue with the Tanakh.
We interact with the Tanakh and other disciplines with the cultural creativity of the Jews from the time of the Tanakh to Israeli society today.
Prof. Ari Ackerman is the President of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies.
President Ackerman is Associate Professor for Jewish Philosophy and Jewish Education. Prior to his elevation to president, Ackerman held the (David) Golinkin Professor of TALI Jewish Education. He received his PhD in Jewish thought from Hebrew University and was a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University. His most recent book is a Critical Edition of the Sermons of Zerahia Halevi Saladin (Beer Sheva University Press, 2013). Prof. Ackerman’s new book on creation and codification in the philosophy of Hasdai Crescas – Hasdai Crescas on Codification, Cosmology and Creation (Brill Press, 2022) is newly published. President Ackerman lives with his family in Jerusalem.
