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
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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).
Philosophical Reflections on the Third Anniversary of Prof. Eliezer Schweid’s Passing
Usually, at “Shavuah Tov” at Schechter, we focus on the weekly Torah portion or a particular holiday, but this time I wanted to dedicate it to a different type of event, namely, the third anniversary of the passing of Professor Eliezer Schweid, one of the most important Jewish thinkers of the last generation.
His philosophy touches on numerous issues, but I want to confine myself to one of the central and most seminal ideas in his philosophy, namely, that there is no opposition between Jewish secularism (hiloni) and religiosity (datiyut). According to Schweid, the commonly held view that a deep religious perspective and an authentic secular perspective necessarily conflict with each other is incorrect in the case of Judaism. On the contrary, Schweid argues that true secularism, which is a form of humanism, does not contradict religion, but religion is essential to it.
Obviously, this position is highly atypical within Israel where hilonim and dati’im generally are at odds with one another, particularly surrounding issues of religion and State. But Schweid counters that religion is important for Zionist secularism for several reasons, and I will focus on one of these.
Schweid contends that a connection to Jewish religion is necessary for cultural continuity. Schweid critiques earlier cultural Zionist thinkers such as for Ahad Ha’am and Hayim Nahman Bialik for their inability to cultivate a deep, organic connection to the Jewish past. According to him, although they valorize Jewish culture as it has been developed throughout the ages, they reinterpret this tradition and transform it into a purely secular idiom. In their interpretation, tradition primarily contains moral, national, and cultural elements.
But as Schweid explains, religion has never been merely an external garment for the ethical, national, and cultural content of Judaism. These components have always been intertwined with religion. Therefore, the secular interpretation of most secular Zionist thinkers prevented meaningful continuity with our historical culture. To enable a true and deep connection to our Jewish past, secular Jewish Zionist thinkers must reorient themselves vis-à-vis the Jewish tradition and remain open to its religious dimensions.
Of course, one does not have to agree with Schweid—not on his view of Jewish religion, nor on his description of the development and nature of Jewish secularism and there are many aspects of his complicated and nuanced position that I have not presented.
However, he is the type of thinker with whom anyone wishing to formulate a contemporary Jewish worldview must engage.
Shavua Tov from Schechter
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.
