Adam S. Ferziger, at The Blogs

Adam S. Ferziger

Dec 19, 2024, 4:19 PM

The Maccabi miracle and the Manhattan murder: On Hanukkah and healthcare

Instead of the apparent contempt for human lives that emerges from the US healthcare system, the US should look at Israel's healthcare; Israel gets it right

Sep 5, 2024, 6:37 PM

How good are your tents, Hersh

Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Poliin, parents of killed US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin sit with his sisters Orly and Leebie during his funeral in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024, (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / POOL / AFP)

Those who come to console the Goldberg-Polins find a family that connects their grief to the collective mourning of Israel

Mar 21, 2024, 3:42 PM

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The dilemma of Israeli Purim

Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza set a symbolic Shabbat table with more than 200 empty seats for the hostages, at 'Hostage Square,' outside the Art Museum of Tel Aviv, October 20, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

How can a nation rooted in ideas of self-rule and self-defense celebrate at a time of fragile uncertainty? Focus on hope, not victory

Oct 23, 2023, 4:22 PM

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A generational moment: Will young American Jews step up?

'Lev Ehad' nonprofit organization volunteers, in cooperation with the Golan Regional Council raise funds, food, clothing, and more for the thousands of families of evacuees and reserve soldiers stationed in the Golan Heights, in Snobar Compound near Kidmat Zvi on October 15, 2023. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

If you're abroad, take an active part in supporting Israel. If you can come to Israel, then come. If you're here, stay

Sep 22, 2023, 4:10 PM

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Selihot prayers in Jerusalem as counter-rallies: Two interpretations

The concert at First Station, with Rabbi Tamar Elad Applebaum and musicians. (Facebook, Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

As all walks of Israeli society meander through Jerusalem this high holy day season, their organic gatherings smack of a new mode of prayer

Sep 2, 2022, 4:50 PM

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Sweating together in Basel and beyond

President Isaac Herzog addresses an event marking the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, on August 29, 2022. (Screenshot)

The heat in a hall filled with every kind of Jew offered a palpable reminder of how far the Zionist project has come in shaping every Jew's world

Jun 14, 2021, 6:48 AM

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Bennett and Herzog were born to bridge the Israel-Diaspora chasm

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog, left, and Jewish Home chair Naftali Bennett listen to a debate on the economy in Tel Aviv, March 11, 2015. (Gil Cohen Magen/AFP/Getty Images)

The PM and president-elect, both sons of Anglo-immigrants, know American Jewry first-hand and are uniquely qualified to reset the troubled relationship

Jan 27, 2021, 12:40 PM

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Fatal liberations – 1945 and 2021

A survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp eats soon after the camp's liberation by British forces in April 1945. (Imperial War Museum)

The tragedy of those who survived the camps only to die soon after is a cautionary tale for a time when vaccination promises to end the pandemic

Apr 30, 2020, 4:06 PM

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American Jews are suffering. Can Israel help without patronizing?

Bodies are seen on shelves in a refrigerated container at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, Wednesday, April 8, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

With the pandemic's devastating and disproportionate toll on centers of US Jewish life, a historical dynamic of aid-giving is reversed

Apr 5, 2020, 6:59 PM

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Will Corona usher the internet into the Haredi Orthodox home?

Illustrative: Ultra orthodox jewish photographer Moshe Friedman edits his pictures on a laptop, after photographing a wedding in the ultra orthodox neighborhood of Meah Shearim, in Jerusalem. August 28, 2012. (Nati Shohat/FLASH90)

The web has proven critically important for health. Now rabbinic leaders must forge a strategy to enable their community to reap its full benefits

About Me

Adam S. Ferziger is professor in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University, where he holds the Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Chair, and is co-convener of the Oxford Summer Institute on Modern and Contemporary Judaism, University of Oxford. His most recent monograph, Beyond Sectarianism: The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism (Wayne State University Press, 2015), won the National Jewish Book Award in the category of American Jewish Studies.