Aharon Ariel Lavi

Rabbi, Economist and Community Builder

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Oct 30, 2023, 12:49 PM

Greta: Followers on Social Media do not Make you an Authority

Greta Thunberg: Pro-Palestine post. Credit: GretaThunberg/X

Like many of my friends in the environmental movement, I was stunned by Greta Thunberg’s post, which showed her and a few of her friends (one of them Jewish) holding signs expressing full support for Gaza, and for Hamas...

Sep 29, 2022, 4:45 PM

Hakhel: Why we need new communities

Hakhel community leaders at the May 2022 Israel Summit

This week we read the Parsha of Hakhel, which means “gather the people”: “Gather the people—men, women, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere God your God” (Deuteronomy 31:12). What is the...

Sep 12, 2022, 9:37 PM

Private property and letting go – a shemitah secret

Parshat Ki Tavo opens with the Bikkurim commandment. It continues with related agricultural commandments and then Moses commands the Israelites to inscribe the Torah on large stones. The Sages add that this inscription was made in 70 different languages,...

Aug 4, 2014, 12:10 AM

It is all about the children – Reflections from the Gaza envelope on education in times of war, and children as the eternal chance for a better future.

The tractor you see in the picture, taken a few days ago in the heat of Protective Edge operation, is digging the first foundations for a new kindergarten in Moshav Shuva, a small village approximately 5 km from the fence...

Jul 27, 2014, 9:04 PM

Compassion out of the the box – Response to David Seidenberg’s “Immunity and Impunity: Fear and Loathing in Gaza”

Dear David Thank you for your article, and interest in what's going on in Israel. As someone who lives approximately 5 km from the fence with Gaza, please allow me to share some thoughts in response to your article. First, I think presenting...

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About Me

Lavi is a serial social entrepreneur, a professional community organizer and a thinker who believes Judaism can inspire and inform all walks of life. Lavi is co-founder of MAKOM: the Israeli umbrella organization of intentional communities; and of the Hakhel: the first global incubator for Jewish Intentional Communities which was awarded the Jerusalem Unity Prize in 2020. He is trained as an economist and historian of ideas, and writes his dissertation on migration of ideas between US Jewry and the Israeli society. He lives with his wife and their five children in Garin Shuva next to the Gaza border and on his free time he is a professional mountain biking guide, racer and trail builder. In 2009 he published his first book on Jewish economic thought. His recent book, Seven, presents Shmita inspired economic, social and environmental ideas.

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