Avidan Freedman, at The Blogs

Avidan Freedman

Aug 28, 2026, 1:08 PM

Illustrative. Bedouins stand in front of houses that, according to local residents, were heavily damaged the previous day during an attack by extremist Israeli settlers in Al-Dyouk Al-Tahta area, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Jericho, February 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

I am ashamed. My coreligionists perpetrated acts of violence too extreme to speak of against our Arab neighbors and we haven't taken to the streets in protest

Jan 22, 2026, 9:18 PM

In a world run by bullies

Bullies. Everywhere I look, all I see are bullies. What’s a bully? A Pharaoh who builds a pyramid of power on the backs of all those beneath him, who uses people as bricks in his wall. A bully uses...

Sep 21, 2025, 5:56 AM

Arrested for Blowing Shofar? The Real Reason is Worse

It sounds very dramatic to say that a rabbi was arrested for blowing shofar. And all the more dramatic when you add that this happened not in Paris or London or Chicago, but in Jerusalem, only a few days...

Aug 27, 2025, 5:54 PM

Defending the Rabbinic Letter on Israel’s Actions in Gaza

The rabbinic letter initiated by Rabbi Yosef Blau that I am (still) proud to have signed onto continues to provoke responses (that's good) and hate (that's less good, but that's our world), including an email campaign in which over...

Jun 25, 2025, 1:02 PM

Korach’s Critical Lesson for Israeli Politics Tomorrow

It was a coalition held together by a shared desire for power, honor and money. But this didn’t mean that every member of the coalition did not have their own ideology, or that their ideological beliefs did not have...

May 25, 2025, 4:07 PM

Don’t Desecrate Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day

It is not hard to think of times and places where intimidating marches took place, whose threatening, violent rhetoric forced Jews to shutter their stores and hide in their homes. When such awful marches take place in our day,...

Apr 21, 2025, 10:59 AM

We Need Elections and We Need Them Now

We need elections and we need them now. Giving the people the opportunity to let their vote determine the answer to the critical questions that are tearing us apart is the only fair solution with a chance to bring...

About Me

Avidan Freedman is the co-founder and director of Yanshoof (www.yanshoof.org), an organization dedicated to stopping Israeli arms sales to human rights violators, a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute's Kogod Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought, and an educator at the Institute's gap-year program, Hevruta. He lives in Efrat with his wife Devorah and their 5 children.

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