John Hartley, at The Blogs

Oct 2, 2024, 9:42 PM

Antisemitism and the Fall of Tsarist Russia

Reading A People's Tragedy, Orlando Figes’ magisterial account of the Russian Revolution, one is confronted with the plight of Russia’s Jews, scapegoated for the empire’s failures. It is noteworthy that a surge of virulent antisemitism immediately predicated the Tsarist...

Sep 27, 2024, 7:23 PM

The Akedah today

In times of existential struggle Israel should look to her unique inception as a covenant people, and find solace in the Akedah, as a defining moment in Jewish history. “Take your son, your only son, whom you love and sacrifice...

Jul 31, 2024, 2:49 PM

Natan Sharansky: Historical echo of Haredi draft refusers

In an era where the consequences for non-compliance with governmental mandates stir profound debates, the plight of Haredi draft refusers finds an unlikely historical echo in the meditations of a 1970s Soviet refusenik. Incarceration, Natan Sharansky's experience suggests, does not...

Jul 20, 2024, 3:51 PM

Haredi draft refusers: Truth carried on the shoulders of individuals

Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Haredi Jews have refused to serve in the Israeli military for religious reasons. Typically, they study Torah in Yeshivas, and as such were legally exempt, until June 2024, when...

Jul 9, 2024, 11:28 AM

Haredi Education as adherence to the Torah

Haredi philosophy of education acknowledges the sacrosanctity of the individual conscience. Such a view is predicated on an absolute belief that the truth pertaining to the nature of reality contained within the Torah as ontologically definitive. While secularism is...

Jun 26, 2024, 3:22 PM

Rene Girard: Haredi draft crisis scapegoat theory

Polymath René Girard (1923–2015) identified the universal propensity to unite around the victimization of a scapegoat as a trait inherent to human sociality. Fixation upon a single object of scorn temporarily suspends the capacity for intragroup conflict. As a...

Jun 18, 2024, 7:07 PM

Vladimir Solovyov: Israel, axis of world history

Portrait of Vladimir Solovyov by Ivan Kramskoy, 1885

Decades before the Balfour Declaration, the 19th century Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov referred to the Jews as the chosen people, the theocratic people par excellence… the axis of universal history. Such a conviction reflects Solovyov’s recognition of the indissolubility...

May 28, 2024, 8:20 PM

Grigory Pomerants and self-destructive zealotry

In times of geopolitical crisis there is a temptation to fall into the trap of zealotry which, I argue, is inherently self-destructive. Zeal is commonly defined as great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause. In an increasingly polarized...

About Me

John Hartley is a schoolteacher in London and a part-time doctoral student. His research focuses on the philosophy of religion of the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Regents Theological College, a Master's in Theology from Maryvale Institute, a Licentiate in Divinity validated by the Faculté Notre Dame de Paris, and a Postgraduate Diploma from Birmingham University.

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