Shlomo Fischer, at The Blogs

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Oct 22, 2023, 4:13 PM

The Hamas Surprise Attack and Financial Crises

This is the third time Israel has been strategically surprised. The first in 1973. The second in 2006 in the Second Lebanon War, and the third on Saturday, October 7 (The Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah) over a week...

May 18, 2023, 3:25 PM

No peace, no shtreimel

MKs Yaakov Litzman, Moshe Gafni, Meir Porush and Uri Makleff signing an agreement between Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael to run in the April elections as the United Torah Judaism party, January 16, 2019. (Degel Hatorah)

When a diplomatic process was on the table, Haredi parties were kingmakers – today they have nothing to offer

May 14, 2023, 11:35 PM

The unbearable lightness of discarding Lag BaOmer bonfires

Children gather around the Lag Ba'omer bonfire outside Jerusalem, 2010. (photo credit: Nati Shohat/ Flash90)

The smell, the mess, the inconvenience – is that all leftists see in this unique, culturally deep Israeli tradition?

Mar 13, 2023, 12:30 PM

Israeli Politics is Undergoing Tectonic Change

The journalist, Raviv Druker recently reported that M.K. Simcha Rotman stated that his assumption is that the right will remain in power for the foreseeable future and that the “judicial reform” (giving near limitless power to the coalition) is...

Feb 1, 2022, 5:30 PM

Israel as Myth: Challenges and Opportunities

One of Israel’s greatest weaknesses but also among its greatest potential strengths is that it is a myth, in the specific sense outlined by the French theorist Roland Barthes. That is, words and concepts associated with it carry ordinary...

Dec 19, 2021, 2:46 PM

Needed: A two-pronged strategy for antisemitism from the right and left

Tree of Life Synagogue Vice President Alan Hausman wears a Stronger Than Hate yarmulke during a commemoration ceremony in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. A gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue, in America's deadliest antisemitic attack in 2018. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

US Jews must understand the different causes of – and remedies for – the right-wing’s deadly political fantasies, and the left’s totalistic utopianism

Jul 21, 2021, 1:17 PM

Jews: Minority or Mainstream?

The recent Pew survey, Jewish Americans in 2020, suggests both a substantial divergence between various sectors of the American Jewish community and a deep change in Jewish identity among the Orthodox and their perception of the position of the...

May 10, 2021, 5:08 AM

Why is it so hard to order religion and state relations in Israel?

The place of religion in Israel is a perennial question in the country’s public discussion. Every few years a new crisis develops that threatens the ruling coalition. A committee of intellectuals and public figures is formed and makes worthwhile...

Apr 7, 2021, 3:24 PM

Between Purim and Holocaust Memorial Day

Twenty-five years ago, my colleagues and I founded Yesodot – Center for Torah and Democracy to advance democracy education in the state religious school system. One of the pedagogical tools we developed was the “Rawls Game.” This pedagogical game...

Feb 10, 2020, 2:08 PM

The Solidarity March and the Crown Heights Hasidim

From right: Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand hold a banner at the march against anti-Semitism in New York City, Jan. 5, 2020. (John Lamparski/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images) As anti-Semitic incidents have increased in New York City as well as the United States, demonstrators held no hate no fear solidarity march. Representatives from various Jewish organisations as well as marchers from around the country joined the New Yorkers to call for an end to religious bigotry.

Hasidim would do well to join forces with America's non-Orthodox Jews, instead of holding themselves apart

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About Me

Dr. Shlomo Fischer is a sociologist and a senior staff member of the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) in Jerusalem. He taught in the Department of Education at Hebrew University. He is also a founder of Yesodot- Center for Torah and Democracy which works to advance education for democracy in the State-Religious school sector in Israel. His research interests include religious groups, class and politics in Israel and the sociology of the Jewish People in the Diaspora.