Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a major address asserted that the primary obstacle to Middle East peace is the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Netanyahu made his remarks Sunday at Bar-Ilan University — his first address there since a 2009 speech in which he famously declared his support for a…
How Orthodox should Israel’s Orthodox university be? There’s a major controversy at Bar Ilan University about the institution’s policy of compulsory yarmulke-wearing during Jewish studies classes. It has long been policy that male students should cover their heads when studying sacred texts, though many professors turn a blind eye when they don’t. However, a recent…
Is marriage a legitimate prerequisite for a university course? That is what some female students are asking at Bar-Ilan University. The controversy surrounds a course in “marital communications,” which we told you about here. It requires those who enroll be married for at least one year. The course is intended for those who want to…
For Yair Lapid, things tend to work out well. He’s handsome, and everything he touches seems to turn to gold. He’s an author, screenwriter and one-time actor. Until recently he was a popular columnist for the best-selling newspaper Yediot Aharonot, but then he left to enter politics. Again, this move went super-smoothly — before he…
Thanksgiving is often considered the most American of holidays, perhaps second only to the Fourth of July. Nothing speaks more to American culture and values than celebrating the religious tolerance generations of immigrants sought on U.S. shores, or the creation of a land of plenty, by eating helping after helping of turkey, stuffing and cranberry…
Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments Bar-Ilan University professor Ilia Rodov has written an important and useful article on medieval Torah Arks, especially those tall tower types, well known from representations in many illuminated medieval manuscripts. The article, “Tower-like Torah Arks, the Tower of Strength and the Architecture of the Messianic Temple,” was…
Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments The seventh volume of the excellent art journal Ars Judaica has been published by Bar-Ilan University. Editors Bracha Yaniv, Mirjam Rajner and Ilia Rodov have done it again, producing a rich selection of well-research articles, beautifully illustrated and presented. Older readers will remember that from the 1970s…
A new investigative report in the Hebrew-language version of Yediot Ahronot provides an account of what it says is Bar-Ilan University’s attempt to hide recent charges of sexual harassment. Last year, “Gila,” who has worked at the Ramat-Gan, Israel-based university for 20 years and had a glowing record until that point, reported to the university…
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