Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a Prague-born Jew, one of the outstanding figures of modern world literature. His name has become an adjective: Kafkaesque. His writings feature eerie situations, disconnected characters, labyrinthine story lines.
New Class with Rabbi Marc D. Angel. No Jewish thinker has had a more significant impact on Jewish religious thought than Moses Maimonides (1138-1204). Please join Rabbi Marc Angel for a class (via Zoom) dealing with the central teachings of Maimonides on faith and ethics.
Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh of 19th century Livorno was a traditional rabbi…with a mind open to the untraditional. He was a rational, modern thinker…who fully embraced the truths of Kabbala. He was devoted to Jewish particularism…while fostering a remarkably universalistic worldview. He would not be constrained or confined by artificial intellectual categories. The ultimate unity could only be sought through all the available avenues of human thought.
Our Institute has an unwavering commitment to the Torah tradition and to the Jewish people. We promote a vision of Orthodox Judaism that is intellectually sound, spiritually compelling, and emotionally satisfying. Appreciating the amazing diversity within Orthodoxy, the Institute encourages responsible discussion of issues in Jewish law, philosophy, religious world-view, and communal policy.
The Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals has offered classes/shiurim and has published many articles relating to the Sephardic-pan-Sephardic experience. We also have posted Sephardic-themed lectures and classes on the Institute's youtube channel. Here is a selection of articles that we offer as part of our partnership with the Israeli organization--Neemanei Torah VaAvodah--that is devoting this week and this Shabbat to exploring Sephardic themes.
Elias Canetti (1905-1994), a Bulgarian-born Sephardic Jew, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981.I appreciate his keen insights into human motives and behaviors. I admire his close observation of people and places. With prophet-like clarity, he foresaw how humanity could destroy itself…or save itself from the brink.
Elie Wiesel, a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, was not only to be a voice and a memorial for the murdered millions. His life’s mission was to serve as a conscience to the world, to remind humanity of the horrors of war and mass murder, to help humanity understand that there should never again be concentration camps, genocide, ruthless and merciless tyranny.
Primo Levi understood personally what it meant to be isolated, tortured, dehumanized. And he wrote at length about the Holocaust. But somehow, he retained within himself a calm and wise humaneness.
The Jewish Press newspaper has a bi-weekly feature in which several rabbis are asked to respond to questions. Rabbi Marc Angel is one of the respondents, and here are his answers that appeared in recent columns.
Although Disraeli was a Christian, a member of Parliament, a popular author, a confidant of Queen Victoria…his detractors never stopped seeing him as a Jew, an outsider, an interloper. He had to struggle against unceasing political malice and anti-Jewish malevolence. Instead of denying or de-emphasizing his Jewish roots, Disraeli flaunted his Jewishness.
