/ articles for review

The Jewish People Have Always Been in Favor of Social Justice  (Ynet, Tani Goldstein, August 6, 2011)

 

An in-depth article on Ynet, Israel’s leading news website, analyzing the Jewish roots of the Summer 2011 social justice protests in Israel, focusing on Jews’ historical and current roles in communal and governmental efforts to provide for each other and the poor, quotes two SHI scholars, Prof. Ron Margolin , and Prof. Avi Sagi , at length  (original in Hebrew).

 

Ron Margolin:  "Jews were persecuted and forced to come together and help each other to survive. In addition, charity has deep roots in Judaism. Biblical commandments such as the obligation to leave a portion of harvests for the poor were (already) a social welfare policy.”

 

"Socialist Zionists brought ideas from Europe that combined biblical ideas and used them to solve practical problems.”

 

"Israeli society disengaged from its Jewish roots….Judaism is (now) identified (in Israel) with rituals and symbols and a few special sectors such as the ultra-Orthodox and kipa wearers, and its social dimension has almost disappeared.”

 

Click here to read the original article (in Hebrew) in its entirety.