Press Release

Spiritual Leadership at a Crossroads

MK Eli Yishai, Adina Bar-Shalom, Rabbanit Hadassah Froman, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow to Debate Future of Religious Community

MK Eli Yishai, Adina Bar-Shalom, Rabbanit Hadassah Froman, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow to Debate Future of Religious Community

Monday, 27 January 2014, Israel Democracy Institute, 4 Pinsker St., Jerusalem - Religious-spiritual leadership has always been at the core of Jewish communal life, in which the rabbi has traditionally been at the center of the experience of the individual, the family, and the public. Today, however, centralized rabbinic leadership is weakening, and there is no clear consensus on who the leading scholar of our generation is and leadership and authority is dispersed and divided.

On Wednesday, 29 January 2014 from 17:00 to 20:00, IDI will convene a roundtable on Spiritual Leadership at a Crossroads. Among other questions, panelists will discuss:

  • How is the Litvak community dealing with the split within its community?
  • How is religious Zionism dealing with the tension between its liberal and more ultra-Orthodox streams?
  • What will happen to the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox community now that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has passed away?
  • Are we indeed at the end of an era?

Participants will include:

  • MK Eli Yishai, current MK and former Shas Party Chairman
  • Ms. Adina Bar-Shalom, daughter of the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef; founder and Executive Director, The Haredi College of Jerusalem
  • Rabbanit Hadassah Froman, continuer of the work of her late husband, Rabbi Menachem Froman; teacher at the Bereishit School
  • Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, co-founder of the Tzohar Rabbinical Association
  • Rabbi Yitzhak Levy, former Minister and MK from the NRP and National Union parties
  • Prof. Benjamin Ish Shalom, President of Beit Morasha of Jerusalem; Chair of the Institute for Jewish Studies – Joint Conversion Institute
  • Prof. Yedidia Z. Stern, Vice President of Research, The Israel Democracy Institute; Law Professor, Bar-Ilan University

The event is open to the public with advanced registration, it will be broadcast live on the IDI website, and it will be available later on the IDI YouTube channel. Additional information about the event may be found on the event page.

To RSVP or for more information, contact:
Yehoshua Oz
Director of International Communications
press@idi.org.il
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