Agents of Change: American Jews and the Transformation of Israeli Judaism

Join the Program in Judaic Studies on Monday, November 11, to hear Adam S. Ferziger discuss his upcoming book, Agents of Change: American Jews and the Transformation of Israeli Judaism, with Laura Arnold Leibman, Princeton University’s Leonard J. Milberg ’53 Professor in American Jewish Studies.

The talk will address the rise of moderate Orthodox Judaism in Israel and the key role of a small group of influential American Jews in its emergence. The conservative ultra-Orthodox and redemptive “Kook” camp hold sway over religious matters in Israel. Yet from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, a small cadre of American immigrants arrived in Israel and established or led a range of advanced educational institutions that laid the ideological foundations for an Israeli moderate religion stream. This group spawned novel approaches that have found expression in central areas of debates, from women’s roles in religious and public life and approaches to the gay and lesbian community to interactions with non-Orthodox denominations and attitudes toward academic Jewish studies. The discussion will illuminate both shifting religious dynamics in Israel as a result of this rise in moderate Orthodoxy, as well as the changing relationship between Israeli and American Judaisms, challenging current understandings which see the Jewish communities of the two nations as drifting apart. Though a minority in Israel, this vocal Orthodox community with a more moderate take on key issues is significant in potentially paving the way for social change.

All are welcome to attend, but space is limited – please RSVP to judaic@princeton.edu. Refreshments will be available.

Adam S. Ferziger is a professor and holds the Rabbi S.R. Hirsch Chair in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. He is co-convener of the Oxford Summer Institute on Modern and Contemporary Judaism, University of Oxford. His research focuses on the history of Jewish religious responses to modern and contemporary life. Ferziger has served as a visiting professor or fellow at the University of Oxford, College of Charleston, University of Shandong (China), University of Sydney (Australia), and Rutgers University. In Spring 2025 he will be a Katz Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Ferziger is a past recipient of Bar-Ilan’s “Outstanding Lecturer” prize and the author or editor of eight books and over sixty academic articles. His monograph, Exclusion and Hierarchy, was published by Penn Press (2005). His work Beyond Sectarianism (Wayne State University Press, 2015) won the National Jewish Book Award. His new book, Agents of Change: American Jews and Israeli Judaism, will be published by NYU Press in 2025.