What Does God Ask Of Us At This Time?

“It has been told to you, human being, what is good, and what God demands of you: Only doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with your God” Micah 6/8

הגיד לך אדם מה טוב ומה ה’ דורש ממך כי אם עשות משפט ואהבת חסד והצנע לכת עם אלהיך

Conference Highlights

About the Conference

Sunday, March 30, 2025
Rosh Chodesh Nisan

Co-sponsored by the Baruch College Wasserman Jewish Studies Center
B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue
257 West 88th Street, New York, NY

The last two years have challenged our American Jewish communities with pressing questions about democracy and justice both here and in Israel. In this conference we will explore our responsibility in the present moment as observant Jews in North America.

Recent events have raised questions about Jewish power, Messianism, the occupation, U.S. support for Israel and the conduct of war. We watch in dismay as our Orthodox and observant communities have avoided these discussions and remained indifferent to the staggering Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza and the ongoing occupation of 5 million people.

This conference will explore our Jewish tradition’s values and teachings about peace, equality, dignity, co-existence and self-determination for Israelis, Palestinians and all people.

Rabbi Yosef Blau
Opening Address

Morning Plenary

Morning Plenary Video

Dean Jessica Lang - Welcome

Rabbi Yosef Blau - Video Address

Esther Sperber - Opening Remarks

Am Segula and B’Tzelem Elokim – Observant Jewish Identities in an Unjust World

This session will focus on the existing tensions between two Jewish principles, the particularist idea of Jewish chosen-ness and the universalist notion that all of humanity is created in the divine image. What obligations flow from the principle of B’Tzelem Elokim (the idea that all human beings are created in the image of God)? Does Am Segula (the idea of the Chosen People) imply entitlement or obligation? How have the Jewish people navigated chosen-ness in the diaspora and in the State of Israel? How does this affect others, especially Palestinians? What should be the religious response to violence by Jews and have we discharged that duty?

Ruth Messinger - How Does Change Happen?

Afternoon Plenary

Afternoon Plenary Video

Nationalism, Religion, and Social Democracy - Religious Identity in Relation to Israel

Israel was founded as a national homeland for the Jewish people. Is support of Israel a part of Jewish religious identity? Is commitment to democratic values a part of one’s religious identity, or separate from it? What are the risks of making religious identity contingent on a particular national-political reality? What are the dangers of attributing religious significance to a state and its institutions? In light of recent events, is it time for a course correction? 

Rachel Landsberg - Closing Remarks

Breakout Sessions

Perspectives on Navigating the Israel Identities in Orthodox Communities

“No Other Land” Film Clip and Conversation

1. “No Other Land” Film Clip and Conversation

Hanin Majadli, Mikhael Manekin, Dr. Michelle Friedman - moderator
(Sanctuary)

Join us for a 20-minute screening of a powerful clip from the Oscar-winning film No Other Land. Following the screening, a Palestinian Israeli journalist and a Jewish Israeli anti-occupation activist will share their personal reflections on the film's themes. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions about and share their reactions to the movie.

2. Halachic and Hashkafic Perspectives on Navigating the Israel Identities in Orthodox Communities

Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter, Arnold Franklin - moderator
(Reception Room - Ground Floor)

In today’s polarized climate, Orthodox kehillot are struggling with fundamental questions about ideological diversity, communal boundaries, and the integration of differing perspectives on Israel within our batei midrash and tefillah spaces. How do we uphold communal achdut while addressing deep-seated disagreements, including over what is just? We will explore halachic and hashkafic sources that can help guide our communities through these tensions, using Tefillah L'Shlom HaMedina as a case study.

3. “Now, more than ever, it is our duty to stand with Israel!” Or is it?

Chana Borow, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Avraham Oriah Kelman, Rabbi Shuli Passow - moderator
(Middle Room - Ground Floor)

As observant Jews, when is it our duty to speak out against Israel's actions? When should we stand with Israel unequivocally? In the face of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, what are the costs of each of these choices? Activists from the religious world talk about choice points in organizing; the challenges of putting values into action; and the religious, moral, and political dimensions of answering these questions–especially since October 7.

4. Middle East Sholem-Sallam: Yiddish and Arabic Political Legacies

Adi Mahalel, Miriam Udel, Sahar Bostock
(Chapel - Ground Floor)

The flourishing of Modern Hebrew in Israel is a miracle—but one that came at a cost. To promote Hebrew, languages like Yiddish and Arabic were suppressed, sometimes violently. This panel explores the political value of diasporic Jewish languages and the dual role of Arabic as both a language of self and a bridge to a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians.

5. On the Ethics and Exercise of Jewish Power: Reading Leibowitz's 'After Kibiyeh' Seventy Years Later

Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, Tirza Leibowitz, David Myers, Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller
(Frankel Hall - 88th Street Lower Level)

This session will examine the ongoing relevance of an essay by the powerful and iconoclastic Israeli Jewish scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz called "After Kibiyeh." This essay discusses a massacre of residents of the Palestinian village of Kibiyeh in 1953 during a reprisal raid by the IDF that followed a terrorist attack on a Jewish family. Leibowitz's concern about the ascription of holiness to acts of state, including that of the army, remains keenly relevant—and compels us to reflect on the exercise of power by Jews in Israel today.

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