Inclusiveness as a Religious Value: Sephardic Rabbinic Response to a Major Challenge of Modernity

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Professor Zvi Zohar

Discord and schism based on the perceived need for communal uniformity have been hallmarks of Jewish life in Europe and North America in recent centuries. However, great Sephardic rabbis in these times regarded inclusiveness as one of the greatest values that should guide their decision making and leadership. In this lecture, Prof. Zohar presents and discusses this theme, as embodied in concrete decisions made by these rabbis.

Zvi Zohar is the Chauncey Stillman Professor of Sephardic Law and Ethics at Bar-Ilan University, where he teaches in the Faculties of Law and Jewish Studies and is editor in chief of the international Journal of Law, Religion and State. At Shalom Hartman Institute, he heads the Alan and Loraine Fischer Family Center for Halakha.

Professor Zohar’s main area of research is the history and development of halakha from the earliest times to present. He has a special interest in the halakhic writings of Sephardic and Mizrahi rabbis in modern times. Professor Zohar has published more than 100 books and scholarly articles in Hebrew, English, French, and German.

His most recent book in English, Rabbinic Creativity in the Modern Middle East, was published in 2013 by the Hartman Institute’s Kogod Library of Judaic Studies in conjunction with Bloomington Academic Press.

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