Lev Tahor

2016

Jewish Film and New Media , 2018

Much has been written about the theological, cultural, and social basis of the Zionist movement and its historical development. However, so little has been said about the Hasidic leaders active in Palestine between the two world wars and their positive approaches to Zionism. My paper will look at this untouched epoch by focusing on one figure: the Admor ha-Tsayar (painter), Avraham Yaakov Shapira (1886–1962) of the Drohobych dynasty. This will be the first academic study to examine his book of sermons, Netivot Shalom, and I will show how he coherently used the Hasidic homiletical style, textual and oral traditions to enhance the commitment to settling Zion and to a positive approach to the people of Israel, including the secular settlers. Shapira was born in Sadigura to his father, the Rebbe R. Chaim Meir Yechiel, and his mother, Batsheva, the daughter of the Rebbe R. Yitzchak of Bahush. He moved with his father later to Drohobych, then to Vienna, and finally arrived in Palestine in 1922. Uncommon for a Hasidic rebbe, at the age of 63, after the loss of his wife, and as a therapeutic endeavour, he devoted himself to painting. In the context of the well-known portrayal of the violent controversy between Tzans and Sadigura, it is also important to stress both the father’s and the son’s consistent writing about the importance of love, peace, and unity among the people of Israel. Telling of his approach is the fact that R. Avrham Yitzhak ha-Cohen Kook wrote an abbreviation for "Netivot Shalom". Kook praised the author’s use of his ancestor’s lore, R. Yisrael of Rozhin and the Rebbe of Sadigura, filled with his love for holiness, Zion, and the people of Israel (klal Yisrael). Thus, his book is a treasure for exploring an untouched cultural chapter in the history of Hasidism in Zion. The analysis will shed new light on the multifaceted response of 20th century Hasidic leaders to contemporary controversies towards Zionism and modernity in the evolving community in Israel, between the two world wars.

972mag, 2018

The untold story of Jewish anti-Zionists in Israel Joshua Leifer April 8, 2018 For nearly as long as Palestinians have resisted their displacement, small groups of Jews have joined them. Ran Greenstein’s ‘Zionism and Its Discontents’ brings to life the complex, often contradictory story of those Israelis who saw Palestinian and Jewish liberation as one and the same.

Segula, 2021

Shoppers on Tel Aviv’s fashionable Shenkin Street and high-tech workers on their way to the city’s Ramat Ha- ayal district might perhaps come across a bearded, black-hatted, and black-clad Hasid striding along, eyes downcast, accompanied by his young son, with his sidecurls, shaven head, and black, velvet skullcap. Such Hasidim are remnants of Tel Aviv’s forgotten past as the Hasidic center of the young State of Israel.

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Terrorism, 2014

2013