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Tag: Israel

“On the hierarchy of Jewish values, life is at the top”

A conversation with Jonathan Ornstein, Director of the Jewish Community Centre in Kraków, Poland. Interviewer: Katie Toth

October 18, 2023 - Jonathan Ornstein Katie Toth

A geopolitical balancing act

A new government has been sworn in in Israel under the re-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. How will the new Israeli government position itself with regard to the Russian war in Ukraine?

February 1, 2023 - Svenja Petersen

As Russia invades Ukraine, Israel walks a diplomatic tightrope

When Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24th, Israel found itself in a dilemma. Faced with western pressure to pick sides, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid stressed that they had to act to preserve their freedom of action in Syria. The Israeli Air Force has long carried out airstrikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets with the tacit permission of Russian forces stationed in the country.

July 14, 2022 - Sam Sokol

Rabbi Samuel Mohilever – toward ‘the gates of hope’

Over the last 15 years of his life, Rabbi Samuel Mohylewer worked and taught in Białystok. He argued that Jews should have their own homeland, like other nations awakening in the late 19th century. He wanted the Jewish state to be established in Palestine as the fulfilment of prophecies and Jewish activism. Rabbi Mohylewer advocated secular knowledge, urged his people to learn foreign languages, and supported business, especially agricultural activity. Thus, along with rabbi Kalischer from Toruń, he is considered one of the patrons of religious Zionism. The building of the synagogue named after him still stands in Białystok today, although precious little reminds us of its onetime significance. Perhaps one day soon the city will begin its plans to restore the site to central importance in Białystok.

December 15, 2021 - Jarosław Kociszewski Philip Earl Steele

Menachem Begin – a Pole “born in Jerusalem”

Menachem Begin never practised law, though he graduated from the University of Warsaw's Law Department in 1935. However, the unyielding attitude he acquired in Poland never left him. He insisted that Jews must fight for their own state, and not wait for it, trusting others. His militancy aroused controversy and opposition even among activists politically close to him. And yet it was none other than Menachem Begin who went on to forge peace with Egypt in 1978, an accomplishment that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

December 14, 2021 - Jarosław Kociszewski Philip Earl Steele

Rabbi Tsevi Hirsch Kalischer from Toruń – Proactive Messianist

Everyone has heard of the great astronomer from Toruń - namely, Copernicus. However, another great man from Toruń, Rabbi Tsevi Hirsch Kalischer, is virtually forgotten even in the city where he lived and worked in the 19th century. Rabbi Kalischer wrote the work of 1862 "Derishat Tsiyon", which laid the religious foundation for the return of the Jews to Palestine. The way toward the fulfillment of this positive, messianic vision did not rest with awaiting a miracle, but with persistent work. This is why the outstanding rabbi from Toruń enjoys a central place in the history of contemporary Israel.

December 13, 2021 - Jarosław Kociszewski Philip Earl Steele

David Gordon from Ełk – one of the Three Greats of early Zionism

The construction of the railway in the middle of the 19th century was the beginning of revolutionary changes in Elk. It also enabled the development of the first Hebrew magazine in Europe, Ha-magid. One of its creators was David Gordon, a prominent journalist who made a great contribution to the development of the language of the future state of Israel. The publishing house at the Ełk synagogue gave birth to words which still describe the contemporary world.

December 10, 2021 - Jarosław Kociszewski Philip Earl Steele

Nahum Sokolow – “The world’s most important Jew”

Nahum Sokolow played knights in front of the synagogue in Wyszogród. He received a scholarship in Płock to develop his outstanding intelligence and would later go on to negotiate the return of the Jews to Palestine with the pope and the heads of the great powers of the beginning of the 20th century. He wrote thousands of articles and dozens of books and even invented the name Tel Aviv. However, he never stopped thinking and writing in Polish, and in his home the term 'płocczanin' (someone from Płock) was always uttered with a sense of pride.

December 6, 2021 - Jarosław Kociszewski Philip Earl Steele

There is a portal to Israel in Poland. The Jewish State was conceived on the Płonka River

David Ben-Gurion, one of the founders and the first prime minister of Israel, was born and grew up in Płońsk. Here, by the Płonka River, together with his friends, he was dreaming about the Jewish state.

November 10, 2021 - Jarosław Kociszewski Philip Earl Steele

A leaked phone call reveals the potential partnership Israel and Estonia could establish

The ‘start-up nation’ and ‘e-Estonia’ have much in common when it comes to digital innovation, cybersecurity and their identities.

June 18, 2021 - Daniel Frishtik

Israel: The last Ottoman state

The modern Israeli state is deeply rooted in both Central Europe and Ottoman Palestine. It is a place where Central Europe’s dominant ideology of ethnolinguistic nationalism meets the post-Ottoman ideology of ethno-confessional nationalism.

June 2, 2021 - Tomasz Kamusella

Iran is the biggest loser in Azerbaijan’s culture war

The recent war between two of Iran’s northern neighbours has left the Islamic Republic in a problematic position. If the current status quo remains, Azerbaijan will be able to exercise an increasing influence across the border inside Iran.

December 16, 2020 - Ali Mozaffari James Barry

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