Tikvah Yeshiva Program For Men – Now Accepting Applications
Tikvah for bnei Torah is back for a third year, which we hope will constitute a chazakah. A bein ha-zemanim residence program by application, it is designed for the student with serious yeshiva background who desires the stimulation of good company, masterful presentations by celebrated experts, and exposure to new ideas in the realms of Torah hashkafah and its practical application to public policy.
While the nation struggles to make sense out of an election season more bizarre than any live American has seen, we recognize that this campaign is fraught with dangers that impact our community in particular. The program topic, “Right, Left and the Jews: The Torah Community and the Future of American Politics” will provide participants with an opportunity to explore the background of different political positions with sophistication. More importantly, it will suggest ways for the ben Torah to get involved in the political system when he leaves the beis medrash for the working world.
Our Torah luminary will be Rav Ahron Lopiansky, shlit”a, Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington, and well-known both here and in Israel as a serious thinker and baal machshavah.
We hope to have an assortment of yeshiva-grown community leaders on hand. Leading the group will be BMG’s R. Aaron Kotler, who not only manages an operation larger than some universities, but always thinks two steps ahead about the impact of anything on the Torah community.
Some of the political stars will include William Kristol, the acknowledged dean of American neo-conservatism, and right now very much in the cross-hairs of the alt.-right people upset with his integrity, and Princeton philosopher Robert George. While many of us throw up our hands in despair when we contemplate trying to explain Torah positions to outsiders far from our thinking, Dr. George as a religiously committed non-Jew never allowed himself that luxury. He became one of the most highly regarded explicators of the Judeo-Christian set of values to a nation of skeptics.
Bridging the two worlds will be Eric Cohen, Tikvah’s Executive Director. A consummate man of letters, master teacher and Modern Orthodox Jew, he will explore the different general political options and their impact on Jews as well as general society, with a special emphasis on conservative thought. He will certainly keep bright yeshiva students on their toes.
Oh, yes. Yours truly will be on hand giving a hard time to Eric, as well as enjoying late night craft beer, assuming some is available in Manhattan.
Manhattan? No Glen Cove this year. Because of the extremely late Av this year, the program will have to be truncated to suit the needs of talmidim trying to maximize their bein ha-zemanin activities and Tikvah’s anchoring to the secular calendar. The program will begin late Monday after Tisha B’Av, and run till Thurs. evening.You can read more about the program on our website. If you are interested, please submit an application. If you are not, please consider thinking about friends and relatives who might enjoy and benefit from this program and alert them to it.
Suggested edit for the post: “it is designed for the student with serious yeshiva background who desires the stimulation of good company, masterful presentations by celebrated right-wing conservative experts, and exposure to new right-wing conservative ideas in the realms of Torah hashkafah and its practical application to public policy
[YA – No edit needed. And only half true. The political ideas presented by Tikvah are sponsored by an organization that openly and proudly espouses conservative values.(Not particularly right-wing ones; they are closer to what a century ago would have been called liberal) They don’t hide this. The presenters, as well as the material they present, are all over the spectrum. Students read from both sides of the aisle. In the case of the Orthodox community, it is less of an uphill battle to get them to more fully understand conservative values, because most bnei Torah today lean in that direction without any exposure to Edmund Burke. (But Burke helps them “get it” more intensely. As far as the Torah hashkafah – no way! Just general exposure to ideas about tzibbur, about responsibility, about kiddush Hashem, and about relating to non-Jews and the non-Jewish world. Nothing “right-wing conservative” about that. ]
I like the way that you refer to William Kristol as “the acknowledged dean of American neo-conservatism, and right now very much in the cross-hairs of the alt.-right people upset with his integrity” As a once avid reader of The Weekly Standard, I am no great fan of the man who bears at least some responsibility for the Iraq War and the political rise of Sarah Palin. However on your above point I will agree. We should all have such integrity of principles #NeverTrump.