Ron's World

Tag: bar-ilan university

  • Ron Jacobsohn Attends an Emergency Session of the Ambassadors Forum on Ukraine

    Ron Jacobsohn Attends an Emergency Session of the Ambassadors Forum on Ukraine

    The current situation in the Ukraine took centre stage as diplomats from over 30 countries came to have coffee and strategize about the future of the country, as The 10th Bar Ilan Ambassadors Forum convened.
    It’s hard to determine if the winning formula for the crisis in the Ukraine is going to come out of this forum, but what is certain is getting representatives from so many countries into one room is truly a step in the right direction.

     

  • Ron Jacobsohn Investigates the Complex Jewish-Turkish Heritage

    Ron Jacobsohn Investigates the Complex Jewish-Turkish Heritage

    The over 500-years of history of the Jews in Turkey is brought to live at Bar Ilan University’s conference – The Jews of turkey: identity and Heritage.
    As the pages if history were visited at the conference a clear message arose from all speakers: the current strain in the relationship between the Turks and the Jews should be taken with a grain of salt as a new page of good relations between the two is just around the corner.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    The over 500-years of history of the Jews in Turkey is brought to live at Bar Ilan University’s conference – The Jews of Turkey: Identity and Heritage

    The perseverance of the Jewish community in Turkey over hundreds of years is definitely something worth taking a look at, says Dr. Efrat Aviv of the BESA Institute at Bar Ilan University, who helped organize this conference.

    Dr. Efrat Aviv, Organizer of the Conference:
    The Jewish community in Turkey and even in the Ottoman empire was a very successful one, they had their Golden Age and it’s true, it happens, it still happens but there’s a problem ever since the state of Israel was established, I mean ever since the relations between the government or their attitude towards the Jewish community is much controlled or dictated by the relations between the Israeli state and the Turkish state. The Jews of Turkey come or maybe fall in between both governments and we can see that very clearly in what is going on these days. It’s one of the largest Jewish communities under Muslim rule and it’s a vivid community that flourishes and still has roots, strong roots in Turkey, and how all this sheds a light towards what happened in the past; how they wereused to be treated in Ottoman era and how they are treated these days and I think it’s really an interesting, intriguing topic for the Israeli society as well.

    MK Shimon Ohayon, of the Ha’Likud-Beytinu party, explains why the Jewish community in Turkey is so crucial to the Jewish History as a whole.

    MK Shimon Ohayon, Chairman of Dahan Center, Bar-Ilan University:
    We had in this area over three hundred thousand Jewish people, now we haveonly 27 thousand so of course if you compare this situation totally has been changed and we are aware also of this situation because of the political situation. We do worry about what’s going and we do believe and we hope that our historywould have some kind of influence, the contribution, the good relationship between Israel, the Jewish people and the Turkish people, and the hospitality of the Ottoman empire maybe will come back and we’ll be able to see a good relationship between Israel and Turkey.

    Abdel-Raouf Arnaout who is the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the Turkish Anadolu News Agency explains that although the relationship between Turkey and Israel is still very strained on government level it didn’t really hurt the business relationship between the two countries. Soundbite – Abdel-Raouf Arnaout, Jerusalem Bureau Chief, The Anadolu AgencyIsraeli relations and you know, after the establishment of Israel, Turkey was the first Muslim country who recognized Israel and this was another importantthing but then after, you know, after the flotilla crisis you know, when ninepeople has been killed by the forces of the Israelis, for the Turkey it was dramatic, you know, the perception Israel as the change it immensely, not Anti-Semitic but on the other rate the people are really upset because the Turkey and Israeli relations during the time after the flotilla 30% rate of the commercial volume increased and almost 4 billion dollars, in comparison these kind of trade
    Turkey doesn’t even have with neighboring Syria or Iraq. So you can imagine that this kind of good commercial relations is very important so now the building of the reconciliation relations is very crucial and we are waiting for Israel withthat stuff.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    As the pages if history were visited at the conference a clear message arose from all speakers: the current strain in the relationship between the Turks and the Jews should be taken with a grain of salt as a new page of good relations between the two is just around the corner.
    For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn at Bar Ilan University.

     

  • Ron Jacobsohn Talks to Experts about Lieberman’s Political Future

    Ron Jacosohn – JN Correspondent: Avigdor Lieberman’s acquittal from any wrong doing, after almost 17-years of various allegations and investigations, has put the Israeli political landscape in spin mode as everyone is trying to figure out what will be Lieberman’s next political move. We’ve asked some of our trusted experts to try and put some sense of all the rumors.

    Dr. Haim Shein, who teaches Political Philosophy and is a regular contributor to the opinions section at Israel Hayom claims that Lieberman has come out a out of this whole affair a hero, in the eyes of the public.

    Dr. Haim Shein, Israel Hayom: People feel that after 17 years of investigation, if he was acquitted at the court, people feel that the Israeli ministry of justice and the police ran after him and therefore many Israelis think that he was a kind of hero, because after 17 years he became clean.
    Until now, the disagreement was between the minister Naftali Bennett and Tzipi Livni, who is negotiating with the Palestinians. Now I feel that the fight will be between Avigdor Lieberman and Tzipi Livni, and I think that Avigdor Lieberman is a better warrior than anybody else. Avigdor Lieberman understands that to be the Israeli Prime Minister it’s, the only way to do it through the Likud, that one way or another way I’m sure that he will join the Likud and there will be a combat about the leadership of the Likud party.
    Dr. Jonathan Rynhold, of the Begin-Sadat Center at Bar Ilan University, has no doubt that Lieberman’s end game is becoming the Prime Minister of Israel.
    Dr. Jonathan Rynhold – Bar Ilan University: In the short term, The Foreign minister would be weaker, he is part of a larger party, the Likud, where he doesn’t have that many supporters, the public are not particularly excited by him, the broader public and Netanyahu is far and away the most popular leader in Israel, there’s no to challenge him to be prime Minister.
    However, moving forward, a very smart politician like Avigdor Lieberman will seek to build up his support, because in the long run there’s no doubt that his objective is to be Prime Minister. Well, in order to have a chance of being Prime Minister he would need to move from within the confines of his party, Yisrael Beiteinu, Yisrael Beitein’s base in mainly Israelis of Russian extraction or ideologically secular right-wingers, and that is not a big enough base to become the largest party and to become Prime Minister of Israel, to form a coalition, so to do that he may well have to, at some stage, try and become head of the Likud and he would have to put the emphasis on his pragmatism in order to gain some support or at least legitimacy from the center of the Israeli political spectrum. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for him to form a government.
    Professor Yossi Shain, who teaches International Affairs at Georgetown University, explains that Lieberman is just one example of the changing landscape of how politicians are treated by modern society.
    Prof. Yossi Shain – Georgetown University: The politicians are under scrutiny, the very essence of politics is being sort of like, criminalized in some ways and so there are lots of issues here pertaining to the legality of the system and the questions of ethics; how much ethics in politics or suspicion can be brought to bear on the life of a politician. It’s part and parcel of the discussion on morality in society which deviates from general issues to the most, to the most I would call ‘common’, lowest common denominator, it’s about debunking the political system. And it’s about, of course, the scrutiny, as you said, of politicians by everybody including the media which is in what in India they call it ‘Got you Media’, sort of like let’s say how will get whom, this is like who will get the next scandal, who will get the next corruption issues and of course when you have the Foreign Minister of Israel, Prime Minister of Israel and others, people looking, they say wow the whole system is corrupt, but that’s not the case. The case is that we needs checks and balances and sometimes we deviate from the checks and balances and the Attorney general himself indicated when we start to look or corruption in places it doesn’t exist, we basically injured the system rather than enhancing it and the whole system of watchdogs is creating this kind of like an atmosphere when many people who want to go to public services say why do I need this, if immediately kind of like I’m going to be debunked, so one has to think very carefully where Israel is going, like many other countries in the world, with this culture that is now pervading in society.
    Ron Jacosohn – JN Correspondent: So it seems that Lieberman is not making any hasty decisions when it comes to his political future and, as of now, all options are still on the table.
    For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn in Tel-Aviv.

     

  • Ron Jacobsohn Discovers the Hidden Gems of the Cairo Genizah

    Ron Jacobsohn Discovers the Hidden Gems of the Cairo Genizah

    Ron Jacobsohn Discovers the Hidden Gems of the Cairo Genizah

    The Cairo Genizah was always considered one of the most fascinating documents about Jewish life in the middle ages. The problem with it has been that the different pieces of the documents, which were found there, were scattered around the world in different archives. Thanks to modern technology this is finally going to change. And wow that the Cairo project is as good as completed, the people of the Genizah Project are looking to license their technology to other similar projects around the world, where the Israeli innovation is considered no less than groundbreaking.