The Weisfeld Family Maayan Center for Jewish Philosophy, Ethics and Sustainability
The Jewish Conversation We Need
A new research institute promises to enrich scholarship on the Jewish philosophical and ethical contribution to the universal challenges of today: climate, sustainability, and technology.
A Philosophical Defense
For someone who wants to know Judaism’s position on environmentalism, says Prof. Hanoch Ben-Pazi of the Department of Jewish Philosophy, “it’s not as simple as looking up the answers in Maimonides, unfortunately. Today, the challenges our society faces are more perplexing than ever, but there’s no definitive guide. It’s up to us to begin the conversation between Jewish thought and sustainability.”
Fortunately, it’s a conversation that the Weisfeld Family Maayan Center for Jewish Philosophy, Ethics and Sustainability, an inter-faculty project directed by Ben-Pazi and established this past year, has already begun. By articulating Jewish responses to and ethics for issues of climate change, Maayan’s six inaugural fellows—three of whom, notes Ben-Pazi, are also environmental activists—are creating not only new models for thinking, but also for acting Jewishly to advance the solutions our communities, societies, and the entire planet needs. This marks the first time in Israeli academia that Jewish philosophy has been presented as a meaningful, even critical voice in the discourse about human flourishing in and responsibility for our planet in the digital age.
From left to right: Dr. Nadav S. Berman, fellow; Dr. Dan Baras, Bar-Ilan committee member and lecturer in the Department of Philosophy; Prof. Michal Ben Horin, Bar-Ilan committee member and associate professor in the Department of Comparative Literature; Dr. Ghila Amati, fellow: Dr. Jonathan Aikhenbaum, fellow; Einat Kramer, fellow; Prof. Amnon Albeck, rector of Bar-Ilan; Dr. Miriam Feldmann-Kaye, academic head of the Maayan Center; Prof. Hanoch Ben Pazi, founder and director of the Maayan Center; Dr. Mois Navon, fellow; Prof. Yehudah Mirsky, Maayan Center International Committee member.
Since their arrival in November, Maayan fellows have already begun publishing in academic journals and presenting at international conferences. The prestigious World Congress of Philosophy, for example, held this past August in Rome, even featured a special session with Ben-Pazi, four Maayan International Committee members, and Maayan Academic Head Dr. Miriam Feldmann-Kaye of the Department of Jewish Philosophy. Yet by far the most promising sign of Maayan’s long-term success, says Ben-Pazi, is the number of requests he’s received from other research entities, including the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth at the University of Chicago, that want to collaborate.
Looking forward, Maayan aims eventually to launch its own journal on the intersection of Jewish philosophy and sustainability, as well as develop courses for integration in Bar-Ilan degree programs. Critically, fellows’ research can also provide a platform for connection with Jewish intellectuals, scholars, and activists in North America and the broader Diaspora, thus advancing Bar-Ilan’s goal of strengthening Jewish peoplehood. “For millennia, Judaism has had something vital to say to the world,” says Ben-Pazi. “The Maayan Center is showing that in the 21st century—it still does.”
Maayan Center Fellows
Scholars, practitioners, and big, even daring thinkers: Maayan fellows are paving new academic pathways to impact for Jewish philosophy.
Dr. Mois Navon, an ordained rabbi and frequent lecturer on Jewish law, is founding engineer of Mobileye, where designed the chip family currently powering the autonomous vehicle revolution. Previously, Mois worked for IBM and NASA, as well as a number of Israeli startups. At the Maayan Center, he is studying AI personhood from the perspective of Jewish philosophy and the Jewish ethical perspective on autonomous weapons systems for policing.
Dr. Nadav S. Berman is co-director of an interdisciplinary, Israel Science Foundation-funded project on Jewish philosophy, law, and technology. Previously, he was a research fellow of the University of Haifa and held post-doctoral fellowships at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Yale University. At the Maayan Center, he is studying the fear of heaven as an environmental virtue and the codability of decision-making.
Einat Kramer is founder and director of Teva Ivri (“Jewish Nature”), an organization that encourages environmental and social action that is rooted in the Jewish tradition. She holds two master’s degrees in Jewish philosophy, one from the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies and the other from the Melton Center for Jewish Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. At the Maayan Center, she is researching the development of eco-theological ideas in 21st century Israel.
Dr. Jonathan Aikhenbaum is director of the Israel branch of Greenpeace, an organization that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to respond to global environmental problems and develop solutions. He holds a PhD from Bar-Ilan in political science and a Master’s from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in international relations and environmental politics. At the Maayan Center, he is studying Jewish institutions’ contributions to the environmental crisis.
Dr. Aharon Ariel Lavi is founding director of the Adamah’s incubator, Hakhel, which works to revitalize Jewish life by building communities of unaffiliated Jews around the world, and cofounder of half a dozen organizations in the fields of community building, environmentalism, education, and closing economic disparities. The holder of a doctoral degree in philosophy from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, he is researching Jewish communal building and interfaith diplomacy at the Maayan Center.
Dr. Ghila Amati earned her PhD in theology and religion from the University of Oxford. Currently she is a research fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), where she leads the project The Future of Interfaith Dialogue in the Wake of October 7th. At the Maayan Center, she is studying the intersection of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s philosophy and sustainability.
Maayan Center International Committee
Laurie Zoloth, Margaret E. Burton Professor, University of Chicago Divinity School
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, regents professor of history, Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism, and director of Jewish studies, Arizona State University
Yehudah Mirsky, professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University
Jan Jorrit Hasselaar, director of the Amsterdam Centre for Religion and Sustainable Development, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Andreas Gruenschloss, professor (emeritus) of religious studies, University of Göttingen
Steven Kepnes, professor of the study of world religions and of religion and Jewish studies, Colgate University
