Sublime

Jews who are deeply engaged in traditional language and practice, knowledgeable in their textual heritage, and open to the wider world have the power to alter the course of contemporary Jewish life. They may never be the majority in the Jewish community, but they have the potential to engage the majority of Jews in a deep way.

Yet Herzl’s vision of a sovereign state had meaning, increasing numbers of Israelis believed, only if those new Jews rooted themselves and their humanity in the tradition they had inherited. Herzl without Ahad Ha’am was merely political sovereignty—and that, Israelis began to sense, was simply not enough. Theodor Herzl. Ahad Ha’am. Two radically di

the pioneering movement and to attend Poalei Zion conferences. While living in New York, he met Paula Munweis and married her in 1917. They would have a son and two daughters.

what would it take to build the ideal learning community—one that fostered Empowered Jews in an environment where they didn’t need to compromise a core part of their identity? Fortunately,

Bialik was fascinated by the worlds of Western culture and the Jewish Enlightenment (the haskalah). A movement that began in the 1770s and lasted until the 1880s, the haskalah sought to reform the Jewish emphasis on tradition and collectivism and to import into Jewish society a more rational, analytical, intellectual, and individualistic way of lif