The Politics of Torah: The Jewish Political Tradition and the Founding of Agudat Israel [Paperback]

Alan L. Mittleman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (October 10, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791430782
• ISBN-13: 978-0791430781
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,910,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alan Mittleman is director of the the Tikvah Institute for Jewish Thought, as well as professor of Jewish Philosophy at The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. As director of the Tikvah Institute, he develops programs and courses that promote constructive Jewish philosophy.

Dr. Mittleman is the author of five books: Between Kant and Kabbalah (SUNY Press, 1990), The Politics of Torah (SUNY Press, 1996), The Scepter Shall Not Depart From Judah (Lexington Books, 2000) Hope in a Democratic Age (Oxford University Press, 2009) and a Short History of Jewish Ethics (Wiley-Blackwell). He is also the editor of Uneasy Allies: Evangelical and Jewish Relations (Lexington Books, 2007), Jewish Polity and American Civil Society (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), Jews and the American Public Square (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), and Religion as a Public Good (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). His many articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in such journals as Harvard Theological Review, Modern Judaism, the Jewish Political Studies Review, the Journal of Religion, and First Things. He is a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism. Dr. Mittleman's current project is a book on human nature in Jewish thought.

From 2000 to 2004, Dr. Mittleman served as director of the major research project "Jews and the American Public Square," which was initiated by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Under his direction, the project produced two national surveys of Jewish attitudes on public affairs, four volumes comprising forty scholarly essays, and fifteen conferences around the United States. He is the recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship and served as guest research professor at the University of Cologne (1994 and 1996). He has lectured widely in Germany in the course of more than fifty trips to that country. Dr. Mittleman also received a Harry Starr Fellowship in Modern Jewish History from Harvard University's Center for Jewish Studies (1997).

Dr. Mittleman has been an active participant in interfaith dialogue throughout his career and has been interviewed by Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, and USA Today, among other periodicals, and has appeared on Fox News. He was also part of a leadership delegation that met with Pope John Paul II and has lectured at the Gregorian University in Rome. During the bicentennial of the US Constitution, Dr. Mittleman spoke on the meaning of religious liberty for American Jews in the chambers of the US Senate. He served on the Advisory Board of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. In 2007, he was visiting professor of Religion at Princeton University.

Dr. Mittleman is an enthusiastic fly fisherman. He lives near a trout stream where he tries to fish 52 weeks of the year.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars In The Beginning., April 15, 2007

By 

Yaakov (James) Mosher (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Politics of Torah: The Jewish Political Tradition and the Founding of Agudat Israel (Paperback)

A book that is glatt kosher for Orthodox Jewish readers. Alan L. Mittleman, although a college professor, is very respectful of the religious in this fine scholarly work. He delves into events and trends at the beginning of the 20th century, examining causes from within (the altering of communal associations by Reform and other non-Orthodox Jews) and without (increasing intrusions by secular state governments) the Jewish community. Mittleman's research centers on Germany although heroes of the Lithuanian yeshiva world such as Rav Chaim Brisker and Rav Eliezer Telzer get brief mention. The words about "disenchantment" should be studied at length and meditated on by all people considering mixing religion and politics.
For a future work, Prof. Mittleman might want to examine how Agudas Israel could do more for Judaism in the Land of Israel by getting out of coalition politics. Currently, the Agudah joins itself to a block of "religious" parties whose major interest seems to be funneling money to their schools via government taxation. This is a major source of tension in the Holy Land since the Israeli government, like those of other countries, overtaxes its citizens. The final pages of "The Politics of Torah" leaves us with the average Agudah member largely turning his back on secular politics (wisely looking to family and synagogue to realize our most important values) and Israelis looking for something substantive to fill the post-Zionist void. The next logical and glorious step would be for Agudas Israel the organization to return to its non-coercive roots and withdraw from the pollution of statecraft (taking the high road paved by great institutions such as the Brisk Yeshiva in refusing government subsidies). That type of mesiras nefesh (self-sacrifice) could start a revolution of the spirit in Israel.