The Journey of the Jewish Nation:
Past, Present, and Future

Dr. Asael Abelman is a historian of modern Jewish history and a writer. He teaches Jewish history at Shalem College and at Herzog College, where he served as head of the history department. Dr. Abelman has written and published academic essays, as well as various articles that appeared in popular newspapers and journals in Israel. He is the editor of the book The Verdict of History – Selected Essays by Gertrude Himmelfarb (Shalem, 2018), and has authored 4 books.

Dr. Amichai Amit is a member of the faculty at the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, and a lecturer in the Lobel Core Curriculum at Shalem College. A researcher of the nature of values and moral justifications with a special interest in philosophy of education, philosophy of technology, and environmental ethics. Dr. Amit is the recipient of a master’s degree in philosophy from Tel Aviv University and a doctorate from the University of Chicago, where he taught until 2018.

Dr. Orit Avnery is a biblical scholar and a lecturer in the Lobel Core Curriculum and in the Department of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Shalem College.Dr. Avnery is a researcher at the Kogod Center for the Study of Jewish Thought and Contemporary Thought at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and is the director of the Hartman Institute’s “Reshit” Bible Project, which is intended for Bible teachers in public schools.

Dr. Avnery received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where she wrote her master’s thesis under the supervision of Prof. Yair Zakovitz. She wrote her doctorate in the Department of Bible Studies at Bar-Ilan University under the supervision of Prof. Ed Greenstein. Her research concerns intertextual literary analysis, using feminist theories for biblical research. Her book Liminal Women: Belonging and Otherness in the Books of Ruth and Esther was published by Keter and the Shalom Hartman Institute and deals with the issue of otherness and strangeness in the Scrolls of Esther and Ruth.

Micah Goodman was named by The Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews in 2017 and by the Israeli magazine Liberal as one of the 100 most influential Israelis in 2019.

Goodman is the author of six bestselling books. His first three—Moses’s Final Speech, The Dream of the Kuzari, and The Secrets of the Guide for the Perplexed—explore classical Jewish thought. His next three—The Wondering Jew, Catch 67, and The Attention Revolution—explore contemporary Israeli issues and ideas.

Goodman is one of the founders of Beit Prat – Israeli Midrasha. He is a research fellow at the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and, along with Efrat Shapira Rosenberg, hosts the popular Israeli podcast Mifleget Hamachshavot (“The Party of Thoughts”), produced by Beit Avi Chai.

Daniel Gordis is the author of 13 books and the widely read blog/podcast, “Israel from the Inside.” Daniel’s Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn was named the 2016 National Jewish Book Award’s “Book of the Year.” Daniel’s writing has appeared in magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, Azure, Commentary Magazine, TIME, The Atlantic and Foreign Affairs. His most recent book, Impossible Takes Longer: 75 Years After its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders’ Dreams?, was awarded Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Sacks Book Prize for 2023.

Dr. Ido Hevroni is the chair of the Lobel Core Curriculum and a senior lecturer at Shalem College, as well as its founding educational director. He is a scholar of rabbinic literature and teaches Talmud and Midrash, classical literature and theories of depth psychology. In addition to his book, Holy Beings: Wild Creatures in the Rabbinic Academy (Yedioth Ahronoth Books, 2016), he has authored numerous academic articles, and his writing has been featured in Azure, The Free Press, Mosaic, HaAretz, Ynet and Makor Rishon. Ido has lectured in many pre-army academies, as well as to soldiers on the front lines during Israel’s current war. Alongside his work as a teacher and a researcher, Ido is a metalsmith, and reconstructs ancient weapons in order to more fully understand ancient stories. Among his reconstructions are Odysseus’ sword, and the Menorah of the Hasmoneans, which was originally made of their spear heads. Since the outbreak of the October 7 war, Ido has been transforming remnants of battle into art, using spent shell casings, set in different types of wood from Judea.

Prof. Leon Kass is dean of the faculty at Shalem College, professor emeritus in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and scholar emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. A lifelong devotee of liberal education, Leon was trained in medicine and biochemistry before shifting from the practice of science to thinking about its human meaning, a career recognized by his appointment as chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2001 – 2005.

The author of 11 books on subjects ranging from the human condition and bioethics to biblical exegesis and liberal education, he taught at St. John’s College and Georgetown University before founding, at the University of Chicago, the Core Curriculum course “Human Being and Citizen” and the degree-granting major “Fundamentals: Issues and Texts,” which emphasizes big questions and great books. Leon was also involved from the earliest stages in developing the ideas and educational philosophy behind Shalem College, and served from 2016 – 2019 as distinguished visiting professor.

Noam Orion is a recent graduate of Shalem College, where he majored in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. He is currently working on a book on the Israeli Declaration of Independence alongside Dr. Daniel Polisar, and pursuing a Master’s degree in Hebrew University’s Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.

Orion has worked as an assistant editor for the BiShvil HaTikvah anthology, from the Ein Prat publishing house. In addition he was a research assistant at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, where he analyzed social and cultural trends among East Jerusalem’s Palestinian population, and an analyst for “Indicate”, a company which monitors trends and developments in the Arab sector. While at Shalem he was director for “Shiputz Shalem”, a Shalem College initiative that renovates the homes of disadvantaged families in Jerusalem, and previously worked as a counselor at a pre-military leadership academy for juvenile delinquents in Beit Yanai. After high school, Orion volunteered for a year as a mentor to at-risk youth in Yavne, a town in Israel’s socio-economic periphery, and was selected for the elite sniper course as part of his IDF service in the Nahal brigade. He was discharged after four years with the rank of officer, and now serves as a platoon commander with the rank of captain in the reserves. Between October 2023 and 2025, Orion served roughly 400 days of active combat duty.”

Daniel Polisar is a co-founder and a member of the leadership team of Shalem College. He served as president of the Shalem Center from 2002-2013, and from 2013 to 2017 was Provost of Shalem College. Since then he has been Executive Vice President and a member of the faculty, teaching courses on rhetoric, public speaking, and war-time leadership. Daniel has taught extensively on Zionist history, including online courses for Tikvah on the political legacy of Theodor Herzl and on the History of Zionism Since the 19th Century. In 2006, he was appointed by Israel’s Prime Minister as the founding chairman of the National Council to Commemorate the Legacy of Theodor Herzl. Following October 7th, Daniel worked with Shalem graduates and other reserve officers to establish an organization that has raised $40 million and provided essential gear to tens of thousands of IDF soldiers.

Russ Roberts became president of Shalem College in 2021. He is a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the host of EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious, a weekly podcast he began in 2006. His latest book is Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us (Portfolio/Penguin, 2022). Together with filmmaker John Papola, Russ has created two rap videos on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek which have more than 14 million views on YouTube, have been subtitled in 11 languages, and are used in high-school and college classrooms around the world.

Noa Sorek is a Shalem College graduate and a teaching assistant to Dr. Assaf Inbari at Shalem College, where she leads reading seminars on Zionist thought and modern Hebrew literature. In 2019, Noa received the Minister of Culture and Sport’s Award for Emerging Poets. Noa published her first, well-reviewed poetry book two years ago, and today she also teaches Hebrew poetry and creative writing to youth and adults in several institutions, including the National Library of Israel, Beit Avi Chai, and various pre-military programs. She is currently completing her M.A. in Hebrew Literature at Ben Gurion university and works as a content creator at Beit Avi Chai, a leading cultural center in Jerusalem.