Ambassador Oren and MK Calderon Talk Politics, Education, and Personal Experience with Students: A Day in the Life at Shalem
A roundtable discussion with a member of Knesset in the morning, and a lecture with the former Israeli ambassador to the United States at night. Add in four hours dedicated to an original community-service project and a few more spent reading up on Greek philosophy, rabbinic literature, and probabilistic thinking, and you have, if not exactly a typical day at Shalem, then at least an emblematic one. “Every week, in the context of our Shalem Forum series, we invite leading figures from various fields and across the political-religious spectrum to converse with our students about Jewish identity, Israeli culture and society, and issues relating to the state’s security, legal, and economic challenges,” explains Dr. Stephen Hazan Arnoff, director of the Office for Culture, Community, and Society. “The idea is for the skills they’re gaining in the classroom to find expression in an open—and sometimes eye-opening—exchange.” These encounters, Hazan Arnoff believes, will form the blueprint for the way in which Israel’s future leaders address the country’s most pressing problems: Serious, respectful conversations, motivated by a genuine desire to learn and to challenge the common wisdom.
MK Ruth Calderon couldn’t agree more with this approach. In a wide-ranging discussion that covered her route from a Tel-Aviv upbringing to the study of the classics at Oxford, the founding of Alma, the “secular yeshiva,” and her eventual entrance into politics, MK Calderon encouraged students to connect ideas with impact on the world. Comparing the Knesset to a beit midrash, in which members debate the ideal shape of society as opposed to the intricacies of classical Jewish texts, she explained how critical she believes her own liberal-arts background is to her ability to make a meaningful contribution. When there are real-world implications for the discussions and debates, she insisted, the ability to transition from the theoretical into the practical realm is essential. And to do that, we need to be able to see the big picture, and to draw from range of different fields of knowledge.
Former Ambassador Michael Oren also expressed a debt to the liberal arts—in particular, to his chosen subject of history—for his success in the delicate, demanding world of diplomacy. Ambassador Oren is author of the best-selling work Six Days of War, considered one of the definitive volumes on the subject of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and researched and written while he was a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, the college’s intellectual predecessor. He is also author of Power, Faith, and Fantasy, a tour-de-force on America’s centuries-old yet largely unknown involvement in the Middle East. His understanding of the roots and complexities of many of the problems faced by the region today, he explained, was important to his role as effective spokesperson for the Israeli government. Therefore, he encouraged Shalem’s students to view their engagement with the ideas at the heart of Israel’s founding as a crucial part of their future ability to ensure the survival of a vibrant Jewish and democratic state.
Ambassador Oren and MK Calderon numbered among a range of eminent Israeli and American-Jewish voices to lead discussions in the context of Shalem Forum this past year. Guests have included the renowned Middle East commentator Ehud Yaari and national-security expert Dan Schueftan; the Israeli feminist pioneer and educator Alice Shalvi; and the author and sought-after speaker Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo, part of a series of lectures representing the spectrum of modern Jewish thought and practice. The final guest of the year was Jeffrey Swartz, former president and CEO of the footwear company Timberland and leader in the world of corporate social-responsibility, who spoke at Shalem this week on the subject, “Vision, Citizenship, and Responsibility: The Particular Demands of Israeli Leaders.”
