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Two Scholars In Residence in JanuaryBack By Popular Demand!
Friday Shabbat Services, Jan. 13th, 2012, 7:30 pm & Saturday Shabbat Services, Jan. 14th, 2012, 9:30 am The Shoah in German History & Memory; How have German scholars and ordinary citizens dealt with the Holocaust? Berlin; The New Capital of Europe & the Center of the Renaissance of Jewish Life in Germany Thorsten Wagner is a German historian whose grandfather was a Nazi supporter and soldier. Wagner, a non-Jew, has devoted his adult life to studying Jewish Germany, the Holocaust and the Danish rescue of Jews during World War II. Since 2001, he has been a docent of the Jewish Museum of Berlin and a fellow with the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide studies. Temple Beth El recognizes the Arthur I Meyer Jewish Academy
Please join us for a festive Shabbat service conducted by our young people. Friday, January 20, 2012 6:00 p.m. Shabbat Dinner 7:30 p.m. Service Dinner Reservations Required Adults: $15 Children: $10 Call the Temple Office : (561) 833-0339 also hear Col. Sharvit-Baruch during Shabbat Services 9:30 a.m. • January 21, 2012 Col. Pnina Sharvit Baruch retired in 2009 from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with the rank of Colonel after having served as the Head of the International Law Department since 2003 and after twenty years as an officer. In that capacity she advised the IDF, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Justice on legal aspects relating to the laws of war, targeting terrorists, operational law in armed conflicts, in counterterrorism operations, and the laws of occupation. She also served as legal advisor to the Israeli negotiation teams of the peace negotiations during the years 1993 - 2009. . |
Meet Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, Sisterhood's 2012 Scholar-in-Residence
For five weeks, Israelis have maintained a wall of public support for what they saw as a defensive war in Gaza, denouncing overt criticism as rank unpatriotism during a time of national crisis.
Yet the shocking images of suffering broadcast from inside the Palestinian territory - including the deaths of hundreds of children - have led some people to start questioning whether the army went too far.
For a country that prides itself on having an armed service that upholds high moral standards, the criticisms have been jarring and spurred a debate as to how Israel's image abroad can be repaired.
Some of this backlash has now engulfed Colonel Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, a military lawyer heading the office responsible for giving the legal go ahead when the Israeli army selected its targets.
Her office controversially authorised the bombing of a graduation ceremony for Palestinian policemen on the first day of the war, killing about 40.
The international law department, which she headed, is also reported to have relaxed the rules of engagement - allowing the use of white phosphorus, cluster bombs and anti-personnel mines - which is thought to have increased the number of civilian casualties.
Now other academics at the university have attacked the decision to give her the job and a leading newspaper has said it should be rescinded.
"One of the important reasons not to appoint Sharvit-Baruch to the law faculty is her sanctioning of the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians," said an editorial in Ha'aretz.
Professor Chaim Gans, a law professor at Tel Aviv University lodged what he called, "a moral protest against a state of affairs where somebody who authorised these actions is teaching the law of war."
Anat Maor, a lecturer of philosophy at the university, who also opposed the appointment, said she was not against Col Sharvit-Baruch's views, but her actions.
"It is her deeds, the fact that she was a senior participant in planning a criminal attack on civilians," she said.
"I can't imagine such a person teaching international law in my university. This brings Israeli academia to one of its lowest points ever."
Hanoch Dagan, the dean of the law school, responded by insisting that there had to be a number of different voices represented on campus.
"Our policy has attracted criticism," he wrote in a newspaper article. "For some, we are too liberal. For others we are insufficiently liberal."
Yet the shocking images of suffering broadcast from inside the Palestinian territory - including the deaths of hundreds of children - have led some people to start questioning whether the army went too far.
For a country that prides itself on having an armed service that upholds high moral standards, the criticisms have been jarring and spurred a debate as to how Israel's image abroad can be repaired.
Some of this backlash has now engulfed Colonel Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, a military lawyer heading the office responsible for giving the legal go ahead when the Israeli army selected its targets.
Her office controversially authorised the bombing of a graduation ceremony for Palestinian policemen on the first day of the war, killing about 40.
The international law department, which she headed, is also reported to have relaxed the rules of engagement - allowing the use of white phosphorus, cluster bombs and anti-personnel mines - which is thought to have increased the number of civilian casualties.
Now other academics at the university have attacked the decision to give her the job and a leading newspaper has said it should be rescinded.
"One of the important reasons not to appoint Sharvit-Baruch to the law faculty is her sanctioning of the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians," said an editorial in Ha'aretz.
Professor Chaim Gans, a law professor at Tel Aviv University lodged what he called, "a moral protest against a state of affairs where somebody who authorised these actions is teaching the law of war."
Anat Maor, a lecturer of philosophy at the university, who also opposed the appointment, said she was not against Col Sharvit-Baruch's views, but her actions.
"It is her deeds, the fact that she was a senior participant in planning a criminal attack on civilians," she said.
"I can't imagine such a person teaching international law in my university. This brings Israeli academia to one of its lowest points ever."
Hanoch Dagan, the dean of the law school, responded by insisting that there had to be a number of different voices represented on campus.
"Our policy has attracted criticism," he wrote in a newspaper article. "For some, we are too liberal. For others we are insufficiently liberal."
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2010 Scholars-in-Residence
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