The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) will host an important community program, “Gaza, the IDF Code of Ethics, and the Morality of War,” featuring Dr. Moshe Halbertal in conversation with Chancellor Arnold M. Eisen on the complicated ethical challenges faced by Israel in this summer’s war in Gaza. The discussion will explore such questions as: What moral and legal principles should guide an army in a complex confrontation that involves a tragic loss of civilian life and other major collateral damage? What values has the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) committed itself to uphold in times of war? How do we arrive at an honest account of what actually happened in Gaza, in light of competing moral considerations and the realities that Israel faced? In the wake of the Gaza war, what lessons can Israel learn, and how should Israel proceed?
Moshe Halbertal is Gruss Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, professor of Jewish Thought and Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In 2000, he was asked by the IDF to join a group of philosophers, lawyers, and generals for the purpose of drafting the army’s ethics code. Since then, he has been deeply involved in the analysis of the moral issues that Israel faces in its war on terrorism. Among his books are Idolatry (coauthored with Avishai Margalit), People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority, and On Sacrifice. His latest book, Maimonides: Life and Thought, was published in 2013.
Arnold M. Eisen, one of the world’s foremost authorities on American Judaism, is the seventh chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Since taking office in 2007, Chancellor Eisen has transformed the education of religious, pedagogical, professional, and lay leaders for Conservative Judaism and the vital religious center of North American Jewry, and enhanced JTS’s reputation and global reach. The chancellor has enriched JTS’s commitment to Israel and Israel education, and solidified JTS’s Israel programs in Jerusalem