Response ·
An October 7 Commission of Inquiry Would Help Israel. Electoral Reform Would Help Much More.
By Neil RogachevskyIsrael indeed suffers from a lack of accountability, the source of which is a chaotic system of unrepresentative government.
Neil Rogachevsky
Neil Rogachevsky teaches at the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and is the author of Israel's Declaration of Independence: The History and Political Theory of the Nation's Founding Moment, published in 2023 by Cambridge University Press.
Latest Content
Monthly Essay ·
What Would Ben-Gurion Do?
By Neil RogachevskyIsrael’s founding father argued for a conception of politics uniquely tailored to the Jewish state. Fifty years after his death, his country could use it more than ever.
Observation ·
The Best Books of 2023, Part I
By Elliott Abrams, Cynthia Ozick, Neil Rogachevsky, Dr. Ruth WisseFeaturing prime ministers, kidnappings, popes, silences, exiled shadows, portraits, intellectual origins, the best minds, and more.
Response ·
Israel’s Other Tyranny of the Minority
By Neil RogachevskyIsrael’s parliamentary system produces weak governments that are increasingly liable to capture by minority parties, who have every incentive to indulge their most radical plans.
Observation ·
The Best Books of 2022, Chosen by Mosaic Authors
By Elliott Abrams, Tamara Berens, Andrew Koss, Daniel Polisar, Neil Rogachevsky, Sarah Rindner, Jonathan SilverFeaturing wars, peacemakers, two cultures, pogroms, plays, four ages, wild problems, caves, magic, letters, American conservatives, liberal parents, radical children, and more.
Observation ·
Will Israel’s Next Government Last Longer than a Container of Hummus?
By Neil RogachevskyHow the Jewish state found itself going to elections yet again, and what reforms might, at last, bring some stability.
Observation ·
Does the Internet Have a Theory Bro Problem?
By Neil RogachevskyWhat happens when the study of the humanities migrates from campus to the web?
Observation ·
Fouad Ajami’s “When Magic Failed” Captures Lebanon at Its Best and Worst
By Neil RogachevskyThe late historian's memoir, an unstinting portrait of the unhappy collision of tradition and modernity in Lebanon in the years following World War II, is one of the best of our time.
Observation ·
Checking In on Thomas Friedman
By Neil RogachevskyWhen it comes to Israel, the longtime columnist, a bellwether for conventional American opinion on the Middle East, is stuck three decades in the past.
Observation ·
Israel’s Going Through A Spiritual Transformation. How Is It Dealing?
By Neil RogachevskyAn interview with Ruth Calderon, a Talmud scholar and former member of Knesset, on the Judaization of the Israeli public sphere—and much more.
Observation ·
What Ben-Gurion Learned From Churchill
By Neil RogachevskyIsrael’s future prime minister watched Churchill up close in war-time London, and then sounded Churchillian notes when called upon to rally his own nation.
Observation ·
Netanyahu: The Figures Who Formed Him, and the Duties of Jewish Leadership
By Benjamin Netanyahu, Gadi Taub, Neil RogachevskyA new interview, published in English here for the first time, reveals the political tradition at work in the Israeli leader's thinking.
Observation ·
The Best Books of 2021, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part I)
By Elliott Abrams, Richard Goldberg, Neil Rogachevsky, Jonathan Silver, Dr. Ruth WisseFive of our writers pick several favorites each, featuring a duke's children, Jewish treasures, zealots and emancipators, revolts, dual allegiances, spies, and more.
Observation ·
Against Court and Constitution: A Never-Before-Translated Speech by David Ben-Gurion
By David Ben-Gurion, Neil RogachevskyIsrael famously has no constitution. It turns out that's no accident but rather the will of its first prime minister, who explains his thinking here.
Observation ·
The Best Books of 2020, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part III)
By Gary Saul Morson, Yehoshua Pfeffer, Daniel Polisar, Neil Rogachevsky, Michael WeingradFive more of our regular writers pick several favorites each, featuring Stalingrad, the master, Margarita, parasitic minds, infectious ideas, dust, heaven, Zoom, traveling light, and more.
Observation ·
Peter Beinart’s Wedge
By Neil RogachevskyThe don of liberal Zionism has come out against a two-state solution. His argument is delusional and messianic. But that's not the real problem with it.
Observation ·
Ben-Gurion: The Man Who Willed A State
By Neil RogachevskyAs a new biography shows, David Ben-Gurion could be petty, harsh, and stubborn. He also decisively shaped almost every institution that would form the state of Israel.
Observation ·
“We Were All Born in Jerusalem”: A Never-Before-Translated Speech by Menachem Begin
By Menachem Begin, Neil RogachevskyWhat the future prime minister of Israel had to say about his past and present homelands.
Observation ·
Spare Your People a Fourth Election, O Israel, and Form a Minority Government
By Neil RogachevskyThree elections having led to inconclusive results, a fourth now looms. There's another, smarter, more representative way.
Observation ·
The Best Books of 2019, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part II)
By Martin Kramer, Sarah Rindner, Neil Rogachevsky, Michael Weingrad, Dr. Ruth Wisse, David WolpeSix more Mosaic writers share their favorites, featuring shadow strikes, orchards, gleanings, constitutional evolutions and revolutions, serotonin, odd women, and more.
Observation ·
What Kind of God Is the God of the Jews?
By Neil RogachevskyFor thousands of years both friends and enemies of Judaism have labeled it a religion of deed rather than creed, of law rather than faith. A new book firmly and fervently disagrees.
Observation ·
The Return of Shlomo Sand
By Neil RogachevskyThe notorious author of The Invention of the Jewish People is back, this time with a screed against certain French intellectuals with a certain something in common.
Observation ·
The Best Books of 2018, Chosen by Mosaic Authors
By Elliott Abrams, Haviv Rettig Gur, Moshe Koppel, Daniel Polisar, Sarah Rindner, Neil Rogachevsky, Michael Weingrad, Dr. Ruth Wisse, David WolpeLetters, antidotes, eternal lives, outcasts, secret worlds, pogroms, and more.
Observation ·
A First Draft of the Life of Benjamin Netanyahu
By Neil RogachevskyA new biography compels the thought that the prime minister's alienation from opinions held dear by the Israeli elite—and by his biographer—has been one of the secrets of his success.
Observation ·
Self-Portrait of a Zionist Statesman and Thinker
By Neil RogachevskyAs his new memoir brings home, Moshe Arens is one of the most accomplished, articulate, and clear-eyed figures in Israel's history. What a pity that his best ideas were often thwarted.
Observation ·
Best Books of the Year, as Selected by Mosaic Authors
By Elliott Abrams, Peter Berkowitz, Daniel Polisar, Neil Rogachevsky, Michael Weingrad, Dr. Ruth Wisse, David WolpeSpy games, catch-67s, lionesses, smugglers, patriots, setting suns, and more.
Observation ·
The Ardent, Stiff-Necked Spirit of Golda Meir
By Neil RogachevskyA new biography brings to life a leader of few words who accomplished much with the ones she had, and reminds us how much of her Zionist perseverance remains intact today.
Observation ·
The Only Language He Understands
By Neil RogachevskyWithout knowing the Middle East, the author of a highly regarded new book presumes to prescribe what would be best for it—and especially for Israel.
Observation ·
French Islam’s Radical Turn, and Its Ramifications for French Jews
By Neil RogachevskyA new book shows the role played by anti-Semitism in the strengthening and consolidation of Islamism in France.
Observation ·
The Flaws of “Oslo” Are the Same as the Flaws of Oslo
By Neil RogachevskyIn its embrace of social psychology and "process over politics," the new hit drama mirrors the mentality that helped produce the disastrous Oslo Accords themselves.
