Outside of yeshiva circles, the name Moshe Shapira is hardly recognized by American Jews, even those with a particular interest in Jewish thought. Yet Rabbi Shapira, who died in 2017, had an outsize influence on haredi theology in Israel and to a lesser extent in the diaspora, with his distinctive and intellectually sophisticated blend of non-hasidic mysticism, musar (moral introspection), and reverence for unadulterated Talmud study. Mark Gottlieb reviews a posthumously published work by Mattisyahu Rosenblum that presents many of Shapira’s ideas to the English-language reader:

In a chapter aptly titled, “Finding Truth in Other Traditions,” Rabbi Rosenblum observes, with a candor and authenticity that is refreshingly relevant, “Did you really hope there was nothing there [in the wisdom of the Gentile world, specifically classical Greek culture] that you might find intelligent and compelling?” Rather than glibly claiming that the contributions of the West are a waste of time for a Torah Jew, Rabbi Rosenblum recognizes both the potential worth—and the possible danger—contained in these competing systems of thought.

Rabbi Rosenblum’s ambivalence feels honest, a recognition of the genuine power of ideas and their ability to lead us to places we may not want to go. But there’s a paradox here, too, that sometimes feels lost to the author. . . .

For instance, Rosenblum—himself a Yale graduate—suggests that a young, devout American Jew might be better off studying accounting than taking classes on Plato or Nietzsche:

If Rabbi Rosenblum would have taken his own advice . . . the book under discussion could not have been written—at least not in its current sophisticated, learned and literate form. This insight was surely not lost on the author. But it is not totally resolved, either.

In October, a young Mauritanian national murdered an Orthodox Jewish man on his way to synagogue in Chicago. This alone should be sufficient sign of the rising dangers of anti-Semitism. Nathan Diament explains how the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act (AAA) can, if passed, make American Jews safer:

We were off to a promising start when the AAA sailed through the House of Representatives in the spring by a generous vote of 320 to 91, and 30 senators from both sides of the aisle jumped to sponsor the Senate version. Then the bill ground to a halt.

Fearful of antagonizing their left-wing activist base and putting vulnerable senators on the record, especially right before the November election, Democrats delayed bringing the AAA to the Senate floor for a vote. Now, the election is over, but the political games continue.

You can’t combat anti-Semitism if you can’t—or won’t—define it. Modern anti-Semites hide their hate behind virulent anti-Zionism. . . . The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act targets this loophole by codifying that the Department of Education must use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism in its application of Title VI.