Oxford Jewish Thought

Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) was the distinguished Chichele Professor of Political Theory at All Souls College, University of Oxford, and is generally viewed as one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, universally known for his essay Two Concepts of Liberty, delivered in 1958.

 ... ( Read More » )

A Jewish response to modern atheism

 ... ( Read More » )

A Jewish approach to Vegetarianism

 ... ( Read More » )

Jews are known to be thinkers, revolutionaries and ground breaking researchers, including Noble Prize winners. They have helped change and shape the world we live in. This started with Abraham and Jews have tried to follow his path ever since. Abraham travelled to Canaan from Ur Kasdim to change the world. The world was practising pagan idolatry. They worshipped the sun and the moon. Abraham smashed the idols and taught them and the world monotheism.

 ... ( Read More » )

One of the most important Hebrew manuscripts in Oxford’s Bodleian library is the Machzor Vitry, which includes laws, prayers and liturgical poems, as well as the liturgy for the High Holiday prayers. It is authored by Rabbi Simcha ben Shmuel of Vitry (d. 1105). Rabbi Simcha was a French Talmudist of the 11th and 12th centuries and pupil of the great Biblical and Talmudic commentator Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known as Rashi (1040-1105). His son Samuel married Rashi's granddaughter and he was the grandfather of the famous Tosafist, Isaac of Dampierre. They both died in the same year.

The Oxford text is a very rare copy and one of only three manuscripts of the Machzor Vitry extant. The oldest, according to Abraham Berliner... ( Read More » )

Maimonides in Oxford: A commentary on the Oxford Manuscript of the Mishneh Torah... ( Read More » )

Dominus Illuminatio Mea: An Oxford attempt to reconcile science and religion in the 16th century

 ... ( Read More » )

A Jewish view on the British riots: who’s to blame?

 ... ( Read More » )

‘What is Jewish Identity? An Oxford Debate’

 ... ( Read More » )

The King James Bible and the Kabbalah

 ... ( Read More » )

Vegetarianism & Jewish philosophy

 ... ( Read More » )

A dispute about a hilltop between the King James Bible and some rabbis

By Rabbi Eli Brackman ... ( Read More » )

Rabbi Michael Weissmandl: A Rabbi from Oxford’s Bodleian Library who saved Jews from the Holocaust

 ... ( Read More » )

The manuscript of Maimonides in the Bodleian library of Oxford is an important version of the first two books of his legal work Mishneh Torah, Madah and Ahavah.

 ... ( Read More » )

One of the divisive things amongst Jews today is the differences of customs and sensibilities between Ashkenazic (Western and Central European) Jews and Sephardic (from the Iberian Peninsula before the expulsion in 1492) Jews.

 ... ( Read More » )