Adam Klin Oron

Read more about the article “The Academy of Human Spirit” Podcasts hosted by Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro
Israel / Popular culture and mass media

“The Academy of Human Spirit” Podcasts hosted by Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro

This page includes links to podcasts (all of them in Hebrew) prepared and hosted by Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro in her program on "Mahut HaChayim" (The Essence of Life) Radio. The program was called "The Academy of Human Spirit". (In Hebrew "Ruah" means "spirit" and the Humanities are called "sciences of spirit", so the program was titled "The Academy of Ruah"). Each episode of the program, there was a central theme and one main interviewee (and another in addition).

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December 19, 2023
Read more about the article Session: Around the Temple- Holy Places and Contested Spaces in Israel
Disputation or conflict / Geography / History / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / State politics and law

Session: Around the Temple- Holy Places and Contested Spaces in Israel

How is the Holy Land perceived and shaped by thinkers of new religions? In this session, at an international conference that dealt with new religions, four researchers (from the USA, Scotland and Israel) presented different religious approaches: by Freemasonry, channelers, Jewish and Christian groups. The session was moderated by Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro, at a conference of CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions), and the lectures were videotaped.

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November 12, 2023
Read more about the article Lecture: Israeli New age and Jewish Praxis
Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Israeli New age and Jewish Praxis

In this research project, we've discerned a new religious identity category emerging in Israel - Spiritual Secularity. The research focuses on the issue of glocalism (globalism + localism) of the New Age movement (global) among Israeli Jews (local). The reseach presents Jewish Israeli New Agers' attitude to Jewish Law (Halakha) and custome, and deals with the tension between alternative spiritual values and Jewish traditional ones, and its various solutions - ranging from indifference to Halakha on the one end, and rejecting New Age on the other. The most interesting attitudes have to do with the processing of Halakha in the spirit of New Age (New Ageization).

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January 19, 2022
Read more about the article A research Article: “Jew Age – Jewish Praxis in Israeli New Age Discourse”
Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Typology and comparative study

A research Article: “Jew Age – Jewish Praxis in Israeli New Age Discourse”

In this article, I've first coined the category "Jew Age" that interconnects "Jew" and "New Age". What's unique in the Israeli-Jewish New Age, in comparison with the global arena of New Age? It is a society in which the central religion is Judaism, while in the western worls the main religion is Christianity (indeed, it is mainly a "secular" society in both cases, but it's hard to classify a spiritual sector as "secular"...). In order to study this significant difference, and reveal the unique Israel-Jewish coping eith the values of the new and global alternative spirituality, we've focused on a major difference between Judaism and Christianity - the issue of Halakha (law, praxis), the practical execution of commandments. The article presents the glocal (global+local) character of New Age in Israel, and the New-Ageization processes which Judaism and Halakha undergo.

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January 18, 2022
Read more about the article Lecture: Israeli Government Reports on “cults” – a critical study
Disputation or conflict / History / Identity / Israel / Popular culture and mass media / State politics and law / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Israeli Government Reports on “cults” – a critical study

A critical study of the struggle revolving "cults" in the Israeli society, through an analysis of formal Israeli reports - lectures on the subject of this research project featured in various forums (in English and Hebrew), and some articles were published in this project's framework.

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January 17, 2022
Read more about the article Article: Israeli Government Reports on New Religious Movements – ‘Tell me Who your Enemies are…’
Disputation or conflict / History / Identity / Israel / Popular culture and mass media / State politics and law / Typology and comparative study

Article: Israeli Government Reports on New Religious Movements – ‘Tell me Who your Enemies are…’

The nature of the society's response to new religious movements actually illumonates us on the society itself. For example, in the U.K. and the U.S., the cults were mainly accused of brainwashing; in the U.S., they were also held responsible for the breakdown of the family and various economic crimes; in France, NRMs were portrayed as engaging in political plots and subverting the secular French nationality (Laïcité), which mandates separation between religion and state; in Germany, NRMs were presented as failing to make their national insurance payments and as a danger to democracy; in Japan, they were suspected of harming young people’s chances of succeeding in the workforce. And what about Israel? A study of the reports written by governmental bodies regarding "cults" serves us as to analyse the Israeli society, its major values, processes and transformations.

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January 17, 2022
Read more about the article Article: “The State of Israel vs. The Cults – The Anti-Cult Discourse and the Israeli Public Discourse in Government Reports”
Disputation or conflict / History / Identity / Israel / Popular culture and mass media / State politics and law / Typology and comparative study

Article: “The State of Israel vs. The Cults – The Anti-Cult Discourse and the Israeli Public Discourse in Government Reports”

In the state of Israel, four govenmental reports were written against "cults". What is disturbing in this phenomena? Is it likely that each one of the reports finds different kind of problems with regard to the new religious movements in Israel? What can we understand from this? What can we learn about the Israeli society from those various reports? In this study, we've analysed the wording of the reports (from a discoursive angle), and indicated the similarity as well as the difference between them. The study serves of course a mirror for the Israeli society and processes it undergone in the last decades.

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January 17, 2022
Read more about the article A research Article: “Secular by the Letter, Religious by the Spirit: The Attitudes of the Israeli New Age to Jewish Law”
Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Typology and comparative study

A research Article: “Secular by the Letter, Religious by the Spirit: The Attitudes of the Israeli New Age to Jewish Law”

This Article (some 10,000 words in Hebrew) identifies a new religious category in Israel - Spiritual Secularity. It presents Jewish Israeli New Agers' attitude to Jewish Law (Halakha) and custome, and deals with the tension between alternative spiritual values and Jewish traditional ones, and its various solutions - ranging from indifference to Halakha on the one end, and rejecting New Age on the other. Nevertheless, the more interesting attitudes have to do with the processing of Halakha in the spirit of New Age (New Ageization). The article was published in Israeli Sociology, the most renowned journal of social sciences in Israel. An article on a similar subject was published in English, and the research was also presented in conferences.

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December 21, 2021