Metropolitan Club – Washington, D.C., February 2020

On Wednesday, February 12, 2020, Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, spoke to a large and enthusiastic audience at the Metropolitan Club (1700 H Street) about the highly introspective and increasingly visible Jewish Orthodox community’s reasoning about Zionism, and its views on the political and religious standing of the state of Israel.

Of the many Jewish communities in the United States, the strictly Orthodox – who number perhaps 600,000 or 11 percent of American Jews – is the fastest growing. They view Zionism not as an affirmation of Judaism but as its negation. They do not believe that Israel speaks for them or other Jews. Shapiro was introduced by Chas Freeman, President of the Committee for the Republic, which sponsored the talk.

COMMITTEE FOR THE REPUBLIC: AN ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE ON ISRAEL

Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro

Wednesday, February 12, 2020
6:30 p.m.
Metropolitan Club
1700 H Street
Grill Room on 1st Floor
(Business attire for men and semi-formal attire for ladies is required for entry to Metropolitan Club)

ICMES and the Tres Culturas Fundación (Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation), with the collaboration of the Association Essaouira Mogador, convened on September 14, 2017 at the headquarters of the Association Essaouira Mogador in Essaouira, Morocco, to analyze the relationship between Islam and modernity.

The colloquium was composed of two sessions, each of which was comprised of a presenter and a respondent and followed by a corresponding round of debate. Among the issues discussed were the question of Islamic revival; the status and place of women in Islam; the challenges presented by a dual legal system; and the relationship between Islam and secular societies in the 21st century.

Presenters included Dr. Norton Mezvinsky, President of ICMES; Issam Saliba, expert on Islamic law at the U.S. Library of Congress (also of ICMES); Dr. Gloria Morán, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Law, Religion and Public Policy in the Faculty of Law at the Universidade da Coruña (also of ICMES); Dr. Aicha El Hajjami, Professsor of Law and Researcher in Women and Family, University of Marrakech; and Dr. Emilio González Ferrín, Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Seville, and Chair Al-Andalus of the Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation.

On Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 3:00 PM, ICMES hosted a speaking event featuring Rabbi Yakov Shapiro. The event was held at the International Law Institute in Washington, D.C. Rabbi Shapiro is the rabbi of a congregation in Queens, New York.

He is best known for his outspoken stance defending the historic Orthodox Jewish position that rejects the concept of Jewish nationalism and therefore opposes Zionism and does not recognize Israel as the Jewish State. He has represented this position on behalf of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community throughout the world to a remarkable variety of audiences, including those in the United States, the state of Israel and the EU in Brussels. Rabbi Shapiro is the author of three books and numerous articles dealing with Jewish philosophy and law. He is currently completing a three-volume work on traditional Jewish opposition to Zionism.

Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World

ICMES held its first Annual Ibrahim Abu-Rabi’ Commemorative Lecture on Wednesday, May 7, 2014 at the International Law Institute, 1055 Thomas Jefferson St. NW, Suite 100, Washington, D.C. The lecture was delivered by Dr. Carl W. Ernst, the W. R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, and Co-Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Ernst is the author of several books on Islam, including The Shambhala Guide to Sufism and Following Muhammad (which has been translated into Arabic, Persian, Turkish, German, and Korean.)

Two Years into the Arab Spring: Islam, Elections, and Democratic Transformation

On April 4, 2013 ICMES and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) hosted a jointly sponsored program, “Two Years into the Arab Spring: Islam, Elections, & Democratic Transformation,” on at IFES headquarters in Washington, D.C. Zeinab Abdelkarim of IFES introduced the panel with a short discussion of the process and technicalities involved in elections. ICMES Secretary Issam M. Saliba, Professor Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im (pictured above), the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University, and Professor Daniel Brumberg, Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University, followed as speakers and discussed elections and constitution writing within the context of Islam, Islamic law and Islamic societies. ICMES President Norton Mezvinsky served as moderator.

On February 7, 2012 ICMES, in joint sponsorship with the Council for the National Interest Foundation, held a panel discussion about the ongoing and far-reaching effects of the monumental Arab uprisings. This program took place from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Room 122 of the Cannon House Building in Washington, D.C. The panelists were Chas Freeman (pictured below), former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, former Co-chair of the U.S. China Policy Foundation, Executive Committee member at the Atlantic Council, and President Emeritus of the Middle East Policy Council; and Prof. Paul R. Pillar, Director of Graduate Studies at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, former National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia, and former Deputy Director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center. The panel was moderated by Peter Kelly, Chairman of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) and former treasurer and national finance chairman of the Democratic Party’s National Committee.

On June 17, 2009, Issam M. Saliba and Rabbi Shlomo Yaffee each gave lectures on Halakhah (Jewish law), Shari‘ah (Islamic law), and their relevance to contemporary legal issues. Rabbi Yaffe is the spiritual leader of Congregation Agudas Achim of West Hartford, Connecticut and founder of the Connecticut Symposium on Contemporary Legal Issues and Jewish Law. The discourse was held at the Library of Congress and was sponsored by the Law Library of Congress and the African and Middle East Division of the Library of Congress. The program was attended by 200 persons and was the first of its kind at the Library. It explained and explored the respective historical developments of Judaic and Islamic law and how adaptations of it are thought to benefit policymakers in their legislative work on foreign policy and other areas affecting religiously oriented communities.

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