News and Updates

In a recent article published in Emory University’s Journal of Law and Religion, Ono faculty, Professor Tova Hartman, Dean of Humanities, and Dr. Chaim Zicherman, Director of the Ultra-Orthodox Campus describe the current state of higher education for Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox Jews) in Israel.

The article addresses the question: can a liberal democracy tolerate gender-segregated higher education?

The authors note that over the past two decades, a number of Israeli institutions of higher education have opened gender-segregated programs for the ultra-Orthodox, or haredim. The growth of these programs has generated an intense debate in Israel, reflected throughout Israeli media and in several appeals to Israel’s Supreme Court. The issues raised concerning gender-segregated higher education reflect an overarching inquiry that is of great interest to multicultural theoreticians: the relationship of liberal democracies to their illiberal minorities. Multicultural theoreticians agree that healthy democracies must tolerate some illiberal practices while acknowledging that not every illiberal practice can be tolerated.

The article can be found on the website of Cambridge University Press at the link: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-law-and-religion/article/abs/higher-education-for-haredim-in-israel/B42FBB0B42CE3D5201881CA96C8450BB