Tikvah

Neil Rogachevsky


Neil Rogachevsky teaches at the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and is the author of Israel's Declaration of Independence: The History and Political Theory of the Nation's Founding Moment, published in 2023 by Cambridge University Press.

Latest Content

  1. Response ·

    An October 7 Commission of Inquiry Would Help Israel. Electoral Reform Would Help Much More.

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    Committed to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

    An October 7 Commission of Inquiry Would Help Israel. Electoral Reform Would Help Much More.
  2. Monthly Essay ·

    What Would Ben-Gurion Do?

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    Israel’s founding father argued for a conception of politics uniquely tailored to the Jewish state. Fifty years after his death, his country could use it more than ever.

    What Would Ben-Gurion Do?
  3. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2023, Part I

    By Elliott Abrams, Cynthia Ozick, Neil Rogachevsky, Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Featuring prime ministers, kidnappings, popes, silences, exiled shadows, portraits, intellectual origins, the best minds, and more.

    The Best Books of 2023, Part I
  4. Response ·

    Israel’s Other Tyranny of the Minority

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    Committed to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

    Israel’s Other Tyranny of the Minority
  5. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2022, Chosen by Mosaic Authors

    By Elliott Abrams, Tamara Berens, Andrew Koss, Daniel Polisar, Neil Rogachevsky, Sarah Rindner, Jonathan Silver

    Featuring wars, peacemakers, two cultures, pogroms, plays, four ages, wild problems, caves, magic, letters, American conservatives, liberal parents, radical children, and more.

    The Best Books of 2022, Chosen by Mosaic Authors
  6. Observation ·

    Will Israel’s Next Government Last Longer than a Container of Hummus?

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    How the Jewish state found itself going to elections yet again, and what reforms might, at last, bring some stability.

    Will Israel’s Next Government Last Longer than a Container of Hummus?
  7. Observation ·

    Does the Internet Have a Theory Bro Problem?

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    What happens when the study of the humanities migrates from campus to the web?

    Does the Internet Have a Theory Bro Problem?
  8. Observation ·

    Fouad Ajami’s “When Magic Failed” Captures Lebanon at Its Best and Worst

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    The late historian's memoir, an unstinting portrait of the unhappy collision of tradition and modernity in Lebanon in the years following World War II, is one of the best of our time.

    Fouad Ajami’s “When Magic Failed” Captures Lebanon at Its Best and Worst
  9. Observation ·

    Checking In on Thomas Friedman

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    When it comes to Israel, the longtime columnist, a bellwether for conventional American opinion on the Middle East, is stuck three decades in the past.

    Checking In on Thomas Friedman
  10. Observation ·

    Israel’s Going Through A Spiritual Transformation. How Is It Dealing?

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    An interview with Ruth Calderon, a Talmud scholar and former member of Knesset, on the Judaization of the Israeli public sphere—and much more.

    Israel’s Going Through A Spiritual Transformation. How Is It Dealing?
  11. Observation ·

    What Ben-Gurion Learned From Churchill

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    Israel’s future prime minister watched Churchill up close in war-time London, and then sounded Churchillian notes when called upon to rally his own nation.

    What Ben-Gurion Learned From Churchill
  12. Observation ·

    Netanyahu: The Figures Who Formed Him, and the Duties of Jewish Leadership

    By Benjamin Netanyahu, Gadi Taub, Neil Rogachevsky

    A new interview, published in English here for the first time, reveals the political tradition at work in the Israeli leader's thinking.

    Netanyahu: The Figures Who Formed Him, and the Duties of Jewish Leadership
  13. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2021, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part I)

    By Elliott Abrams, Richard Goldberg, Neil Rogachevsky, Jonathan Silver, Dr. Ruth Wisse

    Five of our writers pick several favorites each, featuring a duke's children, Jewish treasures, zealots and emancipators, revolts, dual allegiances, spies, and more.

    The Best Books of 2021, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part I)
  14. Observation ·

    Against Court and Constitution: A Never-Before-Translated Speech by David Ben-Gurion

    By David Ben-Gurion, Neil Rogachevsky

    Israel famously has no constitution. It turns out that's no accident but rather the will of its first prime minister, who explains his thinking here.

    Against Court and Constitution: A Never-Before-Translated Speech by David Ben-Gurion
  15. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2020, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part III)

    By Gary Saul Morson, Yehoshua Pfeffer, Daniel Polisar, Neil Rogachevsky, Michael Weingrad

    Five more of our regular writers pick several favorites each, featuring Stalingrad, the master, Margarita, parasitic minds, infectious ideas, dust, heaven, Zoom, traveling light, and more.

    The Best Books of 2020, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part III)
  16. Observation ·

    Peter Beinart’s Wedge

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    The don of liberal Zionism has come out against a two-state solution. His argument is delusional and messianic. But that's not the real problem with it.

    Peter Beinart’s Wedge
  17. Observation ·

    Ben-Gurion: The Man Who Willed A State

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    As a new biography shows, David Ben-Gurion could be petty, harsh, and stubborn. He also decisively shaped almost every institution that would form the state of Israel.

    Ben-Gurion: The Man Who Willed A State
  18. Observation ·

    “We Were All Born in Jerusalem”: A Never-Before-Translated Speech by Menachem Begin

    By Menachem Begin, Neil Rogachevsky

    What the future prime minister of Israel had to say about his past and present homelands.

    “We Were All Born in Jerusalem”: A Never-Before-Translated Speech by Menachem Begin
  19. Observation ·

    Spare Your People a Fourth Election, O Israel, and Form a Minority Government

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    Three elections having led to inconclusive results, a fourth now looms. There's another, smarter, more representative way.

    Spare Your People a Fourth Election, O Israel, and Form a Minority Government
  20. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2019, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part II)

    By Martin Kramer, Sarah Rindner, Neil Rogachevsky, Michael Weingrad, Dr. Ruth Wisse, David Wolpe

    Six more Mosaic writers share their favorites, featuring shadow strikes, orchards, gleanings, constitutional evolutions and revolutions, serotonin, odd women, and more.

    The Best Books of 2019, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part II)
  21. Observation ·

    What Kind of God Is the God of the Jews?

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    For thousands of years both friends and enemies of Judaism have labeled it a religion of deed rather than creed, of law rather than faith. A new book firmly and fervently disagrees.

    What Kind of God Is the God of the Jews?
  22. Observation ·

    The Return of Shlomo Sand

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    The notorious author of The Invention of the Jewish People is back, this time with a screed against certain French intellectuals with a certain something in common.

    The Return of Shlomo Sand
  23. Observation ·

    The Best Books of 2018, Chosen by Mosaic Authors

    By Elliott Abrams, Haviv Rettig Gur, Moshe Koppel, Daniel Polisar, Sarah Rindner, Neil Rogachevsky, Michael Weingrad, Dr. Ruth Wisse, David Wolpe

    Letters, antidotes, eternal lives, outcasts, secret worlds, pogroms, and more.

    The Best Books of 2018, Chosen by Mosaic Authors
  24. Observation ·

    A First Draft of the Life of Benjamin Netanyahu

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    A new biography compels the thought that the prime minister's alienation from opinions held dear by the Israeli elite—and by his biographer—has been one of the secrets of his success.

    A First Draft of the Life of Benjamin Netanyahu
  25. Observation ·

    Self-Portrait of a Zionist Statesman and Thinker

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    As his new memoir brings home, Moshe Arens is one of the most accomplished, articulate, and clear-eyed figures in Israel's history. What a pity that his best ideas were often thwarted.

    Self-Portrait of a Zionist Statesman and Thinker
  26. Observation ·

    Best Books of the Year, as Selected by Mosaic Authors

    By Elliott Abrams, Peter Berkowitz, Daniel Polisar, Neil Rogachevsky, Michael Weingrad, Dr. Ruth Wisse, David Wolpe

    Spy games, catch-67s, lionesses, smugglers, patriots, setting suns, and more.

    Best Books of the Year, as Selected by Mosaic Authors
  27. Observation ·

    The Ardent, Stiff-Necked Spirit of Golda Meir

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    A new biography brings to life a leader of few words who accomplished much with the ones she had, and reminds us how much of her Zionist perseverance remains intact today.

    The Ardent, Stiff-Necked Spirit of Golda Meir
  28. Observation ·

    The Only Language He Understands

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    Without knowing the Middle East, the author of a highly regarded new book presumes to prescribe what would be best for it—and especially for Israel.

    The Only Language He Understands
  29. Observation ·

    French Islam’s Radical Turn, and Its Ramifications for French Jews

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    A new book shows the role played by anti-Semitism in the strengthening and consolidation of Islamism in France.

    French Islam’s Radical Turn, and Its Ramifications for French Jews
  30. Observation ·

    The Flaws of “Oslo” Are the Same as the Flaws of Oslo

    By Neil Rogachevsky

    In its embrace of social psychology and "process over politics," the new hit drama mirrors the mentality that helped produce the disastrous Oslo Accords themselves.

    The Flaws of “Oslo” Are the Same as the Flaws of Oslo