Moshe Halbertal. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Moshe Halbertal

Hebrew University professor

Hebrew University Professor Moshe Halbertal has pioneered modern Jewish thought in such vital areas as the philosophical foundations of modern orthodoxy and the relationship between religion, state and democratic systems of government. His authoritative study of the work of Maimonides, published in 2014, was praised by The Wall Street Journal for its “mind-enlarging perspective that is absent from today’s American culture, where theological arguments are typically reduced to a choice between arrogant atheism or mind-numbing faith.” Halbertal has also, through his elucidation of the IDF’s code of ethics, been a leading voice in countering the various accusations that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the defensive wars that the Jewish state has fought over the last decade.