Hillel Weiss (Hebrew:הלל ויס; born 1945) is a professor emeritus of literature atBar Ilan University in Israel.
Hillel Weiss is a tenured professor at the Joseph & Norman Berman Department of Literature of the Jewish People, Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-llan University,Ramat-Gan, Israel. As head of the Department of Hebrew Literature, he changed its name to the Department of Literature of the Jewish People. He is the editor of “Bikoret U’parshanut,” a journal of literary criticism.
As a literary researcher, he specializes in the work ofShmuel Yosef Agnon, about whom he has published five books. He developed a computerized database for the author's complete works, with 2,500,000 words that can be accessed online through a retrieval system. The access is through three main frames:
- Frame A: Poetics. General typology, genres; motifs sources, poetic functions.
- Frame B: index of subjects, philosophy, history; society; psychology.
- Frame C: indices of individual works according to A and B, index of place and names, index of synopses; abstracts of criticism; bibliography.
Hillel Weiss is a prominent figure of theNeo-Zionist movement.[1] He was one of the founders of the religious Zionist movement in the early 1970s. He believes in the necessity of rebuilding the Temple and instating Jewish rule overGreater Israel.[2][3][4] Weiss believes that secular Jews are betraying their cultural heritage if they deny the mythical aspect of theMasada narrative.[5] In the chapter "The Messianic Theme in the Works of A.B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz"[6] in the anthologyIsrael and the Post-Zionists: A Nation at Risk, Weiss invokes theHolocaust as a cognitive filter to describe the actions of the right wing Israeli government and portrayspost-Zionism as a negation of aJewish State, anti-Zionist and anti-Israel.[7] Weiss views the Jewish experience as an "ongoingShoah".[8]
He has also opposed a visit by PopeBenedict XVI to Israel because of previously expressed views by the Holy See that Jerusalem should become aninternational city.[9]
In October 2014, Hillel Weiss was accused by several Israeli media outlets, includingHaaretz, of advocating "the annihilation of Palestinians".[10] The accusation referenced a Facebook comment made by Weiss towards Palestinian Authority presidentMahmoud Abbas, in which he that stated that there is no genocide against the Palestinian people, as Palestinian Arabs have never constituted "a people".[11] The statement was condemned by Bar Ilan University as ‘contemptible’ and ‘immoral’. Weiss himself has refuted these accusations, including the accusation that he called the elimination of Palestinians, enumerating specific ways by whichHaaretz grossly misrepresented the content of his Facebook post.[12]
Weiss was the cause of a controversy during the 2005 Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem when he said, "This abomination should be expelled from the Holy City by any means necessary."[13] Weiss became the subject of another controversy due to comments he made in August 2007, during the eviction of his daughter, Tehila Yahalom, from theHebron wholesale market.[citation needed]Moshe Kaveh, president of Bar-Ilan University, denounced his remarks.[14] The Council for Peace and security also criticized him.[15] In August 2008, he was indicted for incitement to violence after he publicly cursed the IDF Hebron Brigade commander, wishing him death and his family bereavement.[16][17]
