Yoram Hazony | |
|---|---|
יורם חזוני | |
 Hazony in 2018 | |
| Born | Yoram Reuben Hazony 1964 (age 61–62) Rehovot, Israel |
| Citizenship |
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| Education | |
| Notable work | The Virtue of Nationalism (2018) Conservatism: A Rediscovery (2022) |
| Movement | National conservatism,Jewish conservatism |
| Spouse | Yael Hazony |
| Children | 9 |
| Relatives | David Hazony (brother) |
| Website | yoramhazony |
Yoram Reuben Hazony (Hebrew:יורם חזוני; born 1964)[1] is anIsraeli-American philosopher,Bible scholar, andpolitical theorist. He is president of the Herzl Institute[2] inJerusalem and serves as the chairman of theEdmund Burke Foundation.[3] He has argued fornational conservatism in his 2018 bookThe Virtue of Nationalism[4] and 2022'sConservatism: A Rediscovery.[5]
Yoram Hazony was born inRehovot, Israel, and moved with his family toPrinceton, New Jersey, US. He was raised and educated in the United States and returned to live in Israel after finishing university.[6] Hazony received his BA fromPrinceton University inEast Asian studies in 1986 and his PhD fromRutgers University inpolitical philosophy in 1993. While a junior at Princeton, he foundedThe Princeton Tory, a magazine forconservative thought.[7] He is the brother ofDavid Hazony. He married Yael Fulton, an American[8] whom he met at Princeton, and she moved to Israel with him. The couple live inJerusalem and have nine children.[9]
Hazony founded theShalem Center in Jerusalem in 1994 and was president and then provost until 2012.[10][11] He helped design the curriculum forShalem College, Israel's firstliberal arts college, established in 2013.[12] Hazony has served as director of theJohn Templeton Foundation's project in JewishPhilosophical Theology and as a member of theIsrael Council for Higher Education committee examininggeneral studies programs in Israel's universities and colleges.[13]
He authors a blog on philosophy, politics, Judaism, Israel, and higher education, calledJerusalem Letters.[14] Hazony has published in outlets includingThe New York Times,Wall Street Journal, andAmerican Affairs.[15][16][17]
Hazony is aModern Orthodox Jew and relates his views onOpen Orthodoxy in an article published in 2014. In it, he states that he fears that Open Orthodoxy is acting as an ideologicalecho chamber in which any unapproved views are ridiculed and quashed without debate. Hazony describes his concern that elements of Open Orthodoxy have seemingly decided to accept all conclusions of academicBible critics as indisputable fact, without even going through the motions of investigating whether these conclusions are true.[18]
Hazony is an outspokenJudeo-nationalist and has written that nationalism uniquely provides "thecollective right of a free people to rule themselves".[19] In 2018, his book,The Virtue of Nationalism was released byBasic Books. In 2019, it was named "Conservative Book of the Year" by theIntercollegiate Studies Institute. It has been read and recommended by heads of state, includingViktor Orbán[20] andGiorgia Meloni.[21] It has been called a "key text of the nationalist right", and Hazony has been cited as an intellectual influence on American vice presidentJD Vance.[22]
Some critics maintain thatThe Virtue of Nationalism is theoretically inconsistent or incoherent and that it bears little relation to the historical body of nationalist thought.[23][24][25][26] Writing for theTel Aviv Review of Books,Yair Wallach argued that Hazony's 2020 book,A Jewish State: Herzl and the Promise of Nationalism, is characterised by "intellectual dishonesty", in part for presenting a selective account ofTheodor Herzl's understanding of Zionism and nationalism.[27]
Hazony organized and spoke at theNational Conservatism Conference in England in May 2023, where he stated that the United Kingdom was plagued withwoke "neo-Marxist" agitators who want to detach Britons from their entire past, and called for the return ofmandatory military service.[28]
In a 1990 issue ofThe Jerusalem Post, Hazony wrote an obituary praising the religious-ultranationalist politician, rabbi, writer, and convicted terroristMeir Kahane. He stated that he and other American Jewish students were inspired by Kahane's speeches and books to believe that Judaism and their Jewish identity "could be something we didn't have to be embarrassed about, that we should be proud to wear a kipa and make our stand on the world stage as Jews". Hazony said that he and many other Jews did not adopt Kahane's political beliefs because of Kahane's "predilection for violent solutions to problems" and his "abusive manner of presenting his case", but he expressed gratitude to Kahane for being someone who "changed our lives, thrilled and entertained us, helped us grow up into strong Jewish men and women".[29] After first hearing Kahane speak in 1984, Hazony began to quote him in political debates.[30] Some critics believe Hazony adopted some of Kahane's extremist beliefs, such as hisracist views towards Arabs[30] and his opinions on how Israel should be governed.[31] In 2024, Hazony describedBenjamin Netanyahu as the greatest statesman Israel had seen sinceDavid Ben-Gurion.[32]
Books
Edited books
Translated books
I've been in that room many times in my life. Too many times. And by now I know it quite well. It's a room in which there is a single, politically correct point of view that everyone is expected to express. A room in which those who toe the party line are praised over and over for being enlightened, fearless, and committed to the search for truth, while anyone who raises a doubt is greeted with anger and ridicule. A room in which those who might have disagreed or asked a tough question make a quick calculation that it's just not worth being publicly embarrassed over it and retreat into silence, or else adjust their views to fit in. A room that is said to be set upon by enemies from the outside, enemies who are invariably lacking in any capacity for intelligent thought, who have no good points of their own to make, who in fact possess no recognizable virtues at all. In other words, it is a room in which the persuaded are lavishly rewarded for being persuaded, the undecided are relentlessly pressed to choose the right side or face the consequences, and skeptics—unless they are in the mood for a serious bruising—are made to shut up.
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