Pursuing a Precarious Peace

In the fragile quiet of the current ceasefire, peace remains both an urgent need and a virtual taboo in Israeli public discourse. In times of strife, even speaking of peace or coexistence can seem naïve or unrealistic. Yet Jewish tradition offers rich and varied conceptions of peace—from prophetic dreams to rabbinic pragmatism—that can help us think more deeply about what peace means now. This session explores how we might sustain the moral imagination required to pursue peace, even amid fear, grief, and instability. When is peace a distant vision, and when can it become a lived reality? What would it mean to keep its possibility alive at this moment?

Rabbi Shoshana Cohen is an educator, scholar, and activist whose work explores the intersection of Jewish text, ethics, and contemporary moral life. She lectures in Hebrew and English in Israel and abroad, serves on the faculty of the Schechter Rabbinical School, leads the Beit Midrash for the Dorot Fellowship, and is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

A part of the series Wrestling with Complexity: Israel in Our Time