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Makom

Makom is a publishing house and journal dedicated to cultivating a faithful, rooted, and contemporary Jewish discourse. Through original writing, book publishing, public seminars, and translation projects, Makom brings together voices from across the Jewish world to engage deeply with questions of faith, culture, politics, and tradition. Makom is more than a platform for publishing — it’s a space for collective thinking, learning, and renewal, grounded in tradition and open to the complexities of the present.

Makom was founded in 2025 out of a desire to put forth a theopolitical body of Jewish thought grounded in our obligation to justice and peace. Makom’s work, rooted in a deep and longstanding Jewish ethical tradition, offers an alternative to contemporary Jewish scholarship obsessed with our own power and convinced of our own rightness. Through new works of Torah scholarship  and the re-publication of Jewish thought which illuminates our path, Makom strives to cultivate an understanding  of Torah which compels positive.

Makom’s current body of work includes:

  • “Redemption, Mercy, Peace: 26 Sermons on the War”
  • “Sermons from the Great Abyss: A Series of Essays for the Five Megillot”
  • “Preserving of the Soul: Tools for Holding onto our Values in a Militarized Society”
  • “⁠⁠Zionism of Hate and Zionism of Affection – The Letters of Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel”

​Makom made its public debut at Israel’s Hebrew Book Week this past summer. Volunteers from the Smol Emuni spent a week operating booths throughout the country at Israel’s biggest book fair. In addition to selling hundreds of copies, it was an opportunity for every sector of Israeli society to become acquainted with Makom. From soldiers to activists, from Haredim to the avowedly secular, people of all stripes stopped at our booth to ask about this new type of book and to understand the worldview it represented. Thanks to its commitment to openness and invitation, Makom’s work is able to spread far and wide throughout all sectors of Israeli society. Makom will soon be coming out with a Hebrew Jewish studies journal, published through the Van Leer Institute.

Makom website

Preserving of the Soul
Tools for Holding onto our Values in a Militarized Society

How should one conduct oneself within the reality of military life? What constitutes a proper decision, and how does it fit into the story of our lives here? Our sages throughout the generations have given us tools for inner reflection, character refinement, and acting out of love and awe of God—even in harsh circumstances.

 

This booklet seeks to make those tools accessible, in the hope that they bring clarity and wise counsel to every soldier.

 

“May the Lord guard you from all harm; may He guard your soul. May the Lord guard your going out and your coming in, from now and forever.”

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Sermons from the Great Abyss
A Series of Essays for the Five Megillot

Sermons from the Great Abyss  were written between Sivan 5783 (May 2023) and Nisan 5784 (April 2024), in parallel with the times when the Five Megillot are read in the synagogue, and were circulated as part of the activities of the Faithful Left and Bnei Avraham. The sermons grapple with questions of faith and tradition in moments of despair and crisis, of occupation and war.

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Redemption, Mercy, Peace
26 Sermons on the War

In many religious communities, the demand for a hardening of the heart has been accepted without question, to the point that war at times no longer seems like a tragic necessity but an ideal from the outset. The sense of exaltation on the battlefield, the thrill of victory, and the glorification of revenge have in recent years taken a central place in the religious-Zionist discourse, as well as in certain segments of the Haredi discourse. In recent months, their dominance has only grown.

 

This collection seeks to offer a different language. Its primary aim is to create space—breathing room—for prayer and for the study of our tradition, the very tradition in which we were raised. Our hope is that this volume will spark reflection not only about our past, but also about our present and the future that lies before us.

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Zionism of Hate and Zionism of Affection
The Letters of Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel

Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel’s original and compelling thought offers an alternative to the dominant Zionist and religious discourse in Israel today. Rabbi Amiel, the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and one of the leading figures of religious Zionism in the early 20th century, calls for replacing a “Zionism of hatred,” rooted in selfishness and the pursuit of power, with a “Zionism of affection,” grounded in Jewish moral values and, by extension, in love of humanity. Reading Rabbi Amiel’s writings raises piercing questions about the nature of contemporary Zionism, its moral vision, and its various religious expressions.

 

The book offers a fresh and distinctive perspective on these foundational issues and invites readers on a fascinating journey into the spiritual world of an original and trailblazing thinker—one whose ideas were written especially for difficult times such as these.

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