Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation (Tchelet) is a quarterly journal

Journal

__FORCETOC__A journal has several related meanings:* a daily record of events or business; a private journal is usually referred to as a diary....

 published by the Shalem Center

Shalem Center

The Shalem Center is a Jerusalem research institute that supports academic work in the fields of philosophy, political theory, Jewish and Zionist history, Bible and Talmud, Middle East Studies, archaeology, economics, and strategic studies...

 in Jerusalem, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Azure publishes new writing on issues relating to Jewish

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 thought and identity, Zionism

Zionism

Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

, and the State of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. It is published in both Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, allowing for the exchange of ideas between Israelis and Jews worldwide.

Azure was established in 1996 and was originally published twice a year, but grew into a quarterly. The journal's first editor-in-chief was Ofir Haivry, followed by Daniel Polisar and David Hazony

David Hazony

David Hazony is an American-born Israeli writer and magazine editor.David Hazony has studied at Columbia University, received a B.A. and M.A...

. In 2007, Assaf Sagiv became editor in chief

Editor in chief

An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...

.

Notable contributors have included Michael Oren

Michael Oren

Michael B. Oren is an American-born Israeli historian and author and the Israeli ambassador to the United States...

, Yoram Hazony

Yoram Hazony

Yoram Hazony is an Israeli philosopher and political theorist. He was born in Rehovot, Israel in 1964.Hazony received his B.A. from Princeton University in East Asian Studies in 1986, and his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in Political Philosophy in 1993...

, Yossi Klein Halevi

Yossi Klein Halevi

Yossi Klein Halevi is an Israeli author and journalist.-Biography:Halevi was born and raised in New York in a Jewish family. He completed a BA in Jewish Studies in Brooklyn College in 1978, and completed his MA in Journalism at Northwestern University...

, A. B. Yehoshua

A. B. Yehoshua

Abraham B. Yehoshua is an Israeli novelist, essayist, and playwright. His pen name is A. B. Yehoshua.-Biography:...

, Ruth Gavison

Ruth Gavison

Ruth Gavison is an Israeli Law professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is also a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Israel Democracy Institute...

, Amnon Rubinstein

Amnon Rubinstein

Amnon Rubinstein is an Israeli law scholar, politician, and columnist. A member of the Knesset between 1977 and 2002, he served in several ministerial positions. He is currently dean of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a patron of Liberal International.-Early life:Rubinstein was born...

, Natan Sharansky

Natan Sharansky

Natan Sharansky was born in Stalino, Soviet Union on 20 January 1948 to a Jewish family. He graduated with a degree in applied mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As a child, he was a chess prodigy. He performed in simultaneous and blindfold displays, usually against...

, Alain Finkielkraut

Alain Finkielkraut

Alain Finkielkraut is a French essayist, and son of a Jewish-Polish manufacturer of fine leather goods who had been deported to Auschwitz and survived. He currently teaches at the École polytechnique as professor of the "history of ideas and modernity" in the department of humanities and social...

, Amotz Asa-El

Amotz Asa-El

Amotz Asa-El, the former Executive Editor of the Jerusalem Post, is an Israeli journalist and media developer. He is the Jerusalem Post's senior columnist, a staff columnist for the Wall Street Journal/MarketWatch, and a leading commentator on Israeli, Middle Eastern and Jewish affairs.Having...

, David Hazony

David Hazony

David Hazony is an American-born Israeli writer and magazine editor.David Hazony has studied at Columbia University, received a B.A. and M.A...

, Meir Soloveichik

Meir Soloveichik

Meir Yaakov Soloveichik is an American Orthodox rabbi and writer.The son of Rabbi Eliyahu Soloveichik, he is a grandson of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, the brother of Rabbi Joseph B...

, Claire Berlinski, Robert Bork

Robert Bork

Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, Acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...

, and Moshe Ya'alon.

The journal publishes Hebrew translations of classic essays by authors such as Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....

, David Hume

David Hume

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...

, William James

William James

William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...

, G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....

, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

, C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...

, Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre is a British philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology...

, Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

, Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...

, and Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...

.

The emphasis of the journal is on strengthening Jewish and Zionist values. It is highly critical of post-national

Postnationalism

Postnationalism describes the process or trend by which nation states and national identities lose their importance relative to supranational and global entities...

 and radical trends in academia, opposes judicial activism

Judicial activism

Judicial activism describes judicial ruling suspected of being based on personal or political considerations rather than on existing law. It is sometimes used as an antonym of judicial restraint. The definition of judicial activism, and which specific decisions are activist, is a controversial...

 in the Israeli legal system, and supports free-market

Free market

A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...

reforms in the Israeli economy.

Selected articles

• Israel’s Electoral Complex by Amotz Asa-El
• Barak’s Rule by Robert H. Bork
• Ecclesiastes: Fleeting and Timeless by Ethan Dor-Shav
• A Right Above all Others by Amitai Etzioni
• In the Name of the Other: Reflections on the Coming Antisemitism by Alain Finkielkraut
• The Jews Right to Statehood: A Defense by Ruth Gavison
• The Way of the World by Ofir Haivry
• Judaism and the Modern State by Yoram Hazony
• Circumcision as Rebellion by Ido Hevroni
• Far Away So Close by Yosef Yitzhak Lifshitz
• Did Israel Want the Six Day War? by Michael Oren
• Globalization: Just Do It & George Steiner’s Jewish Problem by Assaf Sagiv
• Redemption and the Power of Man by Meir Soleveichik
• Israel and the Palestinians: A New Strategy by Moshe Yaalon
• An Attempt to Identify the Root Cause of Antisemitism by A.B. Yehoshua