Dr. Sharon Shalom
About
1982shalom@gmail.com
Sharon Zaude Shalom is the Head of the International Center for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry and a Senior Lecturer at Ono Academic College.
Having immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia as a child, he earned his PhD in Jewish Philosophy from Bar-Ilan University.
His research focuses on the unique traditions of the Beta Israel community and their integration into the broader Jewish world.
An influential author and visiting scholar, Dr. Shalom’s work explores the intersections of Ethiopian Jewish identity, Halakha, and philosophy, advocating for the recognition and preservation of the community's distinct spiritual heritage.
Lecture Abstract:
This lecture examines the encounter between two distinct cultures of knowledge: the modern Western tradition, which treats writing as a central condition for the existence and legitimacy of knowledge - “I write, therefore I exist” - and other traditions, among them Ethiopian Judaism, in which oral transmission and the deliberate avoidance of writing are understood as fundamental cultural values.
This point of departure enables a renewed examination of the inherent tension within Jewish tradition itself between Written Torah and Oral Torah, and of its significance in the encounter between Ethiopian Jewish tradition, rabbinic Judaism, and modern historical scholarship. This encounter is not merely a meeting of research methodologies, but a confrontation between differing worldviews regarding the status of writing, memory, authority, and identity.
Through several case studies, the lecture demonstrates how this gap manifests in foundational questions such as “Who is a Jew?”, in the often-folkloristic scholarly treatment of Ethiopian Judaism, and in the insufficient recognition of its central historical figures and traditions. The lecture proposes a pluralistic analytical framework that recognizes the equal value of written and oral forms of knowledge as a basis for more respectful, nuanced, and methodologically sensitive research.