Omri Boehm

Omri Boehm (Hebrew: עמרי בהם; born 1979) is an Israeli philosopher and associate professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research.^[1][2] He is known for his interpretation of the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22), work on Kant, and writing on Israel and Zionism.^[3][4][5]

Omri Boehm
Native name	עמרי בהם
Born	1979 Gilon, Israel
Occupation	Author, professor
Genre	Non-fiction
Subject	Philosophy, religion, politics

Life and career

Boehm grew up in the Galilee.^[6] He studied at the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Programme for Outstanding Students at Tel Aviv University and earned his PhD at Yale University.^[7] He did a post-doc at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 2010.^[8] He is associate professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research based in New York City.

Boehm’s first book, The Binding of Isaac: a Religious Model of Disobedience, argues (contending that the verse in which God tells Abraham not to kill Isaac is a later addition) that Abraham disobeyed God’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac, and disobedience rather than obedience is the corner of Jewish faith.^[9] His second book, Kant’s Critique of Spinoza, argues that the Critique of Pure Reason needs to be read as an answer to Spinoza’s Ethics. His latest book, Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel, develops a model for bi-national Zionism. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Haaretz and Die Zeit, among others.^[10][11]

A planned speech by Boehm at a 2025 event commemorating the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp was postponed after the Israeli embassy in Germany put pressure on the promoters. The head of the Buchenwald memorial, Jens-Christian Wagner, said that he and Boehm agreed to postpone the speech in favor of the Holocaust survivors present that day and not because of pressure placed on him or the memorial.^[12] The Israeli embassy wrote on social media that Boehm would dilute the memory of the Holocaust and that he had compared the Holocaust with the Nakba.^[13] Boehm’s speech was subsequently published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung and in English in Haaretz.^[14][15]

Books

• Haifa Republic: A Democratic Future for Israel ISBN 978-1-68137-393-5
• Israel – eine Utopie (German Edition) ISBN 978-3-5491000-7-3
• Kant's Critique of Spinoza ISBN 978-0-1993548-0-1
• The Binding of Isaac: a Religious Model of Disobedience ISBN 978-0567026132