About B’Or Ha’Torah

B’Or Ha’Torah was founded in 1981 by Professor Herman Branover, who was then the chairman of the SHAMIR Association and Publishing House. Most of the papers for the first two volumes were written by distinguished scientists close to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who would discuss apparent contradictions between Torah and science with them both privately and in a group forum.

From the onset, though, a minority of B’Or Ha’Torah authors and peer-reviewers have been Lubavitchers. Out of its 105 authors, 28 have been Habad Hasidim and 77 have not. The pages of BHT are open to any writer who respects the Torah and whose manuscript passes peer-review.

The journal has been acclaimed throughout the world by leading rabbis and professors, as well as students and lay people. (See Feedback.)

B’Or Ha’Torah has organized eight successful international conferences on Torah and science in conjunction with Rabbi Sholom Dovber Lipskar of The Shul of Bal Harbour in Miami and Professor Nathan Katz of Florida International University. Most of the articles in BHT since 2001 have been the written papers from the Miami conferences.

Two B’Or Ha’Torah anthologies have been published: H. Branover, A. Gotfryd, and S. Lipskar, eds., Fusion (Jerusalem/NY: Feldheim, 1990) and H. Branover and I. Attia, eds., Science in the Light of the Torah (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Publishers, 1996).

In May 2010, with the approval of Professor Branover, whose health unfortunately forced him to retire, B’Or Ha’Torah moved to the Department of Development at the Jerusalem College of Technology (Machon Lev). The new editor-in-chief is Professor Joseph S. Bodenheimer, president emeritus of JCT. Ilana Attia continues serving as the managing editor. This move should enable B’Or Ha’Torah to grow and reach a much wider circle of readers—thereby strengthening our insight into how Torah and science interact in harmony.