Azure, subtitled Ideas for the Jewish Nation, is the journal of the Shalem Center, an academic institute in Jerusalem. The magazine is published quarterly in English and in Hebrew; the Hebrew edition is Israel's leading journal of public thought. The Shalem Center is an academic research institute in Jerusalem established in 1994 with the goal of developing the ideas needed to guide and sustain the Jewish people in the coming decades. ... For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The word Hebrew most likely means to cross over, referring to the Semitic people crossing over the Euphrates River. ...

Azure articles cover currents in Israel and the Jewish world, Jewish and Zionist history, Jewish thought, cultural trends in the Jewish world, political philosophy and other issues relevant to the Jewish people around the world. Frequent contributors include Michael Oren ("Six Days of War"), jurist Ruth Gavison, Yoram Hazony, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Yossi Klein Halevi, and writer Claire Berlinski. A bilingual poster in Romanian and Hungarian promoting a film about Jewish settlement in Palestine, 1930s. ... Michael Oren (born in 1955) is an Israeli historian and writer. ... Ruth Gavison (Born: Jerusalem, March 28, 1945) is an Israeli Law professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. ... Yossi Klein Halevi (1953-present) is an author, journalist and researcher of Israeli culture and society. ...

The name of the journal refers to the sky-blue dye applied to one of the white threads on the tallit, the ritual fringed garment worn by Jews. According to Jewish tradition, the blue color "is like the sea, and the sea is like the sky, and the sky resembles the Divine Throne" – serving to remind the Jews of all that is majestic and eternal, and of the obligation to represent these in the world. The tallit (Modern Hebrew: ) or tallet(h) (Sephardi Hebrew: ), also called talles (Yiddish), is a prayer shawl cloak that is worn during the morning Jewish services (the Shacharit prayers) in Judaism, during the Torah service, and on Yom Kippur. ...

External links

• The Azure website
• The Shalem Center