Shalem Center

The Shalem Center in Jerusalem at 13 Yehoshua Bin-Nun Street

The Shalem Center was founded in Jerusalem in 1994 'with the aim of developing ideas capable of sustaining and unifying the Jewish people, and enriching and strengthening the State of Israel.'

Activities

Lobbying for Herzl Law

The Shalem Centre was involved in lobbying the Knesset in favour of enacting a law establishing a national memorial day for Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. It assisted in drafting 'the Herzl Law' which was passed in June 2004. In 2006 president and co-founder of the centre Daniel Polisar was appointed to the National Herzl Council, an official state committee responsible for commemorating Herzl's legacy through implementing the provisions of the law and carrying out research projects related to his life and memory.

Funding of City of David excavation

Between 2005-8 Shalem sponsored senior fellow and archeologist Eliat Mazar's excavations of a site in East Jerusalem just outside the Old City which she believed to be the ancient palace of King David. The dig was also supported by Susan and Robert Hertog, chairman of the Tikvah Fund who pledged to give $500,000 to the project. The site is located in the Palestinian Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood of Silwan and is seen by some as a means to strengthen Israel's control of East Jerusalem. Robert Hertog, asked by the Washington Post if he contributed in the hopes of enhancing Israel's claim to East Jerusalem, said that it "was not the most significant" reason.

The project was jointly funded by right-wing settler organisation Elad Association, instrumental in the Judaization of East Jerusalem, who also own the land in question.

Shalem College

Having taught a variety of short courses since 2005 in April 2009 the centre filed an application with the Council for Higher Education in Israel for the opening of an American-style liberal arts college authorized to grant B.A. degrees, to be called Shalem College.

President-designate Martin Kramer has said that establishing the college, explicitly Zionist in nature, had been "an aspiration since the center's inception", and stressed its importance, adding: "In a way, the Shalem Center was the interim framework established until a kind of critical mass and reputation were achieved that would allow this step [founding the college]."

The long term raison d'etre of the college is to counter challenges facing Israel, from "the specter of a nuclear Iran" to "an increasing campaign of international delegitimization" but in particular the "growing number of Israeli and Jewish youth [who] do not believe in the justness or feasibility of a Jewish and democratic state", seen as an internal challenge even greater than the rest.

Shalem College is expected to open in autumn 2012 with the first intake of students to commence studies in 2013. It will begin with 50 to 100 students and ultimately plans to enroll 1000 undergraduates and up to 200 graduate students. Undergraduates will study 4-year course rather than the usual three.

The centre wants to raise $70 million to fund its establishment and the college will be entirely privately funded, receiving no money from the state.

History

According to a Jerusualem Post article, "the Shalem-Princeton connection runs deep." The centre's founders included a number of Princeton University graduates, among them Yoram Hazony and Daniel Polisar, and others like Michael Oren and Martin Kramer have worked at Shalem at various points. Hazony, Polisar and Joshua Weinstein met as students at the university.

The three obtained initial funding in 1991 and founded the centre in 1994 as a not for profit organisation. Since 2005 it has also been a registered company. By 2007 it reportedly had an annual budget of $10 million, around 100 employees and was paying Hazony and Polisar salaries worth NIS 850,000 ($220,000) each.

In 2009 the centre filed an application to establish Shalem College an American-style liberal arts college able to grant B.A. degrees intended to "cultivate a cadre of broadly-educated, committed citizen leaders for the Jewish state and the Jewish people"

Research units and departments

• Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies | Institute for the Archaeology of the Jewish People | Institute for Economic and Social Policy | Institute for Law and Constitution | Institute for Middle East and Zionist History | Institute for Philosophy, Political Theory & Religion

People

Board of Directors

Yair Shamir, Chairman of the Board | Isaac Applbaum | Jed Arkin | Jayne Beker | Louis Frenkel | Yoram Hazony | Leon Kass | Ronald S. Lauder | Polina Liberman | David Messer | Elisa Palter | Daniel Polisar | | Aliza Sharon

Former directors

Howard Jonas | Barry Klein | William Kristol | Allen Roth | Jacob Z. Schuster

Executive Leadership

Daniel Polisar, President and co-founder | Martin Kramer President-designate, Shalem College and Senior Fellow | Yoram Hazony, Provost and co-founder | Daniel Gordis, Senior Vice President | Anat Altman, Vice President for Strategic Planning | David Arnovitz, Vice President for Operations | Erez Eshel, Vice President for Student Affairs | Seth Goldstein, Chief of Staff, Office of the President | Ofir Haivry, Director of Studies and Associate Fellow | Yael Hazony, Vice President for Communications and Director of the Press | Jonathan Mensh, Chief Financial Officer |

Former senior management

Suzanne Balaban, Vice President for Communications | Elana Ben-Haim, Director of Strategic Development at Shalem | Shai Porath, Vice President for External Relations

Scholars and Faculty

Joshua Berman | Daniel Gordis | Ofir Haivry | Yoram Hazony | Meirav Jones | Martin Kramer | Menachem Kellner | Yosef Isaac Lifshitz | Zeev Maghen | Daniel Polisar | Assaf Sagiv | Suzanne Last Stone | Joshua Weinstein

Former Scholars

Ran Baratz | David Gelernter | Eric Gould | Yossi Klein Halevi | Yagil Henkin | Ido Hevroni | Pini Ifergan | Ami Linder | Amichai Magen | Julia Magnet | Eilat Mazar | Arie Morgenstern | Avi Nov | Dan Schueftan | Yiftah Shalev | Michael Widlanski | Ehud Ya’ari

Post Doctoral Fellows

Tzahi Weiss | Hannah Hashkes | Michael Fagenblat | Micha'el Tanchum

Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies

Natan Sharansky, Director, 2006-9 | Moshe Ya'alon, Distinguished Fellow | Martin Kramer, Senior Fellow | Yossi Klein Halevi, Senior Fellow | Ehud Ya’ari, Senior Fellow | Yagil Henkin, Associate Fellow

Funding

In 1991 Hazony, Polisar and Weinstein obtained the initial funding of a few thousand dollars, from Barry Klein, to set up the Shalem Center Association.In May 2005 the Las Vegas-based Adelson Family Foundation announced that the Shalem Center in Jerusalem was to receive a $4.5 million grant to enable creation of the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, which Sharansky heads and in which Ya'alon is a "distinguished fellow." Initial funding also came from Ronald Lauder, chairman of the centre's Foundation Board, while he was chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and he reportedly gave "a few hundred thousand dollars a year".

According to an article published in 2007 in Haaretz, the Tikvah Fund founded by Zalman Bernstein had for some years "provided the center with more than $5 million a year". Barbara and David Messer are listed alongside the Tikvah Fund as major donors to the center. Other supporters include The Koret Foundation, the Gilbert and Elisa Palter, the Israeli Leadership Council, the Beker Foundation, Paul Singer and the US State Department.

Funding for internship programme

Since 2007 the centre has run a summer internship programme mostly attended by North American students. The 2012 intern programme received an endowment from the J Richard and Dorothy Shiff Family (Toronto) Programme. In previous years the Leichtag Foundation of San Diego has covered the costs.

Publications

Journals

Between 2006-11 the Shalem Centre publishes the quarterly journal Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation issued in Hebrew (under the name Techelet) and English. Notable contributors included former Shalem Center fellows such as Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren, jurist Ruth Gavison and Hillel Neuer of UN Watch. It has published several articles critical of anti-Zionism and post-Zionism.

From 2004 until 2006 Shalem also published a peer-reviewed journal "dedicated to reevaluating the nature and scope of the Jewish contribution to the core ideas of Western civilization", called Hebraic Political Studies.

Shalem Press

In 1997 a publishing house Shalem Press was established which specialises in translating "classics from the Western tradition" into Hebrew. Its first translation was The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek, known for being a major proponent of free market economics. Other titles it has translated include Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations which became a bestseller in Israel.

Contact

Address:The Shalem Center

13 Yehoshua Bin-Nun Street

Jerusalem

93102

Israel

Telephone: (+972) 2-560-5500.

E-mail: inquiries@shalem.org.il.

Website:http://www.shalemcenter.org.il/

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Shalem-Center/63364750961

LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/companies/shalem-center

Resources

• Wikipedia Shalem Center
• Ofri Ilani 'New college will turn out 'Zionist' graduates' Haaretz, Last update - 12:12 19/04/2009
• Ofri Ilani Funded by U.S. neocons, think tank researchers now carving Israeli policy Shalem fellows have moved on from libraries to government offices, turning abstract research into policy. Haaretz, May 18, 2009 | 1:45 AM
• Na'ama Lanski and Daphna Berman Storm in a neo-con teapot Haaretz, Last update - 00:00 30/11/2007
• Richard Silverstein Shalem Center: Making Academia Safe for Right-Wing Zionism Tikun Olam, 20 April 2009
• Daniel Gordis webinar, "A State Unto the Nations: A New Vision of Israel for a New Generation of Leaders", Shalem Dialogues, recorded 7 December 2011
• Daniel Polisar webinar A New Vision for Higher Education in Israel: The Case for Shalem College, Shalem Dialogue Series, recorded 7 November 2011