Shalem Center

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.'

History

According to a Jerusualem Post article, "the Shalem-Princeton connection runs deep." The center'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 center in 1994 as a not for profit organisation. 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 April 2009 the center filed an application with the Council for Higher Education in Israel to establish 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"

Activities

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

In April 2009 the center 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. The academic content will "rigorously combine the wealth of Jewish and Zionist tradition with classical Western thought through the ages" and a major part of the curriculum "reflects the needs of contemporary Israel". Teaching staff will represent "the entire political spectrum of Zionism." The 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 center wants to raise $70 million to fund its establishment. The college will be entirely privately funded, receiving no money from the state.

Rationale

Because existing Israeli universities are perceived by Shalem as "less successful in inspiring today’s young people with a sense of mission and broad vision", the college is "designed to produce innovative civic leaders and strategic thinkers who will ascend to positions of real influence in all sectors of Israeli life."

Shalem literature about the planned college states: "In today’s increasingly post-national world, Israel faces an internal threat stemming from the growing loss of conviction on the part of its young people regarding the justness of its founding and the legitimacy of its continued existence as a Jewish state", suggesting that the college is designed to counter this trend.

The lecturers listed as the college's founders are all reportedly sharp critics of 'leftist' intellectual approaches. One academic involved, Professor Yoav Gelber, told Haaretz the humanties in the Israel academy are "in crisis" partly because "[t]hey teach all the post-modern silliness." President-designate of the college Martin Kramer said the college will not become "yet another home for scholars who have made their reputations by negating the Zionist and Israeli narrative". He has stated that the center will recruit faculty members "whose values commit them to the Jewish people and to the State of Israel - the vessel for Jewish survival. Yet this will not be a school for the indoctrination of Zionism."

Martin Kramer has also said that establishing the college had been an aspiration "since the center's inception", and stressed its importance by 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]."

Admissions

As well as academic ability, the admission will be based on "exceptional intellectual and extracurricular interests and talents, rich backgrounds in volunteer activities, and demonstrated leadership and dedication in frameworks such as the Israel Defense Forces and national service." To recruit students for its inaugural year Shalem will meet with "dozens of individuals who are influential in affecting decisions by top students regarding their choice of college or university, including heads of pre-army preparatory institutes, high school principals, officers in the elite army units that attract the most gifted and motivated young people, and others."Shalem College Q&As, Daniel Gordis.org, accessed June 14 2012</ref>

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

• Natan Sharansky director of the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies 2006-9

Shalem Foundation Board

Yair Shamir, Chairman of the Board | Isaac Applbaum | Jed Arkin | Yoram Hazony | Howard Jonas | Leon Kass | Barry Klein | William Kristol | Ronald S. Lauder David Messer | Daniel Polisar | Allen Roth | Aliza Sharon | Jacob Z. Schuster

Shalem Center Senior Management

Daniel Polisar, President and co-founder | Yoram Hazony, Provost and co-founder | Daniel Gordis, Senior Vice President | Jonathan Mensh, Vice President for Finance | Suzanne Balaban, Vice President for Communications | Elana Ben-Haim, Director of Strategic Development at Shalem | Shai Porath, Vice President for External Relations

College Planning Team

Rhanan Har-Zahav, Legal Council for Shalem College

Scholars and Faculty

Ran Baratz | Joshua Berman | David Gelernter | Daniel Gordis | Eric Gould | Ofir Haivry | Yossi Klein Halevi | Yoram Hazony | Yagil Henkin | Ido Hevroni | Pini Ifergan | Meirav Jones | Martin Kramer | Yosef Isaac Lifshitz | Ami Linder | Amichai Magen | Zeev Maghen | Julia Magnet | Eilat Mazar | Arie Morgenstern | Avi Nov | Daniel Polisar | Assaf Sagiv | Dan Schueftan | Yiftah Shalev | Joshua Weinstein | Michael Widlanski | Ehud Ya’ari

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 center'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".

Funding for Shalem College

In June 2008 the Klarman Family Foundation of Boston and George and Pamela Rohr of New York each made a commitment of $1 million in support of establishing a liberal arts college at the Shalem Center.

In February 2010 the Conduit Foundation based in Chicago, USA, announced a $5 million donation towards the Shalem College. Betsy Brill of the Conduit foundation said the planned college "reflects our foundation’s vision, which is the continuity of the Jewish people and the sustainability of Israel as a Jewish state."

In summer 2010 Shalem received $2 million to endow the first chair of the Shalem College. An "anonymous donor from England" gave $1 million and the Conduit Foundation gave the other half.

In May 2011 the New York-based Tikvah Fund - the Shalem Centre's "most generous" donor for over a decade according to Yair Shamir, chairman of the Shalem Foundation Board - pledged to match donations up $12.5 million received over the first 4 years after the establishment of the Shalem College.

Publications, Contact, Resources and Notes

Publications

The Shalem Centre publishes the quarterly journal Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation launched in 1996 and issued in Hebrew (under the name Techelet) and English. Notable contributors have 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.

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 Huntingdon's Clash of Civilizations which became a bestseller in Israel.

In 2004 a peer-reviews journal "dedicated to reevaluating the nature and scope of the Jewish contribution to the core ideas of Western civilization", Hebraic Political Studies was founded.

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
• 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