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.'[1]
Contents
History
Activities
Funding of City of David excavation
Shalem sponsored senior fellow and archeologist Eliat Mazar's excavations of a site in East Jerusalem just outside the Old City believed to be the ancient palace of King David[2]. The site is located in the Palestinian Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood of Silwan and the project is seen by some as a means to strengthen Israel's control of East Jerusalem. The project was jointly funded by right-wing settler organisation Elad, instrumental in the Judaization of East Jerusalem.[3]
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 would focus on the humanities and economics, and teaching staff would represent "the entire political spectrum of Zionism."[4] 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."[5]
The college is expected to open in autumn 2012 [6] with the first intake of students to commence studies in 2013.[7] The center wants to raise $70 million to fund its establishment. The college will be entirely privately funded, receiving no state funding.[8]
Views
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
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[9]
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[10]
College Planning Team
Rhanan Har-Zahav, Legal Council for Shalem College[11]
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[12] | 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.[13]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."[14][15]
Funding for Shalem College
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.[16]
In 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 based in Chicago, USA, gave the other half.[17]
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.[18]
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 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.[19][20][21]
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.[22] 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.[23]
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
Notes
- ↑ Shalem Center Our History, accessed 24 May 2012
- ↑ Our History, Shalem Center, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Nadav Shragai, Is Jerusalem discovery King David's waterway?, Haaretz, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Ofri Ilani, New college will turn out 'Zionist' graduates, Haaretz, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Ofri Ilani, New college will turn out 'Zionist' graduates, Haaretz, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Tikvah Fund issues $12.5 million grant, Shalem Centre, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Shalem College Q&As, Daniel Gordis.org, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Melanie Lidman, Shalem Center gets major grant for college, Jerusalem Post, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Shalem Center Shalem Center Leadership, accessed 21 August 2009
- ↑ Shalem Center Shalem Center Leadership, accessed 21 August 2009
- ↑ Shalem Center Shalem Center Leadership, accessed 21 August 2009
- ↑ Shalem Center Scholars and Faculty, accessed 21 August 2009
- ↑ Na'ama Lanski and Daphna Berman Storm in a neo-con teapot Haaretz, Last update - 00:00 30/11/2007
- ↑ Foundation Centre Adelson Family Foundation Awards $4.5 Million to Shalem Center in Jerusalem Posted on May 3, 2007, accessed 21 August 2009
- ↑ Shalem Center [1]
- ↑ Tzvee Teaneck Shalem Center to Become a Liberal Arts College in Israel Tzvee's Talmudic Blog 6.25.2008, accessed 21 August 2009
- ↑ $2 Million Donation Endows First Chair at Shalem College, Shalem Centre, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Tikvah Fund issues $12.5 million challenge grant for the establishment of Shalem College, Shalem Center, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Assaf Sagiv, The Sad State of Israeli Radicalism, Azure, accesed June 6 2012
- ↑ Is This Land Still Our Land? The Expropriation of Zionism, Azure, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Zionism's New Challenge, Azure, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Our History, Shalem Centre, accessed June 6 2012
- ↑ Our History, Shalem Centre, accessed June 6 2012
