The Metzilah Center for Zionist, Jewish, Liberal and Humanist Thought

Goal:

The Center will act to strengthen, and apply in practice, the intellectual basis necessary for the long-term welfare and flourishing of the Jewish people and Israel as its national home.

The Center seeks to contribute to the capacity of the Jewish people and its individual members, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, for optimum development of all dimensions of their identity, in conditions of physical and cultural security.

In promoting this goal the center is committed to humanist and liberal values.

Modes of Action:

The Center will work in the following ways:

1.      Articulation of the ideal of Jewish self-determination within the State of Israel and of Jewish self-fulfillment everywhere, and elaboration of its rationale on the basis of academic, historical and comparative research; 

2.      Discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of this ideal;

3.      Formulation of policy proposals issuing from these implications;

4.      Facilitation of discussion related to these issues in educational and public activities both in Israel and abroad.

Why the Center is needed:

Concern with central issues of Zionism and Jewish identity, in Israel and abroad, is not a new need.  Neither is the wish to combine promotion of the interests of the Jewish people with a commitment to universal values. However, Zionism’s success in founding the State of Israel, as well as changing political, social, and cultural processes in the world, the Middle East, and within the State of Israel and the Jewish people, require adaptation of these concerns to new conditions.  There is a need to re-examine basic questions such as the balance between the State of Israel’s relationship with the Jewish people and its obligation as a state to all its citizens and residents.  Such re-examination should address both the justification for the continued existence of a Jewish state in (a part of) Eretz Israel, and the relationships between Jewish communities both within and outside of Israel.  Some of the answers given to these questions in the past are no longer adequate, and others have been forgotten.   The compatibility of Zionism and concern with the welfare of Jews in Israel or abroad, with a commitment to humanism, liberalism or human rights is being questioned in many fora.  The Metzilah Center will endeavor to foster renewed thinking on such issues. It will re-affirm the justification for the right of Jews to self-determination as a derivation of commitment to humanism and liberalism. It will also promote connecting these ideals to long-term policy implications concerning the key-questions facing the State of Israel and the Jewish people.