Israel-Diaspora Relations

Preliminary Findings – Jewish and Democratic: Perspectives from World Jewry

This paper presents the motivation behind, mechanism employed, and preliminary findings of JPPI’s project, Jewish and Democratic: Perspectives from World Jewry. Parts of this paper originally appeared in a background document prepared for moderators and participants in JPPI seminars conducted in early 2014 in Jewish communities around the world.

The aim of the seminars was to solicit Diaspora views regarding Israel’s identity as a “Jewish and democratic state.” JPPI is in the process of preparing an integrative report on the views of world Jewry on this subject for submission to Prof. Ruth Gavison at the end of March 2014. This paper focuses on the motivations behind this project and the questions JPPI seminars were intended to assist in answering. It also includes a final section with some of the preliminary conclusions based on analysis of existing research and of early seminars. It should be looked at as a first and partial draft of the report that JPPI will ultimately submit. Its intention is to inform the discussion of this topic at JPPI’s 2014 Glen Cove conference.

To read the full paper: Jewish and Democratic: Perspectives from World Jewry