What it means for the State of Israel to be defined legally and cognitively as “Jewish and democratic” (in that order) has for years been at the center of public and political debate and will likely remain so in the future. How do Israeli citizens understand this dual definition?

The fear of Israel being the state of all its citizens is that it will lose its Jewish majority and will consequently cease to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people. This fear was coherent in the state’s early decades. Today as we celebrate our 75th anniversary, there are close to 7.5 million Jewish citizens in Israel, and 2 million non-Jewish citizens. Our challenge for the future is to admit victory and develop new policies that reflect our current reality, and not that of 75 years ago.

The most important and central issue with which the State of Israel has to contend is that of determining its character as a democratic Jewish state. Resolution of this issue will determine the state’s identity and, for good or ill, its future and its very legitimacy. At the heart of the tension lie two questions: What constitutional and legal elements may be derived from Israel’s “Jewish” component, and how do these elements accord, if at all, with the state’s liberal-democratic obligations?

Israel is the national manifestation of our current Jewish civilization – though not its only manifestation. To characterize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people is to recognize its diversity as well as its commonality.

We need to inculcate the concept of a shared society, where Jewish and Arab citizens are taught from an early age about mutual legitimacy in the citizenship club, and where they learn to recognize and accept each other. Citizens must be given the tools to understand the language and culture of the other, and to experience these things as beneficial to the shared public realm. In this way, a sense of closeness and sympathy will develop between all the country’s citizens.

Learning ways to manage controversies between state and religion can also teach individuals and institutions ways of dealing with conflict in other areas of life. These include interpersonal relationships in matters as simple as how to listen to the other, how to find growth in controversy, how not to abdicate responsibility prematurely, and how to figure out when to choose tenacity and when to compromise.

The State of Israel, does indeed have major accomplishments to its credit in all areas, and this remarkable success is a cause of wonder across the globe. Without going into detail here, this little country has become an international empire in several fields. And yet its worldview, even today, is diametrically opposed to the concept of am haTorah, “the people of the Torah,” which is itself the secret of our survival.

 Countless layers of Jewish-Israeli existence accumulated during the seventy-five years of the state's independence, and in fact began to form years before its establishment. Every moment of Israel's happening contains all the DNA of the twisted, vibrant and turbulent expression of the Jewish state known as the State of Israel.

I believe that the time has come within Israeli internal politics for every sector and tribe to set aside the inter-sectoral conflicts of the past and to think about how we – together – can ensure the future of all Israeli citizens and the state’s continued connection with Diaspora Jewry.