Although a great many issues are awaiting resolution on Israel’s national table, the parties involved in the current coalition negotiations have been focusing on one topic: the ultra-Orthodox. The headlines have focused on the political aspect of this issue, and have concerned themselves with the question of whether or not the coalition will include the ultra-Orthodox parties. But regardless of…

Abstract

This is the political coming of age of a cultural and social movement that is not willing to content itself with the obsessive debate about Israel’s borders conducted under the code name of “right” and “left”, but chooses instead to focus on the desired nature of the state that will exist within those borders, wherever they end up. In addition…

There are different kinds of calls for military insubordination. Some people who advocate refusal of orders are motivated by the desire to thwart the implementation of national decisions that have been made democratically; consequently, they call for mass civil disobedience or for disobedience by those who would be responsible for implementing the national decision, such as air force pilots ordered,…

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, one of the most important rabbis of the Religious Zionist community, has stated that it is forbidden for women to serve in the Knesset because it is a breach of modesty. As he sees it, the public exposure that is involved in political life is not reconcilable with the religious principle of “all the honor of the…

The JPPI’s new, action-oriented book “Jewish Demographic Policies: Population Trends and Options in Israel and in the Diaspora” makes recommendations to meet the current Jewish demographic challenges, all of which are worthy of serious debate. Among the main recommendations: establishing final borders of the State of Israel; facilitating cultural absorption of non-Jewish members of Jewish households into a Jewish context and…

A new report by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) concludes that an immediate, coordinated Jewish – including Israeli – response is needed to thwart the possible implications of recent attempts to ban circumcision and limit other Jewish practices in Western Europe. JPPI characterizes the German court’s decision against circumcision as a “historic ruling” that might threaten the future thriving…

The 2011-12 Assessment offers a clear framework for judging the “State of the Jewish People. In what areas are world Jewry and Israel thriving? Where are they “maintaining” or holding at current levels?  And where are they declining. Using five key dimensions—geopolitical developments; demography; identity formation and expression; intra- and inter-community bonds; and material resources—the Assessment analyzes the state of…

The following paper is drawn from ongoing work  by the Jewish People Policy Institute and appears on the JFNA website by special permission.  Readers are requested not to distribute or quote from this document without prior permission. For the full text: 2012: Prioritized Strategies for the Jewish People Challenges and Opportunities: A Conceptual Framework