Democracy
New Publications in the Field
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
The End of the War Should Not Bring Israel Back to pre-Oct. 7 Debates
Will anyone champion the average Israeli fed up with both extremes’ take-no-prisoners, often self-sabotaging, rigidity?
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
Blame Zamir: Netanyahu’s latest front in his war on responsibility, democracy
If the government pressure finally pushes Eyal Zamir to quit, it will just be another victory in the October 7 coalition’s campaign to deflect blame.
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
20 years later: Israel’s lessons learned from Gush Katif and Tisha B’Av
No one could have known for certain back in 2005 what would happen next, how just two years later, Hamas would violently seize control of Gaza and that it would lead to the October 7 massacre.
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
Ten Secrets to Academic Success
Despite its problems, North America’s Higher Education system remains the most marvelous laboratory for instilling knowledge, nurturing ideas, generating innovations, and cultivating young minds invented since the Babylonian Yeshivas.
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
Netanyahu must decide if he’s a leader or follower as his government loses Israel’s trust
Why then does Netanyahu choose to turn his back on the will of the majority, thereby eroding public trust in him and his government?
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
How to break the deadlock on investigating October 7 failures
Israelis want a commission of inquiry, but the government has refused. What if a panel was tasked with preventing future disasters, not assigning blame?
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
Why the Left keeps losing, both in Israel and America
Leftists in Israel and America keep tripping on themselves by thinking they’re better, even as their behavior suggests otherwise, and by oozing elitist contempt for others in an age of populism.
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
A-G’s judicial overreach is undermining Israel’s democracy
Two recent legal decisions highlight the deep and systemic challenges Israel faces. We cannot ignore what they reflect about the current state of governance.
Researchers Team
Dr. Haim Zicherman
Bio
Dr. Haim Zicherman, a senior lecturer at the Ono Academic College (OAC), is an expert in constitutional and property law and also researches the ultra-Orthodox society.
His book Black Blue-White (Yedioth Books, 2014) takes a broad-minded approach to understanding the ultra-Orthodox society in Israel. Until last year, Zicherman managed the ultra-Orthodox campuses of the OAC, where thousands of Haredi students – male and female – study. In recent years, Zicherman has coordinated the development and management of the "Israeli Identity" course available to all undergraduate students in Israel.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. Haim Zicherman
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Dr. Shuki Friedman
Director General
Bio
Dr. Shuki Friedman is the Director General of the Jewish People Policy Institute. He is a member of the Faculty of Law at the Peres Academic Center and formerly served as secretary of the Locker Committee for Examining the Defense Budget. He was also chairman of the government committee on the sanctions against Iran, and headed the international and foreign law department for the legal division of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.
Areas of expertise
The relationship of religion and state; processes of religionization; secular-religious-ultra-Orthodox relations; ultra-Orthodox employment; the defense budget; Islamic law; international law; the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.
Focus Areas and Research
Antisemitism, Geopolitics, Democracy, Religion and State, Identity and Education, Haredim, Israel-Diaspora Relations
Articles by Dr. Shuki Friedman
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Prof. Yedidia Stern
President
Bio
Professor Stern is President of the Jewish People Policy Institute and a full professor in the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University. He is an alumnus of the Kerem B'Yavneh hesder yeshiva (1973-1978); holds a law degree (summa cum laude) from Bar-Ilan University (1982), and a doctorate in corporate law from Harvard University (1986).
Stern has served as dean of Bar-Ilan University's Faculty of Law (1994-1998), and was a Senior Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute (1989-2000). For a decade he served as the IDI's Vice President for Research.
His areas of expertise are corporate law (merger and acquisitions, corporate finance and corporate governance), and public law (constitutional law, religion and state, human rights, law and halacha or Jewish law). He has lectured and been a visiting scholar at universities abroad (including Harvard, Columbia, Brandeis, and Princeton), and was Distinguished University Professor at Monash University in Australia (2009-2011).
Stern has served as advisor to the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee; has participated in numerous committees and public entities, among them the Commission of Inquiry on the Treatment of Residents of Gush Katif (2009); the National Committee for Civic Studies (2009-2011, committee chair); the Takana Forum for the prevention of sexual harassment in the religious community (founding member); the Government Committee for Equality in the Burden of Service (2012); the Committee for Regulating Governance in Higher Education (2014). He has served on the boards of multiple companies, including (currently) that of Bank Leumi.
Stern has been awarded the Zeltner Prize for Excellence in Legal Research (2009), and the Gorny Prize for Outstanding Activity in Public Law (2012).
Professor Stern has written and edited over twenty books; has published over fifty research articles in five languages; is the coeditor (with Professor Sagi) of the journal Democratic Culture (19 volumes to date); regularly publishes essays and articles in the Israeli and international press, and is interviewed by the Israeli and international media on issues of law and society, religion and state, Judaism and democracy, Jewish identity and Israeli culture.
Born in England (1955), married to Dr. Karen Friedman-Stern, father of eight.
Focus Areas and Research
Antisemitism, Democracy, Religion and State, Identity and Education, Haredim, Israel-Diaspora Relations
Articles by Prof. Yedidia Stern
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