There are indeed 70 faces to the Torah. This is also true for Israel’s definition as a Jewish state. Yet although they may sharply diverge, there is no need, or reason, to shrink from making decisions in the spirit of the overall outlook that imbues real substance into Israel’s existence as a “Jewish and democratic” state.

Is the state of the Jews about to turn into a theocracy, as its opponents predicted? We are still far from such a situation, but the processes underway before our eyes are frightening.

It seems to me that the way to overcome the problematic genetics of Jewish sovereignty is to set limits to it – not just mutually acceptable physical limits but also a healthy boundary between religion and state.

The actual collective picture is better than the image Israelis have of themselves. Still, the identity crisis casts its shadows on Israel’s sovereign existence, and its gravity should not be downplayed.

The basic infrastructure that gives the state its legitimacy is rooted in the democratic model itself and in the contract at its core, and not in its Jewishness. On the contrary, Israel’s democraticity is the basis for Jewish flourishing, as we shall presently see. Israel is indeed a “democratic and Jewish state.”

The religious establishment in Israel relates to the entire aliyah from the FSU with suspicion and hostility and their every meeting with religious institutions from birth to death is fraught with difficulties. Those of us who are Jewish according to Halacha have to undergo a humiliating process with the rabbinate to prove our Judaism.

Now that Israel is long past the founding stage and its story has ceased to be that of a powerless minority, it would do well to reacquaint itself with the positive aspects of Weizmannism – an exemplary, measured, moral, and self-confident approach oriented toward promoting a diverse Jewish-Israeli identity through ongoing dialogue, rather than via the political power of an orthodoxy extremist in the identity or the political spheres

The Jewish state must remain a democratic, pluralistic one. To be Jewish but not democratic is an inherent contradiction. Nothing would betray Jewish values more than for Israel to surrender its democratic identity.

We may complain about the Israeli education system, and there’s certainly room for improvement, but let’s imagine what would happen if the Israeli-Jewish knowledge base that our education system transmits to students were available to all American Jews as well.