Shalem Center

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The Shalem Center was founded in Jerusalem in 1994 'with the aim of developing ideas capable of sustaining and unifying the Jewish people, and enriching and strengthening the State of Israel.'[1]

History

Activities

Funding of City of David excavation

Shalem sponsored senior fellow and archeologist Eliat Mazar's excavations of a site in East Jerusalem just outside the Old City believed to be the ancient palace of King David[2]. The site is located in the Palestinian Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood of Silwan and the project is seen by some as a means to strengthen Israel's control of East Jerusalem. The project was jointly funded by right-wing settler organisation Elad, instrumental in the Judaization of East Jerusalem.[3]

Shalem College

In April 2009 the center filed an application with the Council for Higher Education in Israel for the opening of an American-style liberal arts college authorized to grant B.A. degrees. The academic content would focus on the humanities and economics, and teaching staff would represent "the entire political spectrum of Zionism."[4] The lecturers listed as the college's founders are all reportedly sharp critics of 'leftist' intellectual approaches. One academic involved, Professor Yoav Gelber, told Haaretz the humanties in the Israel academy are "in crisis" partly because "[t]hey teach all the post-modern silliness."[5]

The college is expected to open in autumn 2012 [6] with the first intake of students to commence studies in 2013.[7] The center wants to raise $70 million to fund its establishment. The college will be entirely privately funded, receiving no state funding.[8]

Views

Research units and departments

People

Shalem Foundation Board

Yair Shamir, Chairman of the Board | Isaac Applbaum | Jed Arkin | Yoram Hazony | Howard Jonas | Leon Kass | Barry Klein | William Kristol | Ronald S. Lauder David Messer | Daniel Polisar | Allen Roth | Aliza Sharon | Jacob Z. Schuster[9]

Shalem Center Senior Management

Daniel Polisar, President and co-founder | Yoram Hazony, Provost and co-founder | Daniel Gordis, Senior Vice President | Jonathan Mensh, Vice President for Finance | Suzanne Balaban, Vice President for Communications | Elana Ben-Haim, Director of Strategic Development at Shalem | Shai Porath, Vice President for External Relations[10]

College Planning Team

Rhanan Har-Zahav, Legal Council for Shalem College[11]

Scholars and Faculty

Ran Baratz | Joshua Berman | David Gelernter | Daniel Gordis | Eric Gould | Ofir Haivry | Yossi Klein Halevi | Yoram Hazony | Yagil Henkin | Ido Hevroni | Pini Ifergan | Meirav Jones | Martin Kramer | Yosef Isaac Lifshitz | Ami Linder | Amichai Magen | Zeev Maghen | Julia Magnet | Eilat Mazar | Arie Morgenstern | Avi Nov | Daniel Polisar | Assaf Sagiv | Dan Schueftan | Yiftah Shalev | Joshua Weinstein | Michael Widlanski[12] | Ehud Ya’ari

Funding

In 1991 Hazony, Polisar and Weinstein obtained the initial funding of a few thousand dollars, from Barry Klein, to set up the Shalem Center Association.[13]In May 2005 the Las Vegas-based Adelson Family Foundation announced that the Shalem Center in Jerusalem was to receive a $4.5 million grant to enable creation of the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, which Sharansky heads and in which Ya'alon is a "distinguished fellow."[14][15]

Funding for Shalem College

Klarman Family Foundation of Boston and George and Pamela Rohr of New York each made a commitment of $1 million in support of establishing a liberal arts college at the Shalem Center.[16]

In 2010 Shalem received $2 million to endow the first chair of the Shalem College. An "anonymous donor from England" gave $1 million and the Conduit Foundation based in Chicago, USA, gave the other half.[17]

In May 2011 the New York-based Tikvah Fund - the Shalem Centre's "most generous" donor for over a decade according to Yair Shamir, chairman of the Shalem Foundation Board - pledged to match donations up $12.5 million received over the first 4 years after the establishment of the Shalem College.[18]

Publications, Contact, Resources and Notes

Publications

The Shalem Centre publishes the quarterly journal Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation launched in 1996 and issued in Hebrew and English. Notable contributors have included former Shalem Center fellows such as Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren, jurist Ruth Gavison and Hillel Neuer of UN Watch. It has published several articles critical of anti-Zionism and post-Zionism.[19][20][21]

In 1997 a publishing house Shalem Press was established which specialises in translating "classics from the Western tradition" into Hebrew. Its first translation was The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek, known for being a major proponent of free market economics.[22] Other titles it has translated include Samuel Huntingdon's Clash of Civilizations which became a bestseller in Israel.

In 2004 a peer-reviews journal "dedicated to reevaluating the nature and scope of the Jewish contribution to the core ideas of Western civilization", Hebraic Political Studies was founded.[23]

Contact

Address:The Shalem Center
13 Yehoshua Bin-Nun Street
Jerusalem
93102
Israel
Telephone: (+972) 2-560-5500.
E-mail: inquiries@shalem.org.il.
Website:http://www.shalemcenter.org.il/
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Shalem-Center/63364750961
LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/companies/shalem-center

Resources

Notes

  1. Shalem Center Our History, accessed 24 May 2012
  2. Our History, Shalem Center, accessed June 6 2012
  3. Nadav Shragai, Is Jerusalem discovery King David's waterway?, Haaretz, accessed June 6 2012
  4. Ofri Ilani, New college will turn out 'Zionist' graduates, Haaretz, accessed June 6 2012
  5. Ofri Ilani, New college will turn out 'Zionist' graduates, Haaretz, accessed June 6 2012
  6. Tikvah Fund issues $12.5 million grant, Shalem Centre, accessed June 6 2012
  7. Shalem College Q&As, Daniel Gordis.org, accessed June 6 2012
  8. Melanie Lidman, Shalem Center gets major grant for college, Jerusalem Post, accessed June 6 2012
  9. Shalem Center Shalem Center Leadership, accessed 21 August 2009
  10. Shalem Center Shalem Center Leadership, accessed 21 August 2009
  11. Shalem Center Shalem Center Leadership, accessed 21 August 2009
  12. Shalem Center Scholars and Faculty, accessed 21 August 2009
  13. Na'ama Lanski and Daphna Berman Storm in a neo-con teapot Haaretz, Last update - 00:00 30/11/2007
  14. Foundation Centre Adelson Family Foundation Awards $4.5 Million to Shalem Center in Jerusalem Posted on May 3, 2007, accessed 21 August 2009
  15. Shalem Center [1]
  16. Tzvee Teaneck Shalem Center to Become a Liberal Arts College in Israel Tzvee's Talmudic Blog 6.25.2008, accessed 21 August 2009
  17. $2 Million Donation Endows First Chair at Shalem College, Shalem Centre, accessed June 6 2012
  18. Tikvah Fund issues $12.5 million challenge grant for the establishment of Shalem College, Shalem Center, accessed June 6 2012
  19. Assaf Sagiv, The Sad State of Israeli Radicalism, Azure, accesed June 6 2012
  20. Is This Land Still Our Land? The Expropriation of Zionism, Azure, accessed June 6 2012
  21. Zionism's New Challenge, Azure, accessed June 6 2012
  22. Our History, Shalem Centre, accessed June 6 2012
  23. Our History, Shalem Centre, accessed June 6 2012