In these times of rapid change, the Jewish Agency for Israel, and specifically the Department for Jewish Zionist Education, is interested in reassessing the values, assumptions and principle concepts that determine its educational activities in Israel and around the world.

With this in mind we have conducted a wide-ranging series of interviews and consultations, with Israeli thinkers, scholars, educators and policy makers. These interveiws have been transcribed and collected in a soon-to-be published collection, entitled "Siach Hogim" (Thinkers in Conversation) extracts of which are reproduced below:

From Allan Hoffman's address to "The Future Map of the Jewish World - Conceptual, Political and Educational Challenges" Conference, September 24th, 2001 (3.8MB)

From the miracle of exile to the miracle of revival
An interview with Rabbi Shlomo Aviner

The Size of the Future Israel Depends on the Views and Acts of This Generation
An interview with Prof. Moshe Bar Asher

Who are we?
An Interview with Haim Beer

Highlights of the Struggle and Highlights in the Consensus
An interview with Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun

Why Is Judaism Losing Its Importance for Jews
An interview with Dr. Meir Buzaglo

Zionism, like Judaism, maintains that justice must be pursued
An Interview with Prof. Rachel Elior

Building the Common Interest
An interview with Prof. Ruth Gabizon

Zionism Cannot Exist Over the Long Term Without Strong Relations With Judaism
An interview with Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin

Intellectually - We Have Stagnated
An interview with Prof. Moshe Idel

The challenge: Finding A Common Jewish Identity From a Multi-Cultural Approach
Written by Tova Ilan after an interview with her

The Heart of the Jewish People Beats Here, in Jerusalem
Interview with Prof. Binyamin Ish-Shalom

I believe in the traditional structure of the Jewish community
An interview with Ruth Kalderon

There Is No Chance of Us Being a Splendid Society as Long as We Control Others
An interview with Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer

Freedom of the Individual Takes Precedence in My Eyes to Zionism and Judaism
An Interview with Prof. Amia Lieblich

The Paradoxical Existence of the Jewish people
An interview with Aharon Meged

A Need for Equality Between Different Jewish Conceptions and Equality Between Jews and Arabs
An interview with Prof. Alan Pape

Every Question is the Cultural Translation Question
An interview with Rabbi Dr. Einat Ramon

Often the vision neutralizes practical energy necessary for correcting past actions and planning for the future
An interview with Prof. Aviezer Ravitzki

There Is a Process of Cultural Amnesia Here
Written by Prof. Eliezer Schveid Following an Interview with him

Reinforcing Clarification is Preferable to Debilitating Blurring
An interview with Leah Shakdiel

Imparting Jewish culture must be regarded as one of the fundamental Jewish challenges
An interview with Prof. Alice Shalvi

Ignorance and Extremism Can Threaten Israeli Society
An interview with Prof. Aliza Shenhar

In Israeli Society There Is a Multitude of Interpretations and a Dearth of Will to Live Together
An interview with Prof. Yael (Yuly) Tamir

The Current Stage Demands Our Relearning Judaism and Zionism
Written by Muki Tzur, after an interview with him

We have become an unexceptional nation, and we are disappearing
An interview with Dr. Michael Weisskopf

The Challenge: Reinforcing Our Cultural Identity
An interview with Prof. Yair Zakovitz

From the miracle of exile to the miracle of revival
An interview with Rabbi Shlomo Aviner

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There is morality that should be fostered, and given the pattern that Sephardi Judaism have given it, which is the synagogue morality. I can say this very openly. One should see how the synagogue is being returned to the secular experience. Look, ninety five percent of Sephardi Jews are not anti-religious, although seventy percent of them are no longer religious. In my study for the Avichai Foundation, I examined two hundred and fifty Sephardi synagogues. Multiply that by two hundred worshippers, and look what you get. Seventy percent of Sephardim attend synagogue services. One of the great failures of Sephardi Judaism is that it has not managed to bequeath anything to the general public. This of course has historical reasons. The Sephardim have not managed to transfer the openness by which one can be traditional or non religious, but not anti religious. Today we can see a very interesting phenomenon. Fewer Ashkenazi secular Jews come to synagogue, because they do not tolerate the religious establishment. In the past, many Ashkenazim would attend synagogue. Whoever had an uncle, grandfather or father who died would go to say the Kaddish prayer. But today this is disappearing. A kind of framework should be constructed, and I admit that I do not know how to do it, a framework in which one does not regard a synagogue as an institute belonging to the religious establishment but as an institute of Jewish spiritual elation, even with secular tools. To my mind, education should be accompanied by composition in some way. I want you to understand me correctly. I recognize the legitimacy of secularity as a self-sufficient culture, and I do not want to be interpreted as one who preaches to the secular on what they should do, but the secular public must ask itself what out of historical Judaism can enter its secular ritual.

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Now look, the difference between the human ear and the cassette recorder working on my table right here is fantastic, because the ear is able to reject irrelevant background noises. There is a lot of noise here. There is an air conditioner, there is the person working downstairs and sawing paving stones, there is a dishwasher in operation. In the conversation between us, all this becomes meaningless, because you are listening to me and I am listening to you. But the cassette player is uniform, and when you decipher the recording, all the noises will assume the same meaning. One does not need to stand facing Judaism like a cassette recorder. Facing Judaism, one need stand as a person who knows how to classify, like the human ear. Imagine that I suddenly hear a non-standard sound. Despite the conversation with you being interesting and important for me, I shall say to you "Hold on", because maybe somebody has been hurt, or maybe someone is stealing something. The human ear knows how to prioritize all the time, something the cassette recorder cannot do. So I can tell you that being Jewish today, as I understand it, is being a human ear and not a cassette recorder. Not taking everything for granted, but asking what is important and what is not all the time, making this classification all the time.

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Highlights of the Struggle and Highlights in the Consensus
An interview with Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun

The highlights of Zionism are subject more and more to a struggle within Judaism, indeed within Zionism. Zionist society can be reduced to a group struggling for the Jewish-Zionist character of the State of Israel, and because the Zionist movement is a minority movement, as it has always been, this struggle is very difficult. I believe that Zionism will emerge victorious, but there is no guarantee that it will. I pray and work to this end. Within a true peace agreement, if we must divide the country, I propose that Israeli Arabs who regard themselves as Palestinians by nationality assume Palestinian citizenship of the Palestinian state with a right to reside permanently in Israel, whereas the settlers of the West Bank and Gaza Strip stay put as Israeli citizens within Palestinian territory. In this way at least people will not be forced out of their homes, a step that appears immoral to me, whether in the case of Palestinian Arabs or Jewish settlers. I am not clairvoyant. I cannot see the future State of Israel. The future State of Israel will be what we all shape, whether by agreement or struggle. It depends on us. In that respect, I am a Zionist in the classic sense of "us". We bear the responsibility. It is out of religious belief that I say so. In this manner I am a religious pioneer, a religious Zionist, maybe even a religious Brenner, whatever is done is what will be, and whatever is not done, we shall not have. Nothing will happen alone.

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Why Is Judaism Losing Its Importance for Jews
An interview with Dr. Meir Buzaglo

In my opinion, all the current discourse on Zionism only serves the anti-Zionists. In any case, one should be aware of this dimension. It is correct and preferable to adopt the minimalist definition of Zionism: Jews deserve a home, and their home is the Land of Israel. The movement has achieved its goal, and it has ended. The pointless efforts of achieving Zionism must be stopped. This acts first and foremost against the achievements of Zionism. Take for example the historical opposition of the ultra-orthodox to Zionism. Where is it today? There is no room today for ultra-orthodox opposition. It belongs to the past. A state already exists. Sometimes it is good to take this minimalist definition. Who is interested in raising the issue of Zionism today? Many times, it is the anti-Zionists . For us, the sympathizers of the idea of there being a state for the Jews and trying to face off the anti-Zionist groups and provide a Zionist education, the game is working in our favor, but against us too. One can say the following about Zionism: a movement that has succeeded, has been closed, and that is all. Now, for instance, Minister Limor Livnat has said that she would provide Zionist education, and it is actually frightening for me, a person who is happy with the achievements of Zionism.

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Zionism, like Judaism, maintains that justice must be pursued
An Interview with Prof. Rachel Elior

The Jewish community in its ideal perception was based upon standards of social justice: equality, freedom, peace, truth and justice, responsibility and charity. An ideal morality that formed a perception of reality drawing on its vision of the benefits. Daily life raises the question of whether there is actual justice, rather than in a vision, of whether there is equality, a course of common social responsibility, for the community, the public and the individual. But these are not things that are the subject of coercion in the modern world, but a matter of choice. Let us take justice for example. The purpose of justice is to distribute communal resources in a more just manner than arbitrary distribution. You voluntarily consent to relinquish your economic sovereignty, to share your resources with others, to give support to the luckless who do not themselves have independent ability. This is not just responsibility. This is assistance, support, and care, where you choose the name of social justice and mutual responsibility. The relinquishment of personal interests, on the part of the personal field, of sovereignty, in order to make room for the needs of others, is a characteristic of the Jewish community more than others.

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Building the Common Interest
An interview with Prof. Ruth Gabizon

The last thing I would suggest is that it is about time for the State of Israel to privatize the national institutions of the Jewish people. It would benefit Zionism and the Jewish people for the institutions to reside in Israel with dignity, but separate from the country, because the country owes responsibility to all of its citizens. It is good for the state for there to be Jewish national institutions that can do things that it is not allowed to do, such as promoting only Jews. Furthermore, Israel does not need to be concerned with Jewish assimilation and education in the Diaspora, but the Jewish Agency should be. The symbiotic relationship between the state and the Agency is bad for the state, the Agency and for Zionism and Judaism. The country should support Zionism because of its historical-cultural-existential commitment, but as a voluntary movement of Zionists in Israel and in the world. The privatization will strengthen and consolidate the deterioration that has naturally occurred in an organization lying by the State's desk, with momentum given to respond to the complex relationship between categories of Israeli citizenship, Jewish identity and Zionism. The ability of the Zionist institutes to accomplish this work will increase, if their basis will continue to be voluntary, a basis of identity, of commitment, as was the case before the founding of the State. I am sure that many people will object to this. The disassociation must be a long move. In the end, the State laws granting national institutes this special status must be abolished. But in order for the move being feasible and not appear to be anti-Zionist, it must stem from Israeli society and from the Jewish institutions in the world. They must demand to be the Zionist organization as it was. The State will permit them to help, but they must maintain autonomy of organization and identity. Today, they are too close to Israel, constituting a conflict of interests. There are institutions of the Jewish people, and the Jewish people is partly here and partly there, and it has interests differing from those of the State of Israel, which has a large non-Jewish population.

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Zionism Cannot Exist Over the Long Term Without Strong Relations With Judaism
An interview with Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin

Zionism today is an integral part of Judaism, and Judaism without Zionism is depleted and incomplete. I write questions and answers, in Hebrew and English, and a few years ago I published an answer in English in the Moment periodical, which later appeared in my book. I examined the question of whether immigration to Israel is a religious mitzvah or not, and reached the conclusion that immigration to Israel is a religious mitzvah. I tried to base this answer on Nachmanides and on other sages who were of similar opinion. I consider immigration to Israel to be one of the 613 mitzvahs. All of Zionism is an integral part of Judaism, like the Sabbath, keeping kosher and other things. Therefore I can say wholeheartedly that there is no Judaism without Zionism, and that Zionism is one of the mitzvahs of Judaism.

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Intellectually - We Have Stagnated
An interview with Prof. Moshe Idel

The state was essentially founded on a weakness or a marginal defect in two central bastions of Jewish life: religious Jewish culture and general culture. Whoever rebelled, usually rebelled against both. People who arrive here in the second wave of immigration (perhaps less so in the first immigration) rebelled against their home, which was either the secular university or the religious seminary. These two were the basis of a very large proportion of the Israeli world. I am not talking about the universities, which are a very small part, but in essence the rebellion has succeeded because of this repression or weakening of these two bastions. It was very constructive for that period; if you want to build - you must relinquish certain things. I justify this relinquishment as far as the past vision goes. You cannot have a general culture and want to keep the Sabbath, or pray a number of times a day while building something new. The conditions, to a certain degree, have given rise to this not just because there was a rebellion, but also because reality has changed. Today it is not possible to continue in this manner.

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The challenge: Finding A Common Jewish Identity From a Multi-Cultural Approach
Written by Tova Ilan after an interview with her

But what is "Judaism"? What phenomenon do we know as "Judaism"? The entirety of Jewish composition ever created? The culture? The Jewish library, as it is usually known as today? The canons who became sanctified by becoming "inalienable assets", even if you do not approach God with a religious attitude, due to their being "Israeli heritage"? This question has all the possible pitfalls, because effectively, there is no such thing as Judaism. Even for a religious person, and I am a woman who defines herself as religious orthodox, this word, Judaism, has no definable sense.

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The Heart of the Jewish People Beats Here, in Jerusalem
Interview with Prof. Binyamin Ish-Shalom

I know there are Jews who are not Zionists, or who do not consider immigration to Israel a priority. I do not intend to disqualify their attitude, but in my humble opinion, Zionism is the more complete Jewish attitude, the modern expression of the more complete Jewish existence, striving to give expression to and fulfill most aspects of historical Jewish existence: national, sovereign Jewish existence in the Land of Israel, giving it feasibility and creating tools and conditions of development for Jewish creation in all its aspects. Not only literary writing, and not just musical composition, or any particular artistic creation. There are these outside of Israel too. I am talking of the entire breadth of Jewish composition: culture, art, science, economics, social and legal orders, technological systems, defense, health and police. All this leads to this entire civilization according to its values, fulfilling an ancient dream, to ensure the security, existence and future of later generations. It thus constitutes the most comprehensive application of the concept of responsibility, the mitzvah, the commitment it believes in. This is the entirety of Jewish existence, not as a community, as a ghetto, or one concentration or another, but an overall Jewish existence covering all dimensions and aspects. This is what Zionism with its plenitude of ideological facets does.

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I believe in the traditional structure of the Jewish community
An interview with Ruth Kalderon

To the degree that it is our fault as Jewish educators that we have managed to make it so repugnant, I think that there is a true desire, need and hunger on the part of the Israeli public for Jewish culture. We, with our own hands, have made the inhibitions and led to banal, left-wing, nostalgic Jewish education. We have become accustomed to working on this as nostalgia, rather than as something relevant. The mistake was in the presentation of the material rather than in the material itself. The stage at which Israeli culture greatly rejected Judaism was the stage of its founding during the time of my youth. It had finished twenty years ago, and the arguers still have not realized it, but continue to dole out Yiddishkeit. Who? The Jewish Agency, schools, textbooks, the institutions. The defect is in us, in the mediation.

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There Is No Chance of Us Being a Splendid Society as Long as We Control Others
An interview with Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer

We must ensure that if there is someone who wants to get the best discussion, the most current information, who wants to consult the most meaningful experts, he will find it here. Because for people for whom Judaism is meaningful, this will be one of the ways of bringing them here, whether for short periods or for good. If we are the number one spiritual and cultural center in the world for Judaism and Jews, this is another reason to come here, to have a relationship with this place. And if the Jewish issue is very important for somebody, this is another reason to be here. Because if somebody wants the best of Jewish culture, at the best level, at the greatest depth, it must be here. There must be a large educational and cultural effort to generate this.

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Freedom of the Individual Takes Precedence in My Eyes to Zionism and Judaism
An Interview with Prof. Amia Lieblich

There are in fact two types of Judaism, both of which to my mind are legitimate. Zionist Judaism, which means living in this country; or living abroad, with a sense of mission to support this country, of being lobby representatives, donors; it is a kind of circle that surrounds us, our life here. I would want Zionist Judaism to be the majority, in order to guarantee the existence of the State. But in my opinion it is certainly legitimate for there to be another type of Judaism, non-Zionist and cosmopolitan. There is a group of people that I know from the United States, but there are certainly others from other places in the world, who are Jewish by identity, some of whom are scholars, people who make their living through Judaism, learn and teach Jewish science, etc., and who do not consider life in the State of Israel to be an option for them, and that is okay as far as I am concerned. I do not expect everyone to come here and support us.

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The Paradoxical Existence of the Jewish people
An interview with Aharon Meged

For me, as an Israeli living in Israel, from a totally egoistic viewpoint, Zionism is not finished. No way. If Zionism were to end, I would not see much chance for our survival in the Land of Israel. Without constant human resources from the Diaspora, we would not be able to endure. Time is not on our side. We are a small island in a large and hostile world that is mainly conspiring to eliminate us. Our neighbors do not want us here. We are alien to them, we are interfering in their lives. Our culture is strange to them. They feel we are here unjustly and unlawfully. They are trying to oust us from here by force. If not by force, they will try in other ways. But the fact is that this world is gaining strength. We will not be able to compete by force alone. Our current strength is temporary, in my opinion. The danger is one of our very existence. And if there is existential danger, I want more Jews here, so that we can accumulate more strength. We need the support of the Diaspora, because it is very difficult without it. Jews in the Diaspora should be told: if you do not support us and send your children here, we shall simply not exist. Do you want us to be destroyed?

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A Need for Equality Between Different Jewish Conceptions and Equality Between Jews and Arabs
An interview with Prof. Alan Pape

The very possible expansion of the concept "Jew" must be honored so as to include whoever believes even in the tiniest shred of Jewish dogma, in order to strengthen the demographic issue. This runs into problems when it is found that groups, particularly from the third world, are trying to embrace this broad definition, and some of the 'captains of the Jewish state' have discovered that they did not mean that tribes in Africa should suddenly identify themselves as Jewish. The State of Israel does not want Africans, every Ethiopian man and woman in Israel knows this from personal experience, neither does it really want people in India or China defining themselves as Jews. This is very frightening. If groups in Europe and North America define themselves as Jewish, we will discover that we are returning to the previous definition. There is a term known as essential. This essentialism, i.e. that there is one thing that stands eternal over time and space, all people belonging and having belonged to it, this is a position that no longer exists, at least in the more post-modern and pluralistic world. Do all Jews have the same Judaism? No. Do they all have the same dogma? I am not even sure of this. Is there an assertion that everyone must have the same dogma? Yes. Certainly. Just as there is no one Judaism, there is no one Islam. I have always opposed the trend of Israeli orientalism - of talking about Islam. There are a billion Muslims, with no relationship between them. Some Muslims believe in martyrdom, Christianity and Buddhism and have blood relations, and that is what should guide their way, and there are those who believe that whatever is far from the Koran is un-Islamic. Therefore there is no clear contemporary definition of the central dogma of Islam or that of Judaism.

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Every Question is the Cultural Translation Question
An interview with Rabbi Dr. Einat Ramon

Hebrew should be learned as a language of culture, studying the lexicon of culture with its basic terms, what Hebrew is and what the philosophical meaning of the word is, while studying the language. Hebrew as a key to Jewish culture. On this subject you can find various books. Prof. Art Green, who wrote a lexicon on Jewish culture, or the encyclopedia edited by Arthur Cohen and Paul Modes-Flor, with a lot of Hebrew terms such as grace, woman, charity, out of which you build the tiers of the philosophical world. When people learn the language as part of the Jewish culture, a gateway opens up for them. In my opinion, grammar or technicalities should be left aside, in an endeavor to enlist students as allies in language. There are people who will be attracted to biblical Hebrew, and others who will be interested in the language of the Siddur, and those for whom the language will constitute a key to modern Israeli culture.

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Often the vision neutralizes practical energy necessary for correcting past actions and planning for the future.
An interview with Prof. Aviezer Ravitzki

Kaplan once said: What is a home? A home is the only place where I cannot say to myself "Get out of here" when I return to it. This is in fact the meaning of the Law of Return. There is nowhere in the world where I can come with the label of Jew and where nobody will throw me out. Here I can. You are sick, uneducated, poor, unpleasant, yet nobody can say "no" to you. Why? Because you are a Jew. In a hotel I might not be admitted, but when I come home, my wife cannot get rid of me. She must go to court in order to get a divorce even if I am unpleasant. Therefore the concept of home is singular, and contains the aspects I mentioned earlier. It is very interesting that today, a Jew can be abroad and decide in his consciousness whether he is in the Diaspora or at home. Jews in Israel can also be in a state that the ultra-orthodox call "Exile of Israel in the Holy Land".

From Aviezer Ravitzki's address to "The Future Map of the Jewish World - Conceptual, Political and Educational Challenges" Conference, September 24th, 2001

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There Is a Process of Cultural Amnesia Here
Written by Prof. Eliezer Schveid Following an Interview with Him

In Israel we lost the existence of the community, the setting in which people meet as individuals while being aware of their responsibility for one another. Belonging to a community is not only manifested in rights, but in duties, expressed in interpersonal give-and-take. The community setting must be restored. A state will not be Jewish from the point of view of its basic ethos if it will not have a communal society, because the Jewish lifestyle is communal, and its ethos is that of a "covenant society". The pact is the universal affinity of bestowing rights on others and assuming their responsibility. I consider this to be not only the infrastructure for unity of the Jewish people and retaining their identity as a people, but also the foundation that the Jewish people can provide to western civilization, that is sinking in an ethos of competitive selfishness, dismantling the solidarity with its peoples and thus destroying the foundations of its very existence.

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Reinforcing Clarification is Preferable to Debilitating Blurring
An interview with Leah Shakdiel

Yesterday, in the course I teach at Ben Gurion University in a special graduate degree program for Arab students (because there is a great shortage of professionals in the Bedouin sector, another class has been opened for them for graduate degree advice), I taught essays on Zionism. Mahmad, a young man from Rahat, suddenly said at the end of the lesson "If Zionism is Europo-centric, what does it have to look for among Oriental Jews? Its a religion, and we said that Zionism is secular coercion, so what do we have to look for with them?" I told myself that the whole of the next lesson should be devoted to that point. He was a Muslim, and it was obvious why he maintained that Judaism was a religion, just it is clear why Christians say the same thing, and why the Jews of the United States take it for granted as part of their American identity that Judaism is a religion. But what should be done about it when it is a distortion of the truth?

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Imparting Jewish culture must be regarded as one of the fundamental Jewish challenges
An interview with Prof. Alice Shalvi

What concerns me is the loss of the concept of "purity of arms", which was once so important for us. It seems tough that it has ceased to exist, but there are more groups and organizations caring for human rights. In general, I would cite the increase in the number of non-governmental organizations engaged in various aspects of creating an improved society. So what the government does not do, concerned and worrying citizens do. Twenty or more years ago there was a concept that "the government would see to it", and now the understanding that citizens themselves must build a civil society is gaining momentum. This is a unique and praiseworthy concept. Because we are so immersed in our daily lives, we tend not to see the very positive aspect of what happens today. This is the light at the end of the tunnel, and I must say that this light is getting bigger.

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Ignorance and Extremism Can Threaten Israeli Society
An interview with Prof. Aliza Shenhar

For years, nobody taught us the subject of Jews outside Israel, and when you would ask a school kid what he knows about Diaspora Jews - he would know something about Babylon Jewry. This of course had clear reasons, but was a terrible thing that was really done with Zionist blindness, maybe with the best of intentions, but it must be corrected as soon as possible. I think that if we are different organs of one body, it cannot be possible for the arm not know that there is also a leg, that the eye does not know that there is also an ear. It is very important for every student in the State of Israel to recognize the Jewish people wherever it is, recognize its history, its culture, society, economy and movements. It is just impossible to do otherwise.

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In Israeli Society There Is a Multitude of Interpretations and a Dearth of Will to Live Together
An interview with Prof. Yael (Yuly) Tamir

One of the nice things about Judaism, like any broad and coherent world conception, is that it has many facets. Apart from the core of principles manifested in the Ten Commandments and a limited further number of biblical and talmudic texts, there is an enormous richness that everybody draws upon as he chooses. The broad variety of texts and ideas allows different and conflicting world conceptions to be inherent to Judaism: Buber with a message of peace and justice, and Rabbi Kahane with his bellicose and racist message. Both draw upon Jewish texts and base their doctrine on them. This is evidence of the flexibility of the text. Therefore, asking about the principles of my own Judaism is asking what are my principles, what is the filter through which I read Jewish texts? Out of my social democratic worldview, the texts that are important to me are first of all the moral text teaching of the duty of justice and support for the weak, poor and ignorant, and the more universal texts expressing moral prohibitions such as "Thou shalt not murder", "Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor", "Avoid falsehoods". Judaism has a very attractive moral doctrine for whoever chooses to highlight these texts.

From Yael (Yuli) Tamir's address to "The Future Map of the Jewish World - Conceptual, Political and Educational Challenges" Conference, September 24th, 2001

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The Current Stage Demands Our Relearning Judaism and Zionism
Written by Muki Tzur, after an interview with him

What do I now want to bring to Zionism? The new content is composed of the social trials that have been made here, the achievements and the dreams. My Zionism is based on accepting the Zionist heritage with its Jewish background, and from a basic assumption stemming from recognition rather than from experience, of solidarity of the Jewish people, an assumption very similar to my need to belong to the family of peoples. The Zionist is duty-bound to the solidarity of Jews to express themselves in whatever circumstances, and to listen to the needs of the Jew inasmuch as he is Jewish. Conversely, the Jew is required, as a member of the family of peoples, to fulfill his duties towards it. But I have left more unsaid than said here, because in my mind, the conversation starts becoming interesting only after the block of the chapter headings is overcome and the body text is reached, and the body text should be reached. From Muki Tzur's address to "The Future Map of the Jewish World - Conceptual, Political and Educational Challenges" Conference, September 24th, 2001

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We have become an unexceptional nation, and we are disappearing
An interview with Dr. Michael Weisskopf

There is a kind of combination, sometimes very dramatic, and sometimes funny or ridiculous, between our universal tendencies and our desired place; between the ease with which we leave one country for another, one culture for another. We do not stick with any place where we are situated, apart from the one most convenient for our residency, our development, a place devoid of the most specific properties. Therefore our promised land is America, because the United States, a global superpower, is open for everything. This phenomenon has physical and totally arbitrary properties, in my opinion. Our national character, as I have stated, is open to dozens of ideologies and utopias of various kinds. These utopias generally contradict the national character of the particular place, meaning we have always been accused of treason, and frankly, in some cases this has been justifiable.

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The Challenge: Reinforcing Our Cultural Identity
An interview with Prof. Yair Zakovitz

I am all for equality of rights for Arabs as citizens, but do not expect them to be Zionists, and I do not expect to shed a tear when I hear the future Palestinian national anthem. I have my own vision, and he has his own. I have my memory, and he has his. I am firstly Jewish, and regard our being here as the fulfillment of the miracle of the return of the Jewish people to its land, wishing to create a life of community and of sharing, beyond the duty to maintain physical security. If we have finally gained the right to reside here as a Jewish people, on the contrary, we shall open our Jewish culture to the effect that each of us will know why he is residing in his country, and not, for example, in the United States, where a much higher salary can be earned; why am I willing to go onto reserve army duty year after year rather than living in Iceland, where there is no reserve service? I am willing to make do with a modest salary, serve in the army and live at some risk in the belief that this is the only place where the Jewish people can attain self-fulfillment.

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