Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Programs
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Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

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Major Programs

Regional Diplomacy in the Middle East

Jerusalem in International Diplomacy -- Analysis of the legal and historic rights of Israel in Jerusalem according to existing agreements and UN documents.

The Peace Process, Human Rights, and International Law -- International human rights lawyer and Jerusalem Center Scholar-in-Residence Justus R. Weiner researches the status of human rights in the wake of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

New Atlantic Initiative -- Since March 2000, JCPA has been cooperating with the American Enterprise Institute and 18 think-tanks in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, examining ways to revitalize the Atlantic Community and U.S.-Israel relations.

American Jewish Community

Jews and the American Public Square -- A three-year program of communal dialogue, research and publication, initiated by The Pew Charitable Trusts and directed by Prof. Alan Mittleman, designed to explore the theme of religion and the public square in the context of the American Jewish experience.

Jewish Communal Service in the U.S.A. -- A series of new Jerusalem Center publications on Jewish communal service, including The Director Had a Heart Attack and the President Resigned: A Handbook on Board-Staff Relations by Gerald B. Bubis, and "Post-Zionist" Philanthropists: Emerging Attitudes of American Jewish Leaders toward Communal Allocations, by Steven M. Cohen and Gerald B. Bubis.

Israel's Internal Agenda

Privatization of the Israeli Economy -- For over a decade, the Jerusalem Center has been encouraging the expansion of privatization in the Israeli economy. Under the direction of Director General Zvi Marom, and in cooperation with the Milken Institute and the Koret Foundation, the project looks at various types of privatization from public, economic, legal, and social perspectives. The project includes conferences, workshops, and publications that have been widely distributed among decision-makers, economists, and experts on the capital market.

Water in Israel in the Year 2020 -- In a new, multidisciplinary study on the issue of water in Israel and the Middle East, leading experts in the field offer their recommendations, in studies to be published by the Jerusalem Center in both English and Hebrew. This project is being undertaken in cooperation with the office of Ronald S. Lauder.

Israel's Educational System -- Conducting applied research on educational problems from a systematic perspective to better deal with the educational needs of the 21st century.

The Druze in Israel -- This project has been working with leading members of the Druze community to enable that community to acquire a more equal position in Israeli society.

Other activities involving Israel's Internal Agenda have included studies of Israel's constitution, electoral reform, and election studies (with books covering every Israeli election since 1977); domestic issues such as improving Israel's health care system; local government; religion and politics; and communal relations within Israel society.

Study of Jewish Community Organization

The Study of Jewish Community Organization, initiated in 1968, was the first world-wide study undertaken of every organized Jewish community. The Study led to the establishment in 1970 of the Center for Jewish Community Studies in Philadelphia, the forerunner of the Jerusalem Center and today the center of our work in America. Products of this study include People and Polity: The Organizational Dynamics of World Jewry and Community and Polity: The Organizational Dynamics of American Jewry.

The Canadian Centre for Jewish Community Studies monitors Canadian Jewish communities, and provided major assistance toward the publication of Maintaining Consensus: The Canadian Jewish Polity in the Postwar World - winner of the National Jewish Book Award.

Jewish Political Tradition

The Jerusalem Center has published landmark works in this field including Kinship and Consent: The Jewish Political Tradition and Its Contemporary Uses, The Jewish Polity: Jewish Political Organization from Biblical Times to the Present, Authority, Power and Leadership in the Jewish Polity: Cases and Issues, and Covenant and Polity in Biblical Israel; as well as being the home of the Jewish Political Studies Review (since 1989). Since 1977, the Jerusalem Center has been developing an experimental core high school course which uses the Jewish political tradition to teach Jewish civic values. The Jerusalem Center has introduced sessions devoted to Jewish Political Studies at meetings of the Association for Jewish Studies, the World Congress of Jewish Studies, and the American Political Science Association.

Jewish Women's Human Rights

International Jewish Women's Human Rights Watch -- Directed by Sharon Shenhav, this Jerusalem Center project, co-sponsored by the International Council of Jewish Women, is working to gather information, research, and publicize the infringement of Jewish women's rights to equality in marriage, divorce, and the founding of a family.

Teaching and Outreach

The Jerusalem Center organizes workshops and conferences, including international conferences, special study sessions, forums, and training courses which are conducted for members of the academic community, public officials, Jewish leaders from Israel and abroad, and the general public. The JCPA offers scholars and students from abroad an opportunity to conduct research and participate in the JCPA's programs.

Publications

The Jerusalem Center has published hundreds of reports and monographs, as well as over 60 books.

The JCPA.ORG website contains a treasury of Jewish political studies resources. Available on-line:

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