Engaging Israel: "Jewish Values and the Dilemmas of Nationhood"   Context   One of the more troubling consequences of the increased campaign to delegitimize Israel is a growing discomfort among most Jews regarding their connection to and support for the Jewish State. For decades after the Holocaust, Diaspora Jews rallied in support of the new state out of a deep-rooted belief in the necessity of a Jewish homeland for Jewish survival. A tiny nation struggling simply to survive, Israel attracted passionate support from Jews around the world.   Yet with the passing of time and the evolving reality of the Jewish State, Israel’s image has shifted from a beleaguered nation to a military power. Removed from the sense of urgency once engendered by the Holocaust, many Jews today lack a clear understanding of why Israel is essential to contemporary Jewish life, and do not possess a Jewish vocabulary with which to assimilate and articulate Israel’s centrality for themselves and our people.   The Project   Engaging Israel is a new project of the Kogod Research Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought that is designed to re-conceptualize anew, for Jews around the world, the enduring significance of Israel for contemporary Jewry. In contrast to traditional pro-Israel advocacy, which looks to buttress the case for Israel through facts and figures, Engaging Israel aims to equip Jews with an internal, quintessentially Jewish values vocabulary to define and articulate why Israel and Zionism can be fundamental to their Judaism.   This innovative research project, involving a world-renowned research team of Jewish intellectuals from a variety of disciplines, will serve as the basis for a multi-volume series of DVD-based study seminars and comprehensive study guides, which will be disseminated internationally throughout Jewish communities, synagogues and university campuses.   Drawing upon 3,000 years of Jewish intellectual thought, Engaging Israel develops a multifaceted, nuanced ideological framework in support of Israel that transcends denominations and party lines. The project explores the most pressing challenges that undermine the significance and legitimacy of Israel and offers a Jewish values language with which to think about and respond these challenges.   By utilizing the challenges directed against Israel today as an opportunity to build a relevant new response based on Jewish values and ideas, Engaging Israel ultimately aims to reposition Israel as an essential source of religious and moral significance for Jewish people around the world.   Faculty   Engaging Israel brings together a team of world-leading scholars and public intellectuals who specialize in areas such as Jewish thought, political theory, and international law, and who are leading forces in rethinking the meanings and significance of Zionism and Israel and communicating these ideas to Jews worldwide.   Director of Engaging Israel is Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute. The research team includes: Dr. Tal Becker, who has served as international legal advisor in government positions and on the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations in New York Dr. Yitzhak Benbaji, a leading political and legal theorist specializing in morality of war who serves on the faculty of Bar-Ilan University Law School Dr. Micah Goodman, prominent scholar and lecturer in Jewish philosophy and Zionist thought, who often acts as a spokesperson in Israel and North America Yossi Klein Halevi, widely acclaimed author and political journalist Rabbi Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, Director of the Hartman Institute’s Department of Lay Leadership Education and lecturer at Hebrew Union College Prof. Gil Troy, currently serving on the faculty of McGill University and affiliated with the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. In addition, an internationally acclaimed team of consultants, handpicked for their outstanding expertise, will deliver added value to the project. These consultants are led by: Professor Michael Sandel of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Professor George Fletcher of Columbia Law School Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer, president of Shalom Hartman Institute North America Dr. Alex Yakobson of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Moshe Halbertal of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and New York University School of Law. The Hartman Institute and the Engaging Israel panel believe this process must involve the participation of all those concerned about Israel's place in the world. All those who are interested in participating in the narrative are invited to do so. Dialogue and conversation with the panel members will be encouraged through interactive forms such as online comments, email exchanges, and possibly in-person and online events, meetings, conferences, and seminars.   If you want to participate in this process, beginning by receiving periodic updates from the Engaging Israel panel, please click here now. If you have suggestions for how to proceed, invitations you want to extend, arguments you want to make, presentations you want to offer, or other information you wish to bring into the conversation, please click here now.   This page and others on the Hartman Institute website will become a resource and center for interactive communications on this subject. Please bookmark it and return often.   Below you will find articles by Engaging Israel Project members on this subject.   The Hartman Institute's Summer 2010 programs for lay leaders and rabbis is also investigating these questions, and many of the members of the Engaging Israel panel will be giving lectures and participating in discussions on the topic. Summer 2010 program attendees can click here for exclusive access to background materials on the subject.