The Shalem Center (Hebrew: מרכז שלם, Merkaz Shalem) is a Jerusalem research institute that supports academic work in the fields of philosophy, political theory, Jewish and Zionist history, Bible and Talmud, Middle East Studies, archaeology, economics, and strategic studies. The Center has submitted an application with the Israel Council for Higher Education to open Israel's first liberal arts college.
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The Shalem Center was established in 1994, and is located in the German Colony neighborhood of Jerusalem. The center was founded by Yoram Hazony, Ofir Haivry, Daniel Polisar and Joshua Weinstein.
The Center's current leadership includes Daniel Polisar, President; Yoram Hazony, Provost; Daniel Gordis, Senior Vice President; Erica Frederick, Senior Vice President for Development; and David Arnovitz, Senior Vice President for Administration. The Chairman of the Shalem Board of Trustees is Yair Shamir, who is also Chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries.
The Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies was an academic and research institute founded at the Shalem Center by its chairman, Natan Sharansky, in 2007. Its mission statement read that it "develops, articulates and builds support for the strategic principles needed to address the challenges currently facing Israel and the West". The Institute was shuttered in 2009, with the departure of Sharansky to head the Jewish Agency.
In March 2009, the Shalem Center filed an application with the Council for Higher Education in Israel for the opening of an institution of higher learning that would be authorized to grant B.A. degrees in liberal arts. Shalem Senior Fellow Martin Kramer has been chosen to serve as the first President of Shalem College, currently slated to open in Fall 2012.
Past and present Senior Fellows include Daniel Gordis, Yossi Klein Halevi, Yoram Hazony, Meirav Jones, Menachem Kellner, Martin Kramer, Amichai Magen, Ze'ev Maghen, Michael Oren, Natan Sharansky, former Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon, and Ehud Ya'ari.
Shalem's research programs support scholarship in the areas of philosophy, political theory, Jewish and Zionist history, Bible and Talmud, Middle East Studies, archaeology, economics, and strategic studies. Shalem is home to Shalem Press, one of Israel's leading academic publishing houses, specializing in the translation of works of Western philosophy into Hebrew. The Center also conducts educational programs at the post-doctoral, undergraduate, and high school levels for students from Israel and abroad.
The Center has applied to the Israel Council for Higher Education to open Israel's first liberal arts college.Shalem College will offer the first Israeli B.A. modeled on the American liberal arts degree. Top Israeli and overseas applicants will pursue a unique core curriculum combining the study of Western thought with courses in Jewish sources. Students will choose a major at the end of their first year. Shalem College will be the first Israeli college to require a senior thesis for graduating with a bachelors degree. innovative programs in its core curriculum along with options for majors in philosophy and Middle East studies. Shalem plans to accept a select group of candidates every year, who would be selected on the basis of exams, intellectual capabilities and desire to serve Israel, the Jewish people, and the world beyond. The four-year program will initially offer majors in Middle East studies, and philosophy, political theory, and religion.
The Center publishes Azure and Hebraic Political Studies, the latter a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Azure (published in Hebrew as Techelet) is the largest-circulation general interest journal in Israel.[1][2]
The Center's publishing house, Shalem Press, publishes classic Western democratic thought in Hebrew translation, as well as Jewish thought in English, which include new editions of classic works, as well as the works of theologian Eliezer Berkovits. Best-known for books like Michael Oren's Power, Faith and Fantasy[3] and Six Days of War[4] and Yoram Hazony's The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul,[5] and publishing Natan Sharansky's A Case for Democracy in Hebrew.
Initial funding to establish the Shalem Center was provided in 1994 by New York philanthropist Ronald Lauder, who subsequently became Chairman of the Center's board of trustees. The Center began receiving significant support from Sanford (Zalman) Bernstein and the Tivkvah Fund in 1996. In 2007, the Las Vegas-based Adelson Family Foundation announced a $4.5 million grant to enable creation of the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at Shalem, to be headed by Natan Sharansky. In 2010, the Center announced a $5 million gift from the Chicago-based Conduit Foundation, headed by long-time Shalem trustee David Messer, to seed the establishment of Shalem College. Other significant supporters of Shalem College include the Klarman Family Foundation of Boston, George and Pamela Rohr of New York, and Harvey and Jayne Beker of New York.