A Jewish and Democratic State: The Evolution of an Idea

For the past four decades, the formula “Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State” served as a point of consensus among wide segments of Jewish Israeli society, with the two values seen as fundamentally in harmony with one another. More recently, ever-growing numbers of Jewish Israelis have been questioning whether a synthesis of the two is possible, and if not, which of the two is the more important for Israel’s future. The lecture examines how the formula first came into being, how the terms “Jewish” and “democratic” have been interpreted by Israeli political institutions, and how the phrase has moved gradually from a source of consensus to one of conflict.

About the speaker

Professor David Engel served for more than three decades as the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies, Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, and Professor of History at New York University, and as a Fellow of the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of nine books on various aspects of modern Jewish history and politics, including Zionism: A Short History of a Big Idea.

From the Director: Engel modeled consummate professionalism and insisted that we stick to the historical facts regardless of how emotional a topic might render us. He modeled, too, the conscientious limitation of expertise to one’s scholarly ambit: when asked to comment on a contemporary issue, he said that while he had thoughts, conjectures, and certainly opinions on the subject, he did not have command of the sources on that subject to the degree he has command of the sources on his own deep research, and therefore preferred not to merely conjecture, opine, or think aloud. It was a fantastic model.