Overview and Objectives

Academic Director: Prof. Hanna Herzog
Coordinator: Hanan Saadi

The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute views the cultivation and strengthening of civil society as one of the foundations of democracy in Israel and as the basis for an egalitarian, pluralistic, and tolerant society.

A significant portion of the Institute's intellectual resources and staff are devoted to the study and reinforcement of civil society in Israel. We seek to create an alternative body of knowledge that can be incorporated into the public discourse and drawn on by decision-makers in fields associated with concepts of citizenship and civic policy. Special emphasis is placed on education, economics, and social justice.

The Institute's activities are conducted in diverse forums: research groups, discussion groups, round-table discussions of key issues on the agenda, local and international conferences, and evening symposia open to the general public. Our goal in all of these forums is to encourage fruitful interaction among scholars in various disciplines, activists in the field, and those who devise and implement policy. The Institute's focus on civil society seeks to promote social responsibility and commitment. Our activities are divided into several main categories:

• Social Inequality and Social Boundaries
• The Center for Social Justice and Democracy in memory of Yaakov Chazan
• The Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere (WIPS)
• Gender and Society in Context
• The Economics and Society Program
• Strategic Thinking for Education
• Civic-Political Thought