The Nisan Center for the Study and Development of Shared Society is in the initial stages of establishing an intellectual hub for Jewish–Arab Palestinian partnership in Israel. Nisan works to transform long-standing shared society activism into an academically grounded professional field, integrating research, conceptual development, and practice-based training. Building on the work of hundreds of educational, civic, cultural, and municipal initiatives and professionals, Nisan aims to connect existing “islands of partnership” and transform their practical wisdom into a coherent, sustainable knowledge infrastructure that enables depth, scale, and long-term impact.

The Nisan Center, based at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, strengthens the connection between ideas, knowledge, and practice as a foundation for advancing a shared society.

Nisan’s work is anchored in several core pillars:

  • On-the-job training – The development and facilitation of training programs for field practitioners, managers, and leaders, integrating academic knowledge with the systematic development of field practice, in dialogue with multidisciplinary academic research and alongside applied professional tools. Following a pilot conducted in 2025, the first cohort of Nisan’s flagship leadership development program for shared society organizations—The Nisan Hub—will launch in February 2026. In addition, brief intensive “Introduction to Shared Society” courses are offered for new professionals entering the field, as well as for those seeking to strengthen the theoretical and conceptual foundations of their work. Alongside this, the Nisan Center collaborates with organizations in the field to design and deliver tailored training programs for organizational teams and their networks.

  • Language for the field – Nisan aims to develop an evolving conceptual language for shared society, enabling conceptualization, learning, and in-depth engagement to support the continuous refinement of ideas and the upgrading of practice in the field. The first product of this process is the Lexicon for Shared Society (Volume I), developed and published by Nisan in September 2025. Volumes II and III are forthcoming, alongside a planned academic anthology on shared society, designed to support professional training and capacity-building. In addition, Nisan aims to collect and organize existing publications on shared society to make them accessible for practitioners and academics.

  • Organizing a knowledge community – Creating a space for learning, encounter, and dialogue among researchers, NGO professionals, and civic activists, dedicated to knowledge processing, experience-sharing, and collaborative development.

  • Establishing shared society as an academic field of study – Advancing research and publications; developing academic courses; and integrating Nisan’s work and the Lexicon for Shared Society into academic curricula.

  • Public engagement and knowledge dissemination – Conferences, lectures, workshops, and public-facing activities aimed at expanding public and professional discourse beyond a conflict-centered framework toward one rooted in civic partnership and shared society.

Nisan Center

Led by:

Dr. Ameer Fakhoury   The Polonsky Academy, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

Shuli Dichter                Lifetime activist. Former co-director of Sikkuy-Aufoq and Hand in Hand; Author of Sharing the Promised Land.

Galit Raz-Dror              Director of the Nisan Center for Shared Society