From the Editor
A JEWISH UNIVERSITY:
KEY TOOL IN THE
CULTURAL WAR
In last month's "From the Editor," we focused on the cultural war in Israel between those who wish to destroy the Jewish character of the state and those who wish to preserve it, and the need for the latter to develop a full array of cultural institutions.
The Shalem Center in Jerusalem, headed by Yoram Hazony, has taken the first step, issuing an "Overview" that proposes the creation of the first and most important of these institutions, "an independent and 'conservative' Jewish university which will revive the Jewish national idea and train a new Zionist intellectual and political leadership."
The Shalem Center's "Overview" points out that Israel's chief universities are actively antagonistic to Jewish national values. "[T]hey constitute an ideological cartel, whose unambiguous message is that the only beliefs
appropriate to a modern Israeli intellectual are those currently fashionable in the West's liberal academia. Consequently,
the various beliefs that would comprise a Jewish national consciousness and a cultural conservatism --Jewish nationalism (Zionism), Jewish tradition, a belief in the importance of the Jews in history, political realism, economic liberalism, and constitutionalism reflecting Jewish social values -- are considered unacceptable.
"The result is that both the cultural and political leaders who emerge from the universities, and the cultural materials which are produced by university graduates in Israel, have only fueled an increasing trend towards a Euro-socialist, post-Zionist, and Jewishly bankrupt society." Moreover, the training is extremely poor, even on its own
premises. Expectations are low and demands minimal. "Israel's institutions of higher learning are in fact mediocre 'Hebrew' universities, whose shallowness and non-Jewishness are faithfully carried on into virtually all areas of Israeli intellectual and political life."
Hazony proposes to create a Jewish liberal arts university that will integrate Jewish source materials into the curriculum. He points out that existing models like Yeshiva University and Bar Ilan University, rather than uniting tradition and science, in fact only emphasize the abyss supposedly separating the rational ("fact") from the
irrational ("faith").
Hazony unabashedly seeks to create an elite Jewish liberal arts institution where the best students will work under the finest teachers in a rigorous full-time regime of instruction. It will be what he calls a 'conservative' university, in that nationalism will be accepted as a legitimate alternative to humanist internationalism, religious subjects and texts will be explored, the classic achievements of the Western and Jewish traditions will be emphasized and Jewish thought will be applied to the
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problems of contemporary life.
There could not be a more ambitious -- or a more
vitally needed project than the Jewish university the Shalem Center seeks to create. Once it gets off the ground, perhaps a sister institution could be created in this country, where it is almost as sorely needed.
PLO REPUDIATES
REPUDIATING
THE CHARTER
Over the last few weeks, newspapers, magazines, television broadcasts and political pundits have bombarded us with the news of the long-awaited changing of the PLO National Charter. The New York Times proclaims it in banner headlines and refuses to print letters to the contrary. President Clinton meets with Arafat in the White House to praise him for the changes he has made. Shimon Peres announces that it is the greatest event in the Middle East in the last one hundred years (never mind the creation of Israel).
Nothing will shake the West from its belief that the PLO Charter has been changed--not even the PLO! On Israeli Army Radio on May 6, a PLO spokesman stated that the news stories released by Israel regarding the changing of the Covenant were false. He expressed disgust with the Israeli government's deceptive propaganda. "We cannot continue [negotiations] like this. Israel cannot fabricate things," he said.
In the ultimate irony, it is the PLO which has become the only credible participant in the "peace process."
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is published by
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Editor: David Isaac
Editorial Board: Ruth King, George Rubin, Herbert Zweibon. Outpost is distributed free of charge to members of Americans for A Safe Israel. Annual membership: $50.
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