Director: Prof. Allon Gal

Purpose: The Center promotes interdisciplinary research on Jewish communities in the United States and Canada, as well as the publication and dissemination of information about these communities. The Center’s educational goal is to act as a bridge between North American and Israeli Jewry. The Center encourages studies in all facets of relations between North American Jewry, the Yishuv and Israel. It also seeks to advance the study of such themes as: “volunteerism and pluralism,” “patterns of Jewish political action in a democratic context,” “the various sides of Jewish communal life,” “class changes,” “religious movements,” “cultural and intellectual diversity,” “literature,” etc.

Projects: Guest lectures, symposia and conferences, research support for faculty and graduate students, assistance for publications.

Activities: The Center held in 1996 an international conference entitled “North American Jewry and Israel: Beyond security and Philanthropy,” sponsored by the Hebrew Union College and Ben-Gurion University Research Center. This conference focused on American-Israeli relations in light of the on-going peace process. Another conference, sponsored also by the Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities, entitled “Envisioning Israel: The Changing Ideals and Images of North American Jews” took place at the Sede-Boker Campus in 1993, and included 26 scholars from the United States, Canada, and Israel. The conference book has been published by Magnes Press, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Wayne State University Press, Detroit.

The Center publishes the proceedings from the international conferences.

For 1997-1998, the Center designed a new university course: “Pluralism in Judaism,” derived in part from previously successful teachers’ programs.

The Center was established in 1990 as part of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In addition to the executive, there is a sixteen-member council from various departments in the Humanities and Behavioral Sciences and an International Advisory Board composed of twelve distinguished scholars from American and Canadian universities.

In 1997, the Center was instrumental in securing a microfilm edition of Abba Hillel Silver’s complete archives as a donation from his family. The microfilm now resides in the library of the Ben-Gurion Research Center, Sede-Boker Campus.

A newsletter is published highlighting the Center’s major activities