Introduction

This month the National Security Team continued to mobilize organizations behind our “Call for Action” initiative, and released the first of a series of related educational materials. In advance of events taking place in September, and in light of the ongoing assault on Israel’s legitimacy, we are catalyzing an Israel education ‘blitz’ to re-connect and re-engage Jewish communities with Israel. Meanwhile, the team led by Ms. Dana Preisler continued its project relating to a major reassessment of Israel's national security and foreign policy doctrine, especially in light of 2011’s dramatic regional events.

Call for Action

This month we released a series of papers and educational material in relation to our “Call for Action” initiative, which aims to catalyze an Israel education ‘blitz’ for September when a number of events – the Palestinian campaign to seek UN recognition of statehood, the Durban III Conference, the High Holidays, and the new academic year – will coincide to place Israel in the spotlight. In the background the assault on Israel legitimacy, in some communities, has turned Israel from a unifying issue into polarizing one.To date, the “Call for Action” has been sent to key individuals in the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, Europe and Israel, including Jewish communal organization leaders, diplomats, high-level educators, and rabbis of major Jewish communities. We are now working to partner with global Jewish organizations and encourage them to: (1) organize events that could re-engage Israel in new ways; (2) create a platform for Israelis to let their voice be heard; and (3) disseminate relevant educational materials for Rabbis, lay leaders, and educators.

Several events, which to a greater or less extent are influenced by Reut’s thinking, are already planned for September and October, including the ACCESS Seminar "On this we agree" (planned for September 7th in NYC), our partnership with the World Jewish Diplomatic Corps that will likely produce several events in places around the world, and also the independent Hillel Talk Israel campus initiative. Other organizations have also demonstrated a willingness to participate in this effort.

Reut has partnered several individuals and organizations in the field of education in order to disseminate their material that could be used for educational purposes, including MAKOM and Gil Troy of the Engaging Israel Project at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Media

Our work continues to be cited in the media by mainstream outlets, and also in the newsletters and blogs of leading de-legitimizers. This month Eran Shayshon’s op-ed promoting the broad tent principle in advance of September, and in the context of the ongoing assault on Israel’s legitimacy, was published in the JTA, and in turn Jewish media outlets around the world.· Eran Shayshon, To help Israel, Jews must broaden the tent JTA (8/14/11) – “Broadening the Jewish tent is our opportunity to drive a wedge between those whose ultimate goal is Israel’s demise and those who hold legitimate criticisms of Israeli policies. Critically, a broad tent is not an open tent. There are boundaries between legitimate criticism and acts of de-legitimization. Local communities, synagogues, communal organizations and grass-roots organizations need to grapple with the question of setting these red lines through a bottom-up deliberation and on a contextual basis.”· Reut Institute, Israel Education Blitz. The Reut Institute established this website in order to consolidate the educational materials and other information being made available to those organizations seeking to use September – and the anticipated heightened focus on Israel – as an opportunity to re-connect and re-engage Jewish communities with Israel. The materials are being produced in partnerships with other organizations, such as Makom, who produced the excellent Am Chofshi B’Artzenu document.