Mission Statement
The Center for Jewish Community Studies (CJCS) is a U.S. non-profit organization founded in 1973 in Philadelphia by the late Prof. Daniel J. Elazar (1973-1999). Prof. Elazar initiated the Study of Jewish Community Organization in 1968, the first world-wide study undertaken of every organized Jewish community. The Study led to the establishment of the Center for Jewish Community Studies.
Since that time, CJCS has been conducting research and educational projects worldwide on the Jewish community including within Israel. The Center’s mission is to initiate and conduct research, publications and the production of educational materials and position papers on questions pertaining to public policy, strategy, diplomacy, administration, economics and society, Jewish political tradition and peoplehood, and to disseminate the results of its activity.
Within the framework of its mission, CJCS has supported the activities of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in these areas.
Major Programs
- Educating professors and students on U.S. campuses on current Middle East trends and developments
- Research on changing attitudes toward Israel among college students and the reasons behind those changes
- Strategic and diplomatic issues concerning Israel’s security needs
- International law and armed conflicts – asymmetrical war
- Combating incitement to terror
- Analyzing threats to the West in order to combat terror, and identifying potential partners in the struggle against terror
Key People
The Center for Jewish Community Studies is governed by a distinguished Board of Fellows. The President of the Center is Ambassador Dore Gold. The Director-General of the Center is Chaya Herskovic.
Professor Daniel J. Elazar, z”l – Founder of the Center for Jewish Community Studies
Professor Daniel J. Elazar (1934-1999) was a leading political scientist and specialist in the study of the Jewish political tradition, Israel, the world Jewish community, federalism, and political culture. He was Professor of Political Science at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he founded the Center for the Study of Federalism, and held the Senator N.M. Paterson Professorship in Intergovernmental Relations at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, heading its Institute for Local Government. Professor Elazar was the author or editor of more than 60 books, and founded and edited the scholarly journal Jewish Political Studies Review.
CJCS Board of Directors
Prof. Arthur I. Eidelman, Vice Chairman
Arthur I Eidelman served as Director of Newborn Services and Assistant Director of Pediatrics at the Einstein College of Medicine in New York. In 1978 he established the first Department of Neonatology in Israel, and subsequently became Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, and Professor of Pediatrics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Hebrew University School of Medicine, and Research Scientist at Yale University Child Study Center. Dr Eidelman has authored over 200 peer reviewed articles, monographs, and textbooks in the field of Pediatrics and Neonatology.
Prof. Mervin Verbit, Secretary & Treasurer
Mervin F. Verbit is an American sociologist whose work focuses on sociology of religion, American Jews and the American Jewish Community. He is currently the chair of the Sociology Department at Touro College. Dr. Verbit was a full-time time Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and has been visiting professor at several institutions, among them Bar Ilan University, Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Yeshiva University, and Jewish Theological Seminary. He served as the first president of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (ASSJ),
Prof. Harold Waller
Harold Waller was a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal who specializes in Jewish political studies and Israeli politics. He co-authored Maintaining Consensus: The Canadian Jewish Polity in the Post War World with Prof. Daniel Elazar, which won the National Jewish Book Award (1991).
CJCS Fellows
***Member of CJCS Board of Directors
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