In this world, filled with science and intuition, sometimes the counterintuitive idea is the most important, and frequently the most logical.  In some ways, bringing Jews and Arabs together in educational, cultural and social settings would seem to be the last thing you want to do if you want to strengthen the Jewishness of the state of Israel.  You might be led to believe that organizations engaged in building a shared society helps with the “democratic” side of Israel being a “Jewish and Democratic” state, but how can it help with the Jewish side? That sounds totally counterintuitive, but I believe it is the right way of understanding what a Jewish state is.

A Jewish state is a place where the Jews can feel completely comfortable and secure with being Jewish – in private and in public – and where they do not feel that any other religion limits their own Jewishness.  However, a truly Jewish state should have no reason to fear having Muslims and Christians – Arabs, Druze, Bahai and others – living in the same state as full citizens.  Not only not fear, but actually embrace the possibilities about how a diverse population can enhance our self-understanding as Jews and as lovers of the Jewish........

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