Shalem College

Shalem College (המרכז האקדמי שלם, HaMerkaz HaAkademi Shalem) is a private liberal arts college in Jerusalem, Israel providing undergraduate education and founded with the aim of producing "broadly educated citizens for lives of influence and service." It is the only Israeli institution of higher education to offer a broad-based Core Curriculum as the basis for a first degree, as opposed to the general practice in Israeli universities and colleges of restricting a student's courses to a single department or field.

Candidates to the college are selected on the basis of exams, intellectual capabilities, and demonstrated commitment to public service. Accepted applicants receive substantial financial aid packages. The college is accredited by the Council for Higher Education in Israel.

History
Shalem College was founded in January 2013 following accreditation by the Council for Higher Education in Israel. It grew out of The Shalem Center, a think tank that aimed to enrich Israel’s intellectual discourse through research, publications, and public lectures. The Center was home to notable Israeli public figures, including former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, who wrote his definitive history of the Six-Day War while a fellow there, and the human-rights activist and Israel Prize winner Natan Sharansky, who currently teaches a seminar at the college on democracy and national identity.

Academics
Shalem College has pioneered the use of required courses for all students alongside a choice of major concentrations. Its Core Curriculum, the centerpiece of the college’s academic community, includes courses in philosophy, history, the natural and social sciences, literature, and the fine arts. It emphasizes the classic texts of both Judaism and Islam (the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and the Koran, among others) and courses on the history of the wider Middle East—subjects the college deems essential to meaningful citizenship in a modern Jewish state and active participation in Israel’s diverse society. The college also encourages the reading of primary sources. Most courses in the Core are taught in seminars of no more than 25 students.

After their first year, students choose one of three majors: the Interdisciplinary Program in Philosophy and Jewish Thought (IPJ), the Program in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (MEIS), or the Program in Strategy, Diplomacy, and Security (SDS). An additional major, in economics and policy, is planned for the coming years.

The Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies is notable for requiring fluency in Arabic as a condition of its degree. The department pioneered the practice of bi-weekly, one-on-one sessions with native Arabic speakers and summer Arabic immersion programs to help students attain this goal.

The language of instruction at Shalem is Hebrew, although students are required to demonstrate a level of English proficiency as a condition of their admittance.

Citizenship and Peoplehood
The college features a comprehensive citizenship curriculum, including an experiential course on the major challenges in Israeli society and the “Israel Story” event series, part of the Asper Center for Zionist Studies. The series brings notable Israeli authors—including David Grossman, Meir Shalev, Eli Amir, and Micah Goodman—to campus to discuss texts that have shaped the nation’s narrative. The Shalem accelerator also encourages student initiatives for social change, several of which have become sustainable organizations and nonprofits organizations.

Through the Koret Jewish Peoplehood Project at Shalem College, students participate in annual delegations to the Bay Area and the AIPAC policy convention in Washington DC.

Leadership and Faculty
Middle East scholar Dr. Martin Kramer, a student of the British-American historian Bernard Lewis, served as the college’s first president, from 2013 to 2017.

Although the college had a reputation for being dominated by immigrants from the United States, it has reportedly "broke[n] out of the Anglo mold." The staff and student rosters span the political and religious spectrum, and the college is not affiliated with any political stance or ideology. Moreover, although no Arabs are currently enrolled, the school has made extensive efforts to boost diversity and to recruit students from the Arab sector.

Shalem College Press
Shalem College is home to Shalem College Press, established in 1995 with the goal of enriching Israel’s intellectual life by translating classic works of Western thought into Hebrew for the first time. <!-- The Shalem Center, a think tank, founded Shalem College in January 2013 following accreditation by the Council for Higher Education in Israel. According to Daniel Gordis, the college's founding senior vice president, the idea was to provide the intellectual building blocks for a college with a strong humanities program, which Ivy League graduates in Israel, primarily from Princeton, had been hoping for since the late 1980s. The Center had translated classics such as Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes, into Hebrew. Humanities courses that are mandatory for each student, and around the idea of a vibrant, campus-focused student life. The four-year degree program teaches a broad curriculum similar to those found in American liberal arts colleges. The college believes this contrasts with most universities in Israel, which it says were "founded by European immigrants and patterned on the classic German research university, [and] typically offer narrow training geared toward specific disciplines and careers." The college seeks to challenge the conventional Israeli student work ethic, in which many students—who earn their bachelor's degrees after completing military service and study while they are employed—treat class attendance as optional. The college plans to use financial incentives to encourage students to be active in campus life, including incentives to live close to campus. Every Tuesday, each student must fulfill mandatory community service, helping nearby Jewish and Arab neighbors.

Shalem College offers a program of required courses alongside a choice of major concentrations. Courses include philosophy, history, the natural and social sciences, literature, and the fine arts combined the study of key Western and Jewish texts. The college follows the Great Books model, in which students are required to read sources directly, and in the context of small, participatory seminars. The core curriculum includes Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Durkheim and Einstein. Key texts from Jewish tradition are drawn from the Babylonian Talmud, Maimonides, Spinoza and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Sections of the Quran are also compulsory. After their first year, students will choose one of the two opening majors: the Interdisciplinary Program in Philosophy and Jewish Thought (IPJ), or Middle East and Islamic Studies (MEIS). Other majors in the fields of law, government and diplomacy, economics, and literature are planned to be added as the college matures. The language of instruction is Hebrew, however, students are required to read extensively in English. Additionally, MEIS students are expected to learn Arabic and IPJ students interested in pursuing graduate study are expected to undertake study of an additional language, such as Greek or German. -->