Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel

The ICCI served as a clearinghouse for information about interfaith activity in Israel and abroad and promoted activities intended to deepen understanding of different beliefs and traditions.[6] U.S. Department of State reports in 2005, 2007, and 2010 described it as an NGO promoting interfaith dialogue among Jewish, Muslim, and Christian institutions.[2][7]

A Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies report identified four principal fields of activity: interfaith and intercultural dialogue; development of local leadership; religion and the environment; and peace and education for coexistence. The report described the ICCI as distinctive for treating religion as a potential means of conflict resolution rather than only as a source of conflict.[8]

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs described approximately 60 participating organizations, including the Ecumenical Theological Fraternity, the Seminar Centre for Pluralism at Kibbutz Malkiya, and the Sisters of Sion. It also noted that few of the listed organizations were specifically Muslim.[6] An Israeli government publication, by contrast, described a membership of more than 70 institutions, including coexistence organizations, museums, universities, and ecumenical bodies.[1]

The ICCI was listed as a member of the International Council of Christians and Jews, an umbrella organization of national associations dedicated to Jewish-Christian dialogue. The ICCJ expanded its mission in 1995 to include trilateral dialogue through its Abrahamic Forum Council.[9] By 2015, Rabbis for Human Rights hosted the ICCI and its work promoting dialogue among Jewish, Muslim, and Christian institutions.[5]

An Israeli government publication written by Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish identifies him as the ICCI's founder and director. Kronish wrote that he and a number of colleagues established the organization in 1991 as an umbrella body for dialogue, education, and mutual understanding among Israel's religious communities. The same publication gives January 1991 as the founding date.[1] Kronish's Jerusalem Post author profile also describes him as founder and director from 1991 to 2015.[3]

A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs biographical note separately identifies Rabbi David Rosen as the ICCI's founder and vice-chairman.[10] The descriptions are not necessarily mutually exclusive, since Kronish's account refers to several colleagues, but the available sources do not explain the division of founding roles between Kronish and Rosen.

Two similarly named Israeli bodies also appear in accounts of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC). The World Jewish Congress states that the Jewish Council for Interreligious Consultations in Israel joined several organizations in founding IJCIC in 1970.[11] The American Jewish Committee lists the Israel Jewish Council on Interreligious Relations among IJCIC's member organizations.[12] Neither source explicitly identifies those bodies as the ICCI established in 1991, so a direct institutional continuity cannot be assumed.

At the time of a 2004 Jerusalem Institute study, the ICCI had been active for more than ten years and worked through a network of organizations and external partners. Before the Second Intifada, most of its activity involved bodies outside Israel; afterward, its emphasis shifted toward fostering relations among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam within Israel.[8]

The ICCI placed particular emphasis on young people and women.[6] Its Jerusalem youth-leadership project, "Face to Face, Faith to Faith," began in summer 2002 in cooperation with Search for Common Ground and Auburn Theological Seminary. A Jewish-Christian-Muslim delegation of 12 young people, 10 from Jerusalem, spent two weeks at a United States summer camp with participants from other countries. After returning to Israel, they continued meeting for about six months until technical and logistical difficulties halted the gatherings.[8]

In early 2003, the ICCI recruited another cohort of 12 Jerusalem youths for a similar camp. The cohort was intended to continue with a year-long leadership course involving weekly meetings at the YMCA and monthly meetings at the ICCI. Recruitment through pluralistic schools, including Re'ut, the Traditional School, and Beit Safafa, produced more demand than available places. The report also identified the program's symbolic participation fee as an important factor in recruitment.[8]

The ICCI established a women's dialogue and social-activity group in 2002, based on the view that women might develop forms of discourse and relationships different from those of men and were underrepresented in interfaith dialogue. The group comprised approximately 18 Jerusalem women from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and included religious and secular women, Israelis and Palestinians, immigrants and native-born residents. It met every three weeks and addressed Jerusalem's contemporary realities and future.[8]

During the group's second year, an American facilitator joined the project, and meetings alternated between participants' homes in East and West Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Institute report said that holding meetings in East Jerusalem encouraged reciprocity and Palestinian participation; Israeli members traveled to Shu'afat and Beit Hanina during difficult periods and in the evenings.[8]

The ICCI also organized seminars for rabbis, Muslim kadis, priests, and other religious leaders. Its third annual iftar event addressed social justice and charity across the three Abrahamic traditions. Muhammad Abu Obeid, the kadi of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, discussed equal rights and duties; Rabbi Ronen Lubitz drew parallels between Islamic and Jewish approaches to charity; and Pastor Fuad Dagher of Shfaram called on all three communities to accept responsibility for the poor.[13]

An International Council of Christians and Jews convention held in Israel with ICCI involvement drew 160 participants from 20 countries over four days. It focused on the contribution of Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue to peacemaking in the Middle East and included meetings with Knesset members, visits to sites of the three religions, and a reception hosted by Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski.[14]

The Jerusalem Foundation and the Abraham Fund helped finance ICCI activities, and the organization sought larger grants to support expansion.[8] U.S. official-assistance grants also supported its Religious Voice for Peace interfaith initiative.[15] ICCI leaders presented dialogue as a means toward peace rather than an end in itself and argued that religious faith should not be excluded from peace efforts in a region shaped by religion. They also acknowledged relatively low Muslim participation and identified its expansion as an important goal.[14]

U.S. Department of State reports repeatedly included the ICCI among Israeli NGOs seeking to build understanding among religious groups. Reports from 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2010 consistently described its role as promoting dialogue among Jewish, Muslim, and Christian institutions.[2][16] A 2002 report also stated that U.S. Embassy representatives attended meetings of the ICCI and other groups promoting interfaith dialogue.[17]

A 2007 article identified Kronish as a rabbi and educator directing the ICCI and stated that the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations, directed by Daniel Rossing, had begun within the ICCI three years earlier.[18] Kronish's later Jerusalem Post author profile characterized the ICCI as Israel's premier interreligious institution during his 1991-2015 tenure.[3]

In April 2015, The Jerusalem Post reported Yonatan Shefa's appointment as director. The report described him as experienced in interreligious dialogue, education, group facilitation, Jewish education, and activism and stated that he had spent four years as associate director of Rabbis for Human Rights' Occupied Territories department.[4] Shefa said he intended to explore practical models of peaceful coexistence, develop religious leaders active in peacebuilding, and use academic research to evaluate social impact. Kronish remained affiliated as founding director and senior adviser.[4]

The available sources leave several aspects of ICCI's institutional history unresolved. Kronish is identified as founder and director in an Israeli government publication and in his Jerusalem Post profile, while a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs biography calls David Rosen the founder and vice-chairman.[1][10] The sources do not explain whether both men held distinct founding roles or why the descriptions differ.

Membership figures also vary. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs described approximately 60 participating organizations.[6] A 2015 Jerusalem Post report likewise described 60 Christian, Muslim, and Jewish institutions, while the 2008 Israeli government publication gave a figure of more than 70.[4][1] These figures may reflect different dates or counting methods, but the sources do not clarify the discrepancy.

A further uncertainty concerns similarly named organizations. Sources identify the Jewish Council for Interreligious Consultations in Israel and the Israel Jewish Council on Interreligious Relations in connection with IJCIC, but they do not establish that either was the same body as the ICCI founded in 1991.[11][12]

In April 2014, a review by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism reported that the AnonGhost Team claimed to have breached the ICCI website during the #OpIsraelBirthday campaign and exposed a database containing approximately 850 records. The report listed personal and account-related fields allegedly exposed but presented the incident as a claim made by the attackers; it also warned that some reports associated with the broader campaign appeared exaggerated or false.[19]

The latest reviewed organizational descriptions date to 2015, when Rabbis for Human Rights hosted the ICCI and Yonatan Shefa was reported as its new director.[5][4] The available sources do not establish whether it continued operating after that period as an independent organization, a hosted program, or under another institutional arrangement.