Shalem College

Shalem College occupies a distinctive position in Israeli higher education as a privately funded liberal arts institution drawing consciously on the American collegiate tradition while adapting it to Israeli intellectual and civic life.[4][7] Every student completes a shared core curriculum alongside study in a chosen major, a structure intended to produce graduates capable of engaging broadly with Israeli society.[2][6]

The college is recognized by Israel’s Council for Higher Education and was listed among private academic institutions in a Jewish Agency directory for the 2020–2021 academic year.[3] It receives no government funding and relies on philanthropy rather than tuition revenue, subsidizing students’ tuition and living expenses so they can focus on study and civic commitments.[2] The Tikvah Fund has been among its principal donors, contributing an initial $12.5 million in 2013 and a subsequent $16 million matching grant to support faculty expansion, curriculum development, and student-body growth.[8]

The college’s stated commitment is not to a partisan position but to intellectual freedom and open inquiry.[9] Its institutional policy affirms that it is neither politically left nor right, neither secular nor religious, and does not take institutional positions on public issues, while encouraging students, faculty, and alumni to participate individually in political and social life.[9]

According to Tikvah Ideas, Yoram Hazony founded and headed the Shalem Center in 1994; the center was accredited to grant a liberal arts degree and formally became Shalem College in 2013. The same profile says Hazony served as president from 1994 to 2002 and as provost from 2005 to 2012.[10] A 2013 Globes report described the Shalem Center’s research as concentrating mainly on Zionist Jewish thought, general philosophy, democratic thought, and Jewish history, and characterized it as influenced by American neoconservatism.[11]

The effort to establish a college formally began in 2009, when Martin Kramer, then president-designate, publicly described the vision in a Jerusalem Post interview.[12] Kramer outlined a planned four-year institution with Hebrew as its language of instruction, English proficiency expected of students, and a common core curriculum ranging, as he put it, “from Plato to Keynes” and “from the Hebrew Bible to Hobbes.”[12] He described the intended purpose as educating a cadre of future Israeli leaders with a broad perspective and a sense of civic responsibility, and said the college expected to open in 2012 pending accreditation—a timeline that ultimately extended by more than a year.[12]

Following a four-year review by Israel’s Council for Higher Education, the college received accreditation in January 2013 and opened that October at the Jewish Agency’s Kiryat Moriah educational campus in Jerusalem.[5] Its inaugural class began studying on October 6, 2013.[5] The opening ceremony drew more than 400 attendees, including government ministers, scholars, Israel Prize laureates, philanthropists, students, and families. During an unexpected symphonic flash mob, the Revolution Orchestra performed Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” after which Shalem students and faculty joined the musicians onstage with percussion instruments.[13]

The college was established by a group described as mostly foreign-born educators who had studied in the American liberal arts tradition.[8] Co-founder and executive vice president Daniel Polisar said the college wanted students “to be able to speak effectively to people from the entire range of Israeli society” and understand their perspectives and needs.[8] Dr. Ido Hevroni, described as one of its founders, said it was established out of a belief that Israeli higher education needed renewal.[14]

By 2017, the student body numbered 180, with 95 percent of students born in Israel. Incoming classes comprised approximately 45 to 50 students and drew hundreds of applicants, while the faculty included Arab Israelis and Jews from a range of ideological backgrounds.[8] A 2022 Globes report described the institution as enrolling 50 undergraduate students per year, while a 2023 Calcalist feature reported up to 25 students admitted per study program annually—figures describing different measures rather than directly conflicting totals.[15][16]

Shalem College is located at 3 Ha’askan Street in Jerusalem.[1][2] A renovation and expansion project completed in 2020 doubled the building’s size and added two floors, an expanded library, six seminar rooms, an 80-seat lecture hall, a student gym, and a student lounge.[17] The project also added a writing center and an Arabic-program center, with panoramic views of Jerusalem from the upper floors.[17]

The campus design was conceived to reflect Shalem’s blend of intellectual traditions. It incorporates Jerusalem-stone cladding and an interior courtyard, drawing on Western, Jewish, Middle Eastern, and specifically Jerusalemite architectural conventions.[14] The college’s senior vice president described the design as deliberately blurring the distinction between study and communal space—a physical expression of the institution’s belief that learning and community are inseparable.[17]

The centerpiece of Shalem’s academic model is the David and Judith Lobel Core Curriculum, required of all students regardless of major.[6] The Core is described as a shared intellectual conversation grounded in works that address enduring questions from different periods, places, and sometimes conflicting perspectives. Its stated purpose is to help students participate in Jewish and Western traditions and consider the character and future of Israel.[6] Subjects include Hebrew literature and Zionist thought, economics, ancient Greek philosophy, Islam, Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, Western and Middle Eastern history, biological sciences, and art.[6]

A 2022 Globes interview with then-president Russ Roberts described the Core’s reading list as encompassing Plato, the Pentateuch, the Talmud, the New Testament, and the Quran—a sweep of foundational texts from multiple civilizations.[15] Roberts said the Core’s purpose was learning “to think deeply about big ideas” and that the institution sought to attract and change young, ambitious people who wanted to improve their country. Three courses within the Core were devoted specifically to Zionism.[15]

The core curriculum lasts a year and a half, while students begin one of three majors in their second year.[15][7] Philosophy and Jewish Thought examines Israel’s Jewish and democratic identities through close engagement with canonical philosophical and religious texts.[2] Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies focuses on Islam, the contemporary Arab world, and Israel’s regional setting and requires Arabic fluency; deputy president Daniel Polisar has explained that “you cannot understand Israel without Islam.”[2][7] Strategy, Diplomacy, and Security was developed to produce strategic thinkers capable of addressing national challenges. Its curriculum includes classical theories of statesmanship and war, modern military thought and foreign policy, international law, conflict resolution, economics, practitioner encounters, crisis simulations, and Israeli and international case studies.[18] The program’s 2022 launch announcement identified Professor Efraim Inbar as its head and said Colonel (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman had spearheaded its design.[18]

A 2017 report said classes were taught in Hebrew, while English proficiency had been part of the original academic plan.[8][12] The college’s teaching approach is explicitly dialogical: most courses are not conventional lectures but discussions in small classrooms where students engage actively with texts.[14] Admission involves screening and interviews, and students typically study five days a week with substantial reading requirements.[7]

The college’s bachelor’s degree takes three and a half years to complete—a half-year longer than most degrees at other Israeli colleges and universities—reflecting the additional time needed to complete the Core alongside a major.[2] A fourth major in Economics and Policy is described as a future plan rather than a current offering.[2] The Strategy, Diplomacy, and Security program received approval to launch from the Council for Higher Education one month before the college announced it in April 2022.[18]

Martin Kramer, a Middle East scholar, served as Shalem College’s founding president.[4][19] The Washington Institute also identifies him as the first chair of the college’s Middle East and Islamic Studies program.[4] Kramer has described the college as inspired by the American tradition of higher education and developed from the research-oriented Shalem Center.[5]

Other faculty associated with the college include Eran Lerman, who formerly served at Israel’s National Security Council and spearheaded the design of the Strategy, Diplomacy, and Security program.[20][18] Dina Lisnyansky lectures in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, with a research focus encompassing Middle East affairs, Islam in Europe, terrorism, and extremism.[21] Menachem Kellner has served as chair of the Department of Philosophy and Jewish Thought.[22] Sharon Goldman served as vice president and director of the Israel-America Studies Program and taught political science at the college before joining the American Jewish Committee in 2026.[23]

Shalem’s financial model is designed to remove economic barriers to full-time intellectual engagement. Every student receives a cost-of-living stipend intended to cover most expenses, with an additional housing subsidy for those living within one mile of campus. In return, students are expected to limit paid work to no more than 12 hours per week and focus rigorously on study, attendance, and coursework.[8] A 2024 Ynet feature described the college as charging tuition at the standard Israeli university rate while providing study scholarships and subsistence and housing support.[14]

The Jerusalem location is presented as an academic resource in its own right: students have access to internships and professional encounters at government ministries, the President’s Residence, Israel’s UN mission, and the Kan public broadcaster.[7] A mentoring program begins during students’ studies and continues after graduation, helping arrange placements in educational, social, and business organizations.[16]

Student-led social initiatives have become a recognized feature of campus life. One project, “Shvil Library,” placed book-sharing libraries for hikers along the Israel National Trail.[7] Another, “Shalem Renovation,” organized the renovation of homes for welfare-recipient families in Jerusalem.[7] A more entrepreneurial example from among the college’s early graduates involved a student interested in industrial design who founded a company selling backpacks and wallets and arranged for professional slackliner Heather Larsen to perform over Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum.[8]

The college reports that its students rank among the top five percent of undergraduates nationally and that it has five times the national average of commanders, officers, and combat soldiers from elite military units.[2] Students come from different regions and socioeconomic backgrounds and represent a range of religious, ideological, and other viewpoints.[2] The National Union of Israeli Students’ annual satisfaction survey has placed Shalem at or near the top of its rankings, although the college’s own published materials give differing figures for the number of institutions surveyed, the number of consecutive first-place finishes, and the categories counted.[2][24]

Shalem’s inaugural commencement took place on the Kiryat Moriah campus before a crowd of more than 500.[25] Forty-one members of the first academic class graduated after four years of study, entering the ceremony to the Zionist song “Here in the Land of Our Forefathers.”[25] Examples of graduate work described at the ceremony included advising the Knesset speaker, directing an Arabic-language Israeli news site, and working for a nonprofit focused on regional partnerships with Sunni states.[25]

By 2024, the college reported 244 alumni.[7] Their employment distribution was recorded as approximately 19 percent in high tech, 18 percent in education, and 13 percent in diplomacy, security, public service, and politics.[7] A 2017 report noted that the largest concentration of graduates at that earlier date were choosing education-related work, including teaching and positions at pre-army leadership academies.[8]

A 2023 Calcalist feature highlighted two members of Shalem’s first cohort—Tal Eitan and Omri Segev—who specialized in philosophy and Jewish thought and later pursued graduate study at Harvard. Eitan said that studying at Harvard would not have been possible without Shalem’s support.[16]

Shalem describes its mission as educating young Israelis to lead lives of influence and service and to advance the flourishing of a state that is both Jewish and democratic.[2] The college presents its educational model as a response to questions of Israeli meaning, identity, purpose, and the exercise of sovereignty—questions it regards as requiring serious humanistic formation rather than merely professional training.[2]

The institution maintains a formal policy on political and social action reflecting its commitment to intellectual pluralism.[9] It describes itself as not institutionally partisan and not identified as left or right, secular or religious. It does not take institutional positions on public issues and expects members of its community who engage publicly in political and social activity to do so as individuals, without presenting themselves as speaking for the college.[9]

The adaptation of the American liberal arts model to Israeli circumstances has involved deliberate choices about what to include. As deputy president Daniel Polisar explained, Jewish textual tradition and Islam were incorporated into the curriculum on the grounds that neither can be omitted if students are to understand Israel and its region.[7] The college’s educational approach—small seminars, close reading, and dialogical teaching—reflects its belief that critical thinking, civil discourse, deep reading, and clear writing are habits that must be practiced rather than merely taught.[2]