This resort summarizes a January 2008 conference which examined the health of the Israeli state as a self-styled Jewish democracy from a particular perspective, i.e., the subject of religion in Israeli society, politics, and foreign policy. Participants grappled with the question of what it means to be a Jewish state and its implications for Israel's policies. Panelists also engaged the question of whether a democracy can be both religious and secular. How does such a state address the inevitable tensions between the overlapping authorities of religion and state? Of course, there are vigorous disagreements among Israelis and supporters of Israel about the role of Judaism in the nation's public life. But Israel, the Jewish state, guarantees religious freedom for all its citizens, and the resurgence of religion around the world demands renewed attention to these issues. The symposium was part of a broader project on the Religious Sources of Foreign Policy within the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs.
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