Overview
- The Background to the Institute’s Activities - A
New Historical Opportunity
- The Institute’s Role
- The Institute’s Programs - Modern Studies Based on
Ancient Wisdom
1. The Background to the Institute’s Activities - A New
Historical Opportunity
 Ever since the emancipation of Europe’s Jews, the nuclear
religious Jewish (ultra-orthodox; also known as Haredi)
scholarly community has been almost totally introverted – devoting
all its energies to the preservation of a core of undiluted
Torah (The Sacred books of Jewish Law and Belief) among
the Jewish People.
Recent years, however, have seen the unprecedented growth
of the religious Jewish community worldwide, and for the first
time in modern history, the ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel today
constitute a burgeoning, secure community, a major force to
be reckoned with in the national arena.
This mandates a "normalization" of their condition, including
their broad participation in the general activities of the country,
in non-political venues.
An historical window of opportunity is now open for religious
Jewish scholars to make a more positive contribution to the
wider Jewish world and to humanity in general.
The Harav Lord Jakobovits Torah Institute of Contemporary
Issues has postulated that, ideologically and sociologically,
there is a readiness even in the mainstream ultra-orthodox community
to come to grips intellectually in an affirmative manner – in
study, research and dialogue – with the enormous new challenges
that are inevitably being entailed by Jewish independence and
increasing ultra-orthodox involvement in general society.
 We have submitted that it is in the distinct interest of
the entire population to encourage this development, for the
alternative is the crippling presence in Israel of a fast-growing
population-group unprepared for the rigors of self-rule in this
complex modern world, and the ever-accelerating danger of a
primitive and potentially cataclysmic kulturkampf.
It is for this reason that the Institute was founded - to
facilitate the development of new ideas, authentically generated
within the world of the Traditional Jewish value system, which
can bring about real change in the present incendiary state
of affairs.
2. The Institute’s Role
The Institute is the central facility of the Torah Community
in Israel for generating, evaluating and communicating dynamic
new thinking on modern-day issues and public policy matters,
and for groundbreaking dialogue with opinion setters and policy-makers.
The Institute works in close association with today's
leading Torah sages, and with thinkers and activists from
all sectors of society, in order to:
- Facilitate the engagement of religious Jewish
thinkers in issues and challenges that face the Israeli
and world community;
- Generate positive and non-coercive policies on the
part of the Torah community, using new avenues of
research, planning, and action.
3. The Institute’s Programs - Modern Studies Based on
Ancient Wisdom
The Institute is keenly aware that new opportunities
and challenges also conceal new dangers. When confronted with
historic processes, necessitating momentous decisions, the community
must be exceedingly careful to draw authentically on its traditional,
ageless value system and not lose sight of it.
It is essential, therefore, that Jewish scholars of stature
conduct the necessary research and studies and provide the community
with effective policies on contemporary issues. This is necessary
for:
- Determining the most effective courses of action;
- Ensuring that there is no deviation from the path of
true Judaism.
The Institute recognizes that such engagement requires, first
and foremost, extensive, systematic and penetrating study of
many contemporary issues, which are to be examined in an unprejudiced
manner, in the light of Torah-true Jewish Law and thinking.
This preliminary study is to be followed by multidisciplinary
studies required for confronting constructively and courageously
the educational, communal and governmental quandaries that face
the Jewish community and the contemporary world today.
Therefore, the Institute’s programs focus on this crucial
requirement.
 Rabbi
Lord Yisrael (Immanuel) Jakobovits
The Institute was founded by the Ura Kevodi Association,
which has been achieving the aforementioned goals since 1994.
It is named after Rabbi Lord Yisrael (Immanuel) Jakobovits,
who was Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth from
1967 to 1992 and personified the dual ideals on which the Institute
is founded and operates:
- Unswerving commitment to the teachings of the
Torah authentically applied to contemporary conditions,
and
- The fundamental unity of the Jewish people.
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