CIJR also brings research on key Jewish-world issues like anti-Semitism, Islamic terrorism, and human-rights and Holocaust studies to the fore, and, given its Academic Council of active university and college professors, works closely on Israel and Middle Eastern issues with Jewish and non-Jewish students, on- and off-campus.
Maintaining a unique on-line accessible Israel, Middle East & Jewish World DataBank, which groups a vast archive of articles, op eds and data, the Institute publishes a series of journals and magazines focused on aspects of the Arab-Israel conflict and the society and culture of Israel and the Arab-Muslim world. ISRAFAX is our print quarterly, the Daily Isranet Briefing our daily email review; and Israzine CIJR’s monthly on-line web-mag.
Our students research and publish Dateline: Middle East in print and on-line each semester, and we bring out Communiqué Isranet, a weekly French-language analysis of Israel- and Middle East-related articles. Our Commemorative Book is published annually in conjunction with the CIJR Anniversary Gala.
New departures for the Institute are IsraBlog, and the CIJR Review of Books, ventures launched with our new www.isranet.org website in fall, 2011. Our research and publication focus on the history of Zionism, of the democratic Jewish state in its difficult Middle Eastern neighbourhood, and of the Arab and Muslim world generally, as well as on aspects of pre-modern and modern anti-Semitism, and Holocaust history and revisionism. These and other concerns are also furthered by a series of adjunct publications, from special issues-oriented Research Bulletins, to a number of edited memoirs written by Holocaust survivors, and to planned International Conference Proceedings volumes.
CIJR works closely with students, supporting their Dateline: Middle East magazine, sustaining a number of Sonia & Baruch Cohen Israel Research Student Internships, involving students in visiting seminars and colloquia, and offering the annual Student Israel-Advocacy Program (SIAP), a unique integrated series of seminars on Jewish, Zionist and Israeli history, on the history and nature of anti-Semitism and the Arab-Israel conflict, and on human rights in Israel and the Arab world. Deigned to counter anti-Zionism and antisemitism on campus, the SIAP also emphasizes addressing the media, and developing speaking, debating and organizing skills.
A rich program of seminars and colloquia given by CIJR’s own academic Fellows and distinguished visiting scholars, study current Middle Eastern and Israeli society and politics, as well as Islam, terrorism, and key issues like the huan rights and the United nations, Arab rebellions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria, the impact of Iran’s drive to nuclear weapons within and beyond the Middle East, and the delegitimation of Israel, on and off campus.
Open to the public and students, these programs deal with a range of subjects from Islamist resurgence in Turkey and influence in (nuclear) Pakistan, the Russian (and Indian and Chinese) role in the Middle East, the “peace process”, Palestinian state formation, and American and European foreign policy, and terrorist groups like al-Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Recent CIJR International Conferences, bringing outstanding specialists together and open to the public and the media, have included “The New Global Antisemitism”, “Iran’s Nuclear Threat”, and “Antisemitism on Campus”. The 2011 Conference, set for Nov.6, on “Combatting the Delegitimation of Israel”, will bring scholars from Canada, Israel and the U.S. together, and will be available in video form on CIJR’s new website.
Now in its twenty-fourth year, the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, with its key Academic Council, active National Board, and distinguished supporting International Board, has earned a respected reputation for sustained research of the highest excellence in the study of Israel and the Middle East, their history, current situation, and relation to the Jewish world.
Through varied journals, magazines and publications, its steady and creative support for students and their activities, and its rich program of seminars, colloquia, and International Conferences, CIJR is recognized as a key, and proven, resource for objectie analysis and information on Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world.
I invite you to browse our CIJR Website, which includes archives of all our ongoing publication series as well as a link to the Israel & Middle East DataBank, and to discover for yourself the rich educational resource which the Institute and all its work represents.
(Prof. Krantz is Director of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, head of its
Academic Council, and Editor of its Daily Isranet Briefing, ISRAFAX, and Israzine publications.)
