The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA), formerly the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), is an Israeli think tank specializing in

public diplomacy In international relations, public diplomacy broadly speaking, is any of the various government-sponsored efforts aimed at communicating directly with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence with the aim of bui ...

and foreign policy founded in 1976. JCPA publishes the biennial journal ''Jewish Political Studies Review'' alongside other content.

History

Scholar Daniel Elazar founded Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) as an independent, non-profit research and policy studies institute to analyze key problems facing Israel and world Jewry in 1976. JCPA incorporated two institutes: the Center for Jewish Community Studies, founded in 1970 to analyze the policy implications of the political, civic, and communal dimensions of Jewish life, and the Jerusalem Institute for Federal Studies, founded in 1976 to conduct research on Arab-Israeli peace. Israeli diplomat Dore Gold headed JCPA from 2000 to 2015, when he took a

leave of absence The labour law concept of leave, specifically paid leave or, in some countries' long-form, a leave of absence, is an authorised prolonged absence from work, for any reason authorised by the workplace. When people "take leave" in this way, they ar ...

to become director-general of the

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (; ) is one of the most important Cabinet of Israel, ministries in the Government of Israel, Israeli government. The ministry's role is to implement Israel's foreign policy, and promote economic, cultural ...

. Gold returned as president in October 2016. In 2023, American diplomat Jason Greenblatt joined the JCPA as senior director for Arab–Israel diplomacy. In October 2024, JCPA changed its name to the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) to evolve from a

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

to a center focusing on policy diplomacy and communications.

Building

Elazar personally raised most of the funds for the operation of the organization and the restoration of an historic building on Tel Hai Street in Jerusalem, named in honor of the Milken family. The building, Beit Milken, served as the Embassy of

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

from 1957 to 1980, when Uruguay decided to move their embassy to

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. In 1989, the 1,200 ton building was moved 16 meters on rails to reach the site it currently occupies.

Political orientation

According to JCFA, it is apolitical organization, with a large number of experts on Arab affairs across the world. In 2015

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

identified

Sheldon Adelson Sheldon Gary Adelson (August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, and political donor. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which founded the Marina Bay Sa ...

as "one of the main financers of JCFA in recent years";

Activities

According to JFCA's leadership, the center engages with countries in the

Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

with whom Israel does not have formal relations. ;Institute for Contemporary Affairs The Jerusalem Center founded the Institute for Contemporary Affairs (ICA) jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation. The current director of the ICA is Ambassador Alan Baker. Through this outlet, the JCPA publishes ''Jerusalem Issue Briefs'' and ''Jerusalem Viewpoints''. They also publish the twice-yearly ''Strategic Perspectives'', special reports presenting studies on Israeli security and diplomacy topics by the Contributing Editors board of the ICA. ;Institute for Global Jewish Affairs In 2008, JCFA founded the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs in response to growing international anti-Semitism. It was directed by Manfred Gerstenfeld until 2021. The institute helps direct the "Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism Project" and its associated monthly publication "Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism," both of which attend to global anti-Semitism. ;Conferences On March 24, 2014, the Jerusalem Center held a conference entitled "Europe and Israel: A New Paradigm." The conference focused on the complicated relationship between Israel and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, including topics such as economics and the BDS movement, security and anti-Semitism. The conference was well attended and received a significant amount of press, including articles in ''

The Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' (ToI) is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012 and has since become the largest English-language Jewish and Israeli news source by audience size. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist Dav ...

'', ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...

'', J-Wire, Ynetnews, and CBN News. ;Publications The JCFA publishes the ''Jewish Political Studies Review'', a biannual journal that describes itself as "dedicated to the study of Jewish political institutions and behavior, Jewish political thought, and Jewish public affairs".

References

External links