Israel’s Declaration of Independence is the source document of the Jewish state. Here we present a number of engaging learning activities for unpacking the document and helping learners interpret and make meaning for the past and present.
View PDF
Latest articles from CIE
Israel State Archives — Hebrew and English Sources
Israel State Archives — Selected Record Groups The Israel State Archives in Jerusalem are a treasure-trove for those seeking to understand Israel’s evolution. Successive archival groups reference Israel over the past century. More than the…
U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel Since the October 7 Attack
May 28, 2025 “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel: Overview and Developments since October 7, 2023,” by Jeremy M. Sharp, specialist in Middle East affairs, Congressional Research Service Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S….
State Department Prevents Jewish Immigration, 1920s-1940s
“Wilbur Carr, the Imperial State Department, and Immigration: 1920-1945” © Copyright 2011 by Kathy Warnes. All Rights Reserved. kathywarneswriter.weebly.com, kathywarnes@gmail.com The State Department, as it evolved in the first four decades of the 20th century…
U.S. Backs Palestinian “Entity”; Syria Insists on PLO at Any Peace Conference, 1977
September 28, 1977 Memorandum of conversations between President Jimmy Carter and Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam and between Khaddam and U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, White House, Washington Source: Foreign Relations of the…
August 2025 — Being Safe, Smart and Jewish on Campus: Resilience Prep for College Students
August 10, 2025 Updated August 11, 2025, with follow-up resources. CIE and partners including including Hillels of Georgia, American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s JTeen initiative, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community…
Composite Statements in KKL/JNF Discussions About Lands to Purchase, 1926-1948
Updated August 8, 2025, with a new introduction The Jewish National Fund (JNF), or Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (KKL), was founded in 1901 after the Fifth Zionist Congress. The goal of the fund was to raise…
Saudi King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud to President Truman, 1947
No document better reveals the hostility which most Arab leaders and Arab states had in 1947 for Zionism and for a possible Jewish state. The Saudi King notes “that US support for Zionists in Palestine is an unfriendly act directed against the Arabs.” The King’s views were totally supported by US State Department officials including Loy Henderson and George Kennan who advocated strongly against Truman’s support of a Jewish state.
#149 Contemporary Readings July 2025
Maya Rezak and Ken Stein, July 31, 2025 Videos Ron Dermer, Minister of Diaspora Affairs, “Review of the Hamas-Israel War: Part 1” Ron Dermer, Minister of Diaspora Affairs, “Review of the Hamas-Israel War: Part 2”…
Yigal Allon, Lessons From the War of Independence, 1952
With crisp analysis, Haganah Commander Yigal Allon, later a Prime Minister of Israel attributes Israel’s successes to multiple factors including the absence of a centralized Arab command, limited Arab military training, underestimating the potential fighting capabilities of local Arabs, and Israel’s success in integrating its citizens into the war effort.
