The following scholars, academics, think-tank leaders and offer their high praise for the CIE website, israeled.org.
“The CIE website is an indispensable and unique resource for anyone interested in Israel and the Middle East. Balanced and fair, and giving expression to more than one voice. Extremely user-friendly and responsive to both those seeking historical knowledge and those wishing to stay up-to-date on current events. Students, scholars, journalists, politicians, community leaders — and members of the general public — will find here an authoritative, reliable and easily accessible source of knowledge, information, commentary — and wisdom.” — Professor Shlomo Avineri (z”L”), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and Former Director-General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, July 2021
“The Center for Israel Education is like a user-friendly digital encyclopedia for the student of Israel’s history and present. Whether you want a quick timeline of the Six-Day War or a deep dive on the Madrid peace conference, and anything in between on a plethora of topics, it’s got you covered. As a scholar and commentator on current affairs, the Center for Israel Education is an essential tool for my work.” — Dr. Nikos Sotirakopoulos, Visiting Fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, August 2025
“The Center for Israel Education’s website is a unique, unparalleled source of information and analysis on all things Israel—history, politics, society, national security, and culture—including short explainers, long-form articles, self-learning courses, as well as maps and illustrations. There are even links to online sources for Israeli TV, music, and news. The CIE website is a one-stop shop for all things Israel. Never before has there been something like it, and never has it been more sorely needed!” — Michael Eisenstadt, Director, Military and Security Studies Program, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, July 2025
“The CIE has created the most significant, reliable, and comprehensive site extant on all that one may need to know or should know about Israel, its history, present reality, the ongoing conflict and more. It assembles in one easy-to-use platform a wide variety of materials from original written documents from archives and public sources and visual materials that enable the reconstruction and analysis of current and historic events. Although this richness is intelligently organized for viewers, the ease with which they are presented enable and encourage personal exploration and discovery. It also provides a wealth of resources, including bibliographies and links to other sites that extend and enhance what is found here. There is no other site like this. It should be on the list of scholars, students, educators and anyone seeking to acquire information and learn about Israel.” — Dr. Ilan Troen, Founding Director and Chair of Israel Studies, Shusterman Center for Israel Studies, Emeritus Stoll Family Professor, Chair of Israel Studies, Brandeis University, and Past President, Israel Studies Association, Professor Emeritus, Ben-Gurion University, July 2025
“The Center for Israel Education has an excellent website for anyone — academics, educators, or students — who is looking to enrich their knowledge about Israel, continuing valuable sources. While the interpretation of the documents is open for discussion and can serve critics or defenders of Zionism, one thing stood out for sure: in times when truth is hard to find, the trove of materials and primary sources at this website can be beneficial for every discussion or course about Israel.” — Dr. Avi Shilon, Historian, Tel Hai Academic College, July 2025
“Education is a difficult undertaking, not only in pedagogy and not only when it comes to the subject of Israel. It is a constant challenge, often working against resistance or ignorance, always searching for allies, and requiring patience and perseverance. CIE has followed this path consistently since its inception, with Emory University Professor Emeritus Ken Stein as its guiding spirit. The wealth of collected material, source texts and film material on the most diverse individual aspects of the subject area of Israel and the Middle East is impressive and provides scope for individual users or group-based curricula. Clearly structured according to individual topics and their subtopics, and thanks to its ease of use, access is also available to a wide range of users — all with the educational intention of … we can help deepen the understanding of readers, viewers, or listeners about how current events fit into history.” — Dr. Alfred Wittstock, Former Lecturer at Study Unit Israel, JG-University, Mainz, Germany, July 2025
“I had the honor of studying Middle Eastern history under Ken Stein in the 1990s at Emory University. More than 30 years later, I now have the privilege of accessing the resources he used to teach thousands of students. The vast majority of these documents and books are scholarly sources, unvarnished by politics. This is crucial in today’s convoluted media environment. Teachers from K-12 to higher education have the best available material, all on one site. CIE is a rich and informative platform. It is also a wonderful way to ensure that Ken’s serious, balanced, and sober approach to Middle Eastern studies can benefit educators for years and years to come.” — Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, Executive Director, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, July 2025
“The new CIE website is a treasure trove of historical information — clearly presented and richly illustrated to make it accessible to learners of all ages. At a time when narratives are too often shaped without regard for historical evidence, this site offers a vital corrective: grounding understanding in primary sources, context, and complexity. It’s an indispensable tool for scholars, activists, and curious laypeople who want to break through bias and make sense of Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish past and future.” — Michael Rabkin, Chief Development Officer, Jewish Federation of San Diego, and former Hillel professional, July 2025
“In current times, where regrettably distortions regarding Israel and the conflict emanate from so many different sources and where truth has been a repeated casualty, the CIE website provides serious scholarship and access to essential materials about Israel’s story. … Neither CIE nor its website engages in propaganda. It offers essential documents and analyses, curated from Israeli, Jewish, non-Jewish and think tank voices from across the world. Its educational materials are usable in formal and informal learning settings; they include multiple types led by biographies, bibliographies, maps, photos, featured content and webinars. A series of short video and prose explainers are ideal for quick learning and introductions for expansion into lengthy presentations. Six on-demand courses on Israeli society, history and politics may be easily accessed. Personally, I have used the website in doing research on the various conflicts in the Middle East, allowing for context in writing articles and a book.” — Dr. Luis Fleischman, Professor of Sociology, Palm Beach State College, and Co-President, Palm Beach Center for Democracy and Policy Research, July 2025
“The CIE website is a gold mine of information about Israel and its history, which will help to counteract the confusion and misinformation found in much of the discourse in the media. It provides a rich collection of readings, documentary sources, bibliographies, images and other resources on Israel and on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The new and multilingual website is even easier to navigate than the previous one. The Documents and Sources feature, which includes primary sources on a wide variety of topics, is especially recommended. As a historian who specializes in presenting archival documents to researchers and the public, I see it as invaluable for providing much needed information, context and nuance.” — Dr. Louise Fischer, Emerita Historical Publications Editor, Israel State Archives, July 2025
“In a time where infotainment and propaganda have replaced facts and scholarship especially, as it relates to Israel and the Middle East. The Center for Israel Education offers an indispensable resource for students of all ages who want to grasp the complexities and richness of the region. CIE relies on factual and scholarly works in a time where it is desperately needed and presents a superb comprehensive collection of primary sources in addition to the writings of the actors and decision makers who participated in the actual events.” — Dr. Asaf Romirowsky, Executive Director, Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) and Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), June 2025
“CIE’s website is an indispensable treasure-trove of commentary and source material that is essential for setting current affairs in their historical context. In an era of fake news and Artificial Intelligence, reliable historical background and documentation are essential tools for sifting through the flood of information, misinformation, and disinformation to which we are regularly exposed in this day and age. CIE places an extraordinary range of documentary evidence, course syllabi, bibliographies, videos, webinars and much more at your fingertips. It is unquestionably the best resource of its kind on Israel and its place in the Middle East.” — Dr. Asher Susser, Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History, Tel Aviv University, June 2025
“The CIE’s website is the most comprehensive and reliable resource pertaining to the modern State of Israel that I know of. With documents that are searchable by topic, type, language, and age, the CIE isn’t simply a repository of knowledge; it’s a dynamic tool that will benefit educators and students of all ages and backgrounds. Every person who cares about Israel should know about this site and check it regularly as its collections expand.” — Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich, Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish Publication Society, June 2025
“For the last decade, israeled.org, the website of the Center for Israel Education, has been my first and often only stop when preparing curricular materials, planning a course or class or catching up on the latest updates in Israel education. The new refresh of the CIE website contains all of the necessary go-to information on Israel: primary source documents, maps, timelines, biographies of political and cultural leaders with the added conveniences of search by topic and related-to-subject menu pop-ups for each search term you enter. There is a wealth of material, introductory videos, explanations, position papers – all of it unbiased, accurate and factual. It is a gift to students, media, and educators and those that want to be informed and supportive of Israel; the site will quickly become the first place to turn for research, casual learning, and lesson planning for the study and teaching of modern Israel.” — Steve Kerbel, Educational Consulting, Washington, June 2025
“The Center for Israel Education and its website represent an achievement in strengthening Israel literacy for our children, teenagers, college students and adult learners. It is an extraordinary repository of curated materials that span from foundational historical sources to contemporary analysis, curricula designed for every stage of the learning journey and resources to deepen connection to Israel’s past, present and future. The educational ecosystem CIE has created helps clergy, educators, and learners of all ages meet the needs of this moment by providing tools, insights, context and perspectives to cultivate and nurture Ahavat Yisrael — a love of Israel rooted in knowledge and understanding.” — Rabbi Laila Haas, Temple Beth El, Boca Raton, Florida, June 2025
“The Center for Israel Education (CIE) website is a terrific idea, a much-needed extraordinary resource. … There are far too many young people, including committed Jews, who simply do not know the story of Israel. Having a central site where they can learn the history, be guided to additional resources and most importantly — get a sense of the grandeur and the complexity of Zionism and the State is created — is a gift to all of us who seek to educate Jews and non-Jews alike about what Israel is, how it came to be, and where it might go from here.” — Dr. Daniel Gordis, Koret Distinguished Fellow, Shalem College, Jerusalem, March 2022
“The Center for Israel Education (CIE) has built an online treasure house of information on the state of Israel, and the students, educators, and researchers who make use of this website know the value of the riches it contains. In the spirit of Ahad Ha’am’s exclamation, “Learning, learning, learning!” the CIE brings together, on one user-friendly website, various maps, primary sources, chronologies, contemporary political analyses, and bibliographies—resources all offered in the service of its mission: to enlarge the sphere of public knowledge of Israel. Of these I must mention one by name—a monograph on pre-state Jewish settlement called “Forming a Nucleus for the Jewish State: 1882-1947”—because I have drawn on it to very useful effect in my course on the history of Zionism. That this work was the effort of Kenneth Stein, author of the definitive text on Jewish land purchase in Mandatory Palestine and the CIE’s own president, stamps the Center’s website with a hechsher of scholarly excellence. In sum, all those involved in Israel education, whether as purveyors or consumers, would do well to bookmark the CIE’s website and avail themselves of this very worthy contribution to Israel studies.”
Dr. Scott Abramson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, April 2020
“The endless search for a single, comprehensive compendium of information and analysis on modern Israel can now come to an end. The Center for Israel Education website provides a rich, updated and user-friendly entrée to contemporary literature, documents, time-lines, and graphic resources that will be indispensable to anyone interested in learning or teaching about Israeli politics and society and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Too much of the academic and popular discourse about Israel is informed by prejudice or ignorance. Little, perhaps, can be done about the former. Eliminating any excuse for the latter appears to be the ambitious objective of the Center for Israel Education. By all accounts, it has succeeded.”
Dr. Mark Heller, Principle Research Associate, Editor Strategic Assessment, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv University, December 2019
“The CIE website provides a treasure trove of information, data, and resources for students, teachers, researchers, and all interested or even curious about Israel’s history, society, culture, and identity. Carefully organized and user-friendly, the website provides background on critical themes ranging from immigration to the economy to Israel’s wars and foreign policy. Educators will find the accessibility of relevant documents an invaluable resource for classroom use. Researchers may utilize the website as point of departure guiding them to full bibliographical materials on particular subjects. Most importantly, the CIE website enhances users’ knowledge and understanding of Israel’s narrative of what has been realized and what remains unfinished in the return of the Jews to homeland, statehood and sovereignty.”
Dr. Steven Bayme, National Director, Contemporary Jewish Life Department, American Jewish Committee, New York, NY. August 2018
“Who would have thought that there could be a one-stop-shop for history, analysis and primary documents about modern Israel and its place in Jewish and Middle Eastern history? We now have it! With easy navigation and creative functionality, the Center for Israel Education site is trustworthy and powerful. The CIE site should be a “favorite place” for students, scholars, the media, and educators.”
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, Park Avenue Synagogue, NYC, April 2015
“Israel and Israel Studies have emerged in recent years as litmus-test issues in public discourse, in education, and in the academy. The growing interest in Israel is in part a function of the central role Israel plays in global politics, in the media and at the forefront of many fields of cultural and scientific development. It is precisely the confusing array of views and the virtually uncontrollable mass of information surrounding Israel that makes the Center for Israel Education’s undertaking and website so valuable. The materials represent a spectrum of views, and—most importantly—the direct access to sources allows users to makes sense of that spectrum and to form educated views of their own. The Center for Israel Education’s undertaking and website… together transform the perplexing into the accessible and intelligible… an invaluable resource.”
Professor Arieh Saposnik, Ben-Gurion University, Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, April 2015
“If ever there was a need for a site like this, the time is now. A “Wikipedia of Israel knowledge”, it gives us a resource that has been sorely lacking, with substantiating data and a “go-to” destination for any discussion or presentation that is needed on the subject. Kudos.”
Beth M. Mann, Vice President, Institutional Advancement, Jewish Federations of North America, May 2015
“The Center for Israel Education website is a powerful resource for people interested in modern Israel. From the newly curious to college professors looking to invigorate their syllabi with exciting readings, the CIE offers something for everyone. Written in a straightforward style, the content on the CIE website tells you what you need to know- and it does it on an easy to use, intuitive and simple platform. If ever a website needed to be in your “bookmarks bar”, this is it!”
Dr. Ariel Ilan Roth, Executive Director, Israel Institute, Washington, DC, May 2017
“The CIE website is an immensely valuable resource for anyone who wishes to learn or to teach about Israel. In an era where globalization and technology allegedly make the world smaller, it’s still exceedingly difficult for Diaspora Jews or others who care about Israel to really understand this remarkable nation without living there. The CIE website is a one-stop shop for academics, students, rabbis, and curious seekers who want to know more about Israel’s past, present and future. The site’s resources are varied, relevant, and easy to find. Bookmark it!”
Rabbi Jay Henry Moses. Director, Wexner Heritage Program, Columbus, Ohio, March 2015
