Left-wing speakers such as Labor MKs Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Yuli Tamir, Alon Liel, Ehud Yaari and others were interspersed among the nationalist-camp speakers. The conference will run through Wednesday.
Former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau set the tone with a call to the people of Israel as well as the Knesset. "People must realize that to sit back and pretend that time will solve our problems is a dangerous deception," said Rabbi Lau. "We must realize that time does nothing - only man has the power to change the status quo." He then made an impassioned plea he said he had delivered at a Labor party meeting three years ago. "After 55 years," boomed the rabbi, "the Knesset has not, to this day, found the time to take five days and discuss what exactly this Jewish State we have created is meant to be. The words 'Jewish State' are mentioned 22 times in Israel's Declaration of Independence - not "State of the Jews" but rather "Jewish State" - and yet the Knesset has never found time to define just what that means."
The former Chief Rabbi acknowledged that various cases and issues have forced the Knesset and Israeli society to confront aspects of the question at various junctures, but said they were all cases of putting out fires "rather than dealing with the core of the matter. The global terror problem, with Israel at the forefront, is simply obscuring the fact that lurking in the background is the main issue - that of deciding what the substance of our Jewish state is."
Participants and speakers hail from across the globe, many flying in especially for the conference - or even particular sessions. Israel National Radio's Eli Stutz spoke with a man from Los Angeles who said, "I flew in special for the session on the birthrates of Israelis and Arabs. The demographic issue is of utmost concern to me, and I believe that it is critical to deal with it here in Jerusalem."
Former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau set the tone with a call to the people of Israel as well as the Knesset. "People must realize that to sit back and pretend that time will solve our problems is a dangerous deception," said Rabbi Lau. "We must realize that time does nothing - only man has the power to change the status quo." He then made an impassioned plea he said he had delivered at a Labor party meeting three years ago. "After 55 years," boomed the rabbi, "the Knesset has not, to this day, found the time to take five days and discuss what exactly this Jewish State we have created is meant to be. The words 'Jewish State' are mentioned 22 times in Israel's Declaration of Independence - not "State of the Jews" but rather "Jewish State" - and yet the Knesset has never found time to define just what that means."
The former Chief Rabbi acknowledged that various cases and issues have forced the Knesset and Israeli society to confront aspects of the question at various junctures, but said they were all cases of putting out fires "rather than dealing with the core of the matter. The global terror problem, with Israel at the forefront, is simply obscuring the fact that lurking in the background is the main issue - that of deciding what the substance of our Jewish state is."
Participants and speakers hail from across the globe, many flying in especially for the conference - or even particular sessions. Israel National Radio's Eli Stutz spoke with a man from Los Angeles who said, "I flew in special for the session on the birthrates of Israelis and Arabs. The demographic issue is of utmost concern to me, and I believe that it is critical to deal with it here in Jerusalem."