Does Israel Meet the Challenge of Being Both a Jewish and Democratic State?

University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law

Rabbi Uri Regev is an internationally renowned leader and advocate of religious liberty and the liberal movements of Judaism in his native Israel and around the world. Rabbi Regev serves as the President and CEO of an educational and advocacy Israel-Diaspora partnership, “Freedom Of Religion for Israel” and of its Israeli counterpart, “Hiddush – For Religious Freedom and Equality”, which he founded in 2009. For seven years [2002-2008] he served as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, the global umbrella organization of the Progressive, Reform, Liberal and Reconstructionist movements. As head of the World Union, Rabbi Regev worked to strengthen modern, pluralistic Jewish life and democracy in the Jewish state and throughout the world. Prior to assuming leadership of the World Union, Rabbi Regev served as founding chair, and later as executive director and legal counsel, of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), the public and advocacy arm of the Reform movement in Israel. Rabbi Regev has also served on the boards of many other major Jewish organizations, including the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency, Rabbis for Human Rights, the Overseers of the Jerusalem School of the Hebrew Union College, the Institute for Progressive Halacha, the Central Archives of the Jewish People, the Center for the Research of Democracy at the University of Haifa, the Re’ut School and Institute for Pluralistic Training, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Israel Amuta of the San Francisco Jewish Federation and others.