The next issue (in Hebrew) can be purchased on our website

A “mitzpe” or “lookout” is a point located high up, offering a view far into the distance. We chose the name Mitzpe for the new Hannaton Educational Center journal, because through this journal we want to bring together both the far-reaching perspectives and those focused closer to home, on the ground.

Mitzpe aims to be a home for a vibrant, spiritual and intellectual dialogue that touches on some of the central issues of life in Israel, with a focus on education for Jewish diversity, Humanism and Zionism, all in the spirit of the Hannaton Educational Center.

Mitzpe is also a Hebrew acronym for leadership (manhigut), Zionism (Tzionut), pluralism and humanism, the cornerstones of the Hannaton Educational Center, where we seek to build, layer upon layer, a home that encourages hope in our present day lives and for the future.

Did it happen or not? Was it real or was it all a dream? This is what many of us are wondering after so many days of lockdown during the Corona epidemic.

These are also the questions we ask about myths, the formative stories of a culture, including our own. Perhaps, however, we are asking the wrong questions. If events happened exactly as told, then they are not myth but history. What makes a myth a myth? Does it have to be a story, a legend, not real? Or is it our belief in what happened and our choice to repeatedly return to it what changes it from history into myth?

In the next issue of Mitzpe, we will look at the myths in Judaism and Zionism and explore their meaning to us today. Should we challenge their legitimacy with a more sober and rational perspective, or instead, use these myths to help lead us towards a more cohesive vision, greater meaning and deeper involvement, immersed in the values we believe in and that reflect who we are? The articles in the upcoming issue will also consider what we must do when there is a gap between those traditional values and our current values.