designing engagement with the Jewish state
WHO WE ARE​
Israel ArchiTexts is a venture founded by Dr. David Breakstone, a passionate Jewish educator with a Ph.D. from Hebrew University in Contemporary Jewry and Israel Education. He recently completed his tenure as Deputy Chair of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, culminating two decades of elected office in Israel’s National Institutions. During that time, he was privileged to have served as the conceptual architect and founding director of the Herzl Museum and Educational Center in Jerusalem, while also serving simultaneously as a member of the executives of the World Zionist Organization, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (JNF), and Keren Hayesod. As such, for the past 20 years he has been intimately involved in formulating policy and effecting action on a wide array of issues on the agenda of world Jewry. Prior positions he has held include Director of Hebrew University's Pedagogic Center for Jewish Education, Associate Dean and Director of Education at The Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies, Supervisor of the TALI Education Fund, and Director of Ramah Programs in Israel. As a volunteer, David is currently a member of the directorates of Yad Vashem, the Ethiopian National Project, the Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies, the Nativ Center for Jewish Identity and Conversion, and Kulanu.
David has extensive experience in the practice and philosophy of Israel education and has published widely on matters of Israel and contemporary Jewry, most popularly as a columnist for The Jerusalem Post and as a blogger for The Times of Israel. The volume, From Altneuland to Tel Aviv: On dreams and deeds, is a collection of essays he co-edited that constitutes a critical and compelling challenge to make of the Jewish state the exemplary society its founders envisioned.
​
It is the ongoing imperative of meeting that challenge that continues to drive him, and it is through Israel ArchiTexts that he hopes to inspire others to engage in that effort as well, first and foremost by deepening their own understanding of and personal relationship with the State of Israel in all its complexity. He is enthusiastic about facilitating that process, applying to the enterprise all the experience he has accumulated throughout his career. He works with similarly dedicated and equally qualified associates in fulfilling that mission.
​
David, who made Aliyah from the United States in 1974, is married to an olah from Chile and together they have five children and fifteen grandchildren.
​
Scroll down to see what others have had to say about their experience working with him.