Am I or can I be a citizen of the world? Examining the possibility of cosmopolitan-patriotic education in Israel

ABSTRACT

It appears as if a discussion about the need for patriotic education is relevant not only for the Western countries, which have many nationalities and cultures, but also especially for the State of Israel, whose social cohesion is being weakened and there is a fear that the different factions in the society are unable to work together. In this paper, I take a much-needed first step for a systematic study of the issue of education for patriotism, as a solution for the construction of social solidarity between and within groups of Israeli citizens. I examine the justification and the practicability of a cosmopolitan-patriotic education as a substitute for a unique local patriotic education in contemporary Israel. My main argument is that cosmopolitan patriotism education is inadequate for the current societal and political atmosphere in Israel. Not even in a Zionistic-Jewish-Israeli cosmopolitan version of three Jewish thinkers: Herzl Levinas, and Gur-Zeev.

KEYWORDS:

• Cosmopolitan education
• patriotism education
• Israeli education
• Theodor Herzl
• Emanuel Levinas
• Ilan Gur-Zeev

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.