The initiative seeks to enhance Israel’s social resilience by boosting the representation of the Druze community in influential social and political roles within local and national government. It empowers talented young Druze men and women with the skills needed to excel in public service and advance to key positions, fostering a strong connection to both Israeli identity and the heritage, values, and history of the Druze community.
The Background
The Druze community in Israel is a small religious and ethnic group that balances cultural and religious separatism with a strong desire for political and social integration. The community maintains close ties with the Jewish population and makes contributions to the success and security of the State of Israel that far exceed its proportion of the population.
Most Druze in Israel live in close-knit, homogeneous communities situated near each other geographically. Until relatively recently, this allowed them to exist within a cultural enclave with limited and cautious exposure to the modern values prevalent in the surrounding Jewish society. However, global changes and the cultural, technological, and moral influences of recent decades have increasingly challenged the boundaries of this traditional framework. This is especially true for the younger generation, some of whom now grapple with questions about their ethnic identity, values, religion, and even their continued sense of belonging to the Druze community.
A Menomadin Foundation Strategic Philanthropy initiative: The Aalam Program equips participants with the tools to lead development efforts and strengthen community resilience.
Photo by: Shem Levi
The Challenge
Although traditional and conservative in nature, as it is represented by a religious leadership, the Druze community in Israel participates in social, political, and military life with a close affinity to the Jewish population, making an outsized contribution to every aspect of Israeli life. The Military service and public sector positions are highly valued within Druze society, and open avenues for internal social mobility. Thus, the Druze senior army officers and public administration officials came to constitute a new social stratum in recent years, which lays out a framework for a new “secular” social and political leadership that is separated from the community’s traditional religious leadership.
The Opportunity
Developed by the Menomadin Foundation in collaboration with the Ma’ase Center and the Druze Heritage Center, the A’alam initiative promotes young Druze civic leadership that is committed to strengthening both Israeli society and the Druze community, alongside the community’s traditional leadership. The training program embraces Druze history, values and heritage while providing participants with the skills and knowledge required to reach key positions in local and national Israeli public sector.
The program accompanies 15 talented and motivated young Druze men and women, selected through rigorous screening processes. The participants undergo six months of training, which includes dedicated workshops, tours, meetings with Israeli and Druze public figures, and intensive seminars. The initiative’s management provides participants with personal guidance in their community involvement initiatives, and assists graduates throughout the admission process for significant career tracks in the public sector. Graduates are expected to continue their academic studies in cadet program frameworks and eventually work to advance both the Druze community and Israeli society while serving in key positions in Israel’s centers of influence.
The initiative aims to cultivate a strong connection among participants to both their Israeli identity and the heritage, values, and history of the Druze community.
In the long run, the initiative is aiming to significantly increase Druze representation in Israeli centers of influence and create a network of young Israeli-Druze leaders in key positions, that influence public social agenda at the local and national levels, and strengthen both the State of Israel’s social resilience and Israeli Druze community.
