Imagine that the following institutions are located in Jerusalem: An international court; an international dialogue center for the three, monotheistic religions; an academic center to promote leadership of the Jewish people; an international software development center that focuses on Jewish subjects; and a museum of the Jewish people. These are only a few of the programs that will be presented to the cabinet to mark Jerusalem Day in conjunction with an effort to "strengthen the standing of Jerusalem as the civilizational capital of the Jewish people."

This is not a utopian vision but a plan supported by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI), a respected think tank led by Professor Yehezkel Dror, an Israel Prize winner and Winograd Commission member. JPPPI's senior researchers include Prof. Sergio Della Pergola, Emmanuel Sivan, and former-director general of the Foreign Ministry Avi Gil.

The Jerusalem initiative was born two years ago when then minister for Jerusalem Affairs Natan Sharansky devised a project to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the city's unification. Sharansky invited Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski to join him, and the two of them asked the institute to develop long-range projects that would lift the capital from its ongoing cycle of problems, including waste disposal and a limited budget.

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According to project coordinator Michael Weil, who is also the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, the project is motivated by the desire "to enhance Jerusalem's status as the cultural and spiritual capital of the Jewish people."

Professor Dror adds a universal dimension: "I thought that it was important to propose something with global significance during the 40th year of the city's unification." The melding of both rationales gave rise to 35 concepts outlined in the Global Jewish Identity and Identification mega-project.

The central concepts identified by JPPPI include:

b Establishment of an international court. Weil describes it as a "voluntary" institution comprised not of national representatives but of "individuals of stature." Weil's vision is a court "that is not only comprised of justices. It will not rule according to international law but according to the natural laws of justice. This court may not have authority but it will have moral weight."

b A Jewish people leadership academy. An international, academic institution to train Jewish leaders and a prestigious Jewish high school to attract superior students from around the world.

b A "pilgrimage" project. Weil maintains that tens of thousands of Jews come to Israel during the Succot and Passover holidays. "We thought we should bring them in an organized fashion and arrange organized tours under the 'Pilgrimage' label," he explains.

b Bar/bat mitzvah project. In a spirit similar to that of the previous project, Weil intends to capitalize on the fact that young Jewish people already come here to celebrate their bar and bat mitzvahs at the Western Wall. He asks, why not "do this in an organized fashion on an international level: Advance preparation, joint tours in Israel, a gift from the president and perhaps a contribution from them to Jerusalem."

b If the former projects are not sufficiently ambitious, the most grandiose fantasy is "to encourage the United Nations to locate the headquarters of one of its central branches in Jerusalem." Can one begin to entertain this scenario at a time when even the United States is unwilling to locate its embassy in Jerusalem?

Dror sees no contradiction. "The establishment of an embassy is a political act dependent on political relations. But the location of a cultural branch of the UN like the [UNESCO World Heritage] committee to preserve historical sites is a step that is not necessary political and therefore more realistic," he says.

In general, Dror believes that the realization of the proposals in the strategic paper is not conditional upon formal, political relations with Jerusalem, but may actually serve to advance such relations. "I have great doubt concerning the plausibility of promoting political relations if we do not first enhance the status of Jerusalem as a city with universal, cultural significance."

Dror says that Christianity and Islam have a cultural interest in Jerusalem but, unlike the Palestinians, they do not consider it to be a political capital. "Thus, perhaps cultural dialogue could actually diminish the significance of a political solution or even contribute to its progress," Dror suggests.

Something big

Given the fact that Jerusalem has more enduring problems than most cities in Israel, the project gives rise to questions regarding the city's ability to devote itself to dreams of this type. Dror understands that the project will not rely on the city's ongoing financial resources. But he does believe that in dire circumstances "it is necessary to search for major breakthroughs, because minimal improvement in a dubious situation doesn't count for much."

Weil is also optimistic. "I interviewed about 100 people in the context of this work, and one thing I heard, time and again, is that people are sick of dealing with pettiness and want to go for something big." He mentions reading that a joint government of Catholics and Protestants was established in Ireland, saying, "It may not be preposterous to consider a central UN project in Jerusalem."

JPPPI staff did not construct a formal plan to actualize their ideas. But when one asks them about projections for realization of the project, Weil, the pragmatist, sounds more optimistic than Dror, the academic. It is feasible and desirable, he says, to launch all the projects at once because one must view the plan as a whole. Authors of the paper maintain that it will take $50 million to begin to implement the plan during its first five years. This is a tremendous but not utopian sum. Weil calls for the establishment of an administration that includes members of government, the Jerusalem Municipality and Diaspora representatives. He would personally like to launch aspects of the plan related to education like the international Jewish high school.

Dror, on the other hand, wants to open the project with the Jewish people leadership academy and the international court. "We proposed a number of projects based on the assumption that only a few would finally be implemented. Which ones? That is hard to say. It depends, for example, on the question of what catches the eyes of philanthropists - what turns one of them on."