The Tanach initiative is an educational project created by the Hartman Institute in collaboration with the Ministry of Education as a national project aimed at elevating the status of the Tanach in the education system and in Israeli society more broadly. The initiative seeks to foster a democratic Jewish-Israeli discourse that positions the bible at its core, by establishing a community of Tanach teachers in Mamlakhti schools.

Teachers who participate acquire the knowledge and tools to help them introduce the bible in ways that are relevant, deep, pluralistic, and critically-minded, with the hope that this will transform the Tanach into a central pillar of students’ Jewish-Israeli identities.

The Tanach Initiative is unique in that it requires participating teachers to establish and guide local communities of teachers, generating a larger network that shares the knowledge and tools with many more teachers – and from those teachers, to many more students.