September 19, 2023

With $1 million in gifts from two prominent foundations, RAND is creating a distinguished chair in Israel policy to oversee a slate of new research endeavors.

The establishment of a dedicated chair allows RAND to deepen what has become a steady stream of research on Israel in recent years. The chair will manage four pillars of research, focusing on domestic Israeli policy issues; Israeli–Palestinian relations; Israel and the greater Middle East; and Israel and the world.

Funding for the position came from two foundations that have supported RAND research on Israel in recent years. Each gave $500,000 to create the “RAND Israel Policy Chair Established by The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation and The Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation.”

The Gilbert Foundation works to improve health, education, and economic opportunities in California and Israel. Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert were generous donors to charitable causes in Los Angeles and Israel; their foundation has given $810,000 to RAND in recent years. Trustees Martin H. Blank, Jr., and Richard S. Ziman said its latest donation to RAND is intended to deepen and strengthen research related to Israel.

According to them, “It’s crucial that U.S. policymakers have a deep understanding of the many issues in the region and in Israel from an organization like RAND—a fair, objective, trusted source.”

“It’s an exciting opportunity to take the research around Israel to the next level,” said Jeffrey Neiman, vice president of operations and programming and general counsel of the Glazer Foundation. “There’s a lot of opportunity and advancement happening in the region, just over the past ten years. This gift will support research that has an impact and is able to capitalize on this moment.”

Israel has been an important focus at RAND for years. In 2005, for example, researchers developed a roadmap for an independent Palestinian state in the event of a two-state solution. Guilford Glazer understood that for a Palestinian State to succeed it needed infrastructure to enable economic development. He provided support for “The Arc”, a visionary, award-winning urban design plan connecting the West Bank and Gaza and creating economic corridors for the new state. This seminal support for RAND’s work on Israel came from Guilford Glazer, the Richards Family, and the Y&S Nazarian Family Foundation, among other generous supporters of RAND’s Israel program.

More recently, researchers examined the security implications of China’s growing investments in Israeli technology and infrastructure. They searched for any overlap in Israeli and Palestinian visions for a future peace but found little reason for optimism. And they looked at how Israel could reform and strengthen its local governments.

That last project paired RAND researchers with a research fellow from Israel, the former director of the Budgets Department in the Ministry of Finance. It was part of a research program focused on Israel that launched in 2018. The Gilbert and Glazer foundations were two of its major funders.

Guilford “Gil” Glazer, a real estate developer and philanthropist in Los Angeles, made his first donation to RAND in 1993. Since then, the Glazers and their foundation have given more than $3 million to support RAND’s work, especially on Israel. The foundation seeks to ensure the prosperity and safety of Israel and the vitality and enrichment of Jewish communities in Israel, Los Angeles, and throughout the world.

Distinguished chairs recognize RAND researchers for excellence in their field of study and allow those researchers to delve deeper into important policy issues. RAND currently has distinguished chairs in fields that include air and space policy, China policy, and health care payment policy.