The Keshet was founded in 1996 by a group of leading intellectuals, thinkers and artists, among them Prof. Yehouda Shenhav, Dr. Ishak Saporta, Dr. Yossi Dahan, Dr. Vicki Shiran, Dr. Henriette Dahan Kalev, Dr. Dolly Benhabib, Ms. Shosh Gabay, Prof. Yossi Yona, Hana Azoulay HaSfari, Dr. Sami Shalom Chetrit, and many others.
Developing The Missing Link-Mizrahi Jews and Palestinian Arab Citizens in Israel as Builders of Democracy, Peace and Justice: This project cultivates the development of a new set of allies, Mizrahi Jews and Palestinian Arab Citizens in Israel, by promoting the idea that divisions between Mizrahim and Palestinian Arab Citizens in Israel are a contrived situation which can be changed by re-orientating the relationship towards a sense of solidarity based on shared experiences and destiny.
The relationship between Mizrahi Jews and the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel could become the critical bridge needed to reconcile cultural, linguistic and political gaps in understanding and agreement between the two peoples and a powerful force for peace and justice in Israel and Palestinian territories.
Mobile Academy Project: The proposed project intends to work within some of Israel's most weakened communities to provide participants with the knowledge, consciousness, skills and tools to stand up for their rights to decent and fair education, housing, employment and cultural expression.
The Mobile Academy targets four cities that have large concentrations of disempowered groups, such as Mizrahim, immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union, and Arabs, which inhabit poor and resource-deprived neighborhoods.