The request to world Jewry for help in defining the nature of the Israeli state came from Ruth Gavison, an Israeli law professor who has been asked by Tzipi Livni, the justice minister and top peace negotiator, to formulate a constitutional basis for the country’s description of itself as Jewish and democratic. By asking for the input of Jews abroad, most of whom are Americans, Professor Gavison is subtly stacking the deck in favor of democracy and the rights of minorities. As Dov Maimon, an Israeli scholar and public policy expert, put it, “We in Israel are more tribal and becoming more so every year. In America, Jews are more secular and democratic.”

The seminars involved several dozen political and rabbinical leaders in each Jewish community. They were led by Shmuel Rosner, an Israeli journalist and book publisher employed by the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank that seeks to bridge Israel with world Jewry. (He is also a contributing opinion writer to the International New York Times.) He said the debates were often difficult.

“They were searching for that elusive thing that combines peoplehood, nation, religion, culture and shared history,” he said. “Diaspora Jews don’t like religion as it is practiced in Israel because it is dominated by the ultra-Orthodox. But the national element is also problematic because they are other nationalities and don’t want to cast doubt on that.”

Stuart Eizenstat, a former senior American diplomat who is co-chairman of the institute, said that he was struck by how uncomfortable some participants were in the discussion he took part in near Washington. “Most American Jews go to Israel and want to identify with the Jewish homeland but they haven’t been forced to come to terms with these issues,” he said.

With 20 percent of Israel’s population non-Jewish and hardly any agreement among the other 80 percent on the meaning of “Jewish” (Is it a religion, a culture, an ethnicity?), there are challenges in all directions. Democracy, after all, is about principles of neutrality and equality; Jewishness is about particularity and group affiliation. Since for most Israelis the very point of Zionism is Jewish political sovereignty, one obvious concern is how to ensure equality for non-Jews. Should the law of return, granting instant Israeli citizenship to Jews, remain on the books? Should the national anthem, which speaks of a “Jewish soul yearning,” be more inclusive? And, again, what is Jewish? For ultra-Orthodox Jews, who believe in daylong Torah study — nearly 10 percent of the population and growing rapidly — the answer is different from that of a secular laborer.