An international school of Jewish and technological leadership will be founded in two years in Jerusalem, to foster the next generation of leaders in Israel and the Jewish world.

The project is part of an initiative of President Shimon Peres and the non-Jewish media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch. Others involved include businessmen Leslie Wexner and Mort Zuckerman.

The initiative was announced by Mr Murdoch last week at the President’s Conference in Jerusalem, originally as a special school for technological innovators.

However, in a meeting with Mr Peres, it was decided that the school, which will be founded as part of one of the existing academic institutions in Jerusalem, will also serve as a training-ground for prospective Jewish leaders.

The curriculum and the identity of the students still has to be determined. This will be the job of a steering committee to be set up at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute and the first order will be signing on a number of additional major philanthropists to finance the project.

Another project announced at the conference is the translation and digitisation of thousands of historical Jewish texts from across the generations. The books will be available on a new website being planned by the Prime Minister’s Office that will serve as the main web portal for the Jewish world.