On June 1, Stephen Wise Temple welcomed Professor Dov Waxman and Professor Masua Sagiv for the first of our three-part series, “How Do We Talk About Israel?”
Rabbi Ron Stern, Richard Hirschhaut of American Jewish Committee/LA and Michelle Stone of the Hartman Institute developed the program and invited Wise Rabbi Sari Laufer, Profs. Waxman and Sagiv to discuss how to engage in critical conversations about Israel, Zionism, and antisemitism.
Prof. Waxman currently serves as the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Israel Studies at UCLA, while Prof. Sagiv is the Koret Visiting Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at U.C. Berkeley.
The first session focused on how American Jews can seek an understanding of Israel’s societal and political dynamics as they are so different from our own experiences. Is it fair to engage, criticize or take sides from afar? In short, how can American Jews better understand Israeli society?
Watch the video below to see the discussion in full, and stay tuned for the next edition of the series, coming this fall.
Part 2 (TBA): How do we speak about Israel to the outside world?
Part 3 (TBA): How do we speak about Israel to the next generation?
