Events
Fall webinars
October 21st at 8pm EST
Amidst the Wreckage of Neoconservatism: Jewish Progressives and the American National Interest
This webinar asks how Jewish progressive thinkers, in solidarity with other public intellectuals, policy makers, and statespeople, can contribute to a coherent, moral, and compelling articulation of American national security interests ahead of next year's Democratic party primaries. In the wake of both the Neoconservative induced catastrophes of the Iran and Iraq wars of the 2000's, and the Israeli decimation of Gaza, we explore the need for a new progressive foreign policy ideology to emerge which can establish policy priorities, negotiate competing interests, and articulate a coherent message for the voting public.
Additionally, we ask what is the unique "value added" that Jewish progressive thinkers and institutions might provide intellectually, politically, and morally for a responsible departure from both Biden and Trump era foreign policy statecraft? This webinar will encourage Jewish progressives to think both through and beyond the lens of U.S. policy vis-à-vis Israel and to adopt a cosmopolitan and synthetic vision for American foreign policy.
With Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor, and Suzanne Schneider, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Institute, and Eliyahu Stern, Professor at Yale University.
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October 21st, 8pm EST - Online - Free
Also this fall
Law and the Shape of Belonging and Discrimination: Jewish and Muslim Citizenship in the West.
November 23 at 5pm EST
How does law shape who is recognized as a religious minority, and what kinds of discrimination become visible as a result? In this comparative conversation, historians and social scientists Lila Corwin Berman and Nasar Meer explore how legal and political frameworks have shaped Jewish and Muslim citizenship and belonging in American and European contexts. Bringing Jewish and Islamic experiences into conversation, the webinar will examine how categories of religion, race, ethnicity, and nationality are constructed and contested through law, and how those categories influence public understandings of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of discrimination. The discussion asks what comparison can illuminate about minority belonging, and where the particular histories of Jewish and Muslim communities resist easy analogy.
With Prof. Nasar Meer, University of Glasgow, Scotland, and Prof. Lila Corwin Berman, New York University.
In the Carnage of Gaza: Conceptual Thinking and Moral Reckoning in the Public Sphere
December 13 at 12pm ET
How can the Jewish and American public spheres reckon with Gaza when genocidal violence overwhelms language, and political discourse hardens into slogans, silences, and exclusions? A genuine reckoning demands critically examining concepts of humanity, sovereignty, security, history, and political community through which violence becomes intelligible and permissible. Rather than treating thought as a retreat from suffering, this webinar explores its capacity to intervene in the conditions that have produced Israel’s destruction of Gaza.
Recognizing the horror, especially for Jews worldwide, of the October 7 attacks, our moral conscience demands interrogating the conditions generated within a public sphere spanning the State of Israel, the Jewish diaspora, and American empire that have legitimized Israel's domination over Palestinians. What forms of public reasoning remain possible amid the breakdown of dialogue? How might rethinking the concepts governing our political world open paths toward accountability, solidarity, and transformation?
With Prof. Elad Lapidot, University of Lille, France, and Dr. Yasmeen Daher, University of Potsdam, Germany.