Join us for an in-depth conversation on recent anti-Semitic activities worldwide and how the BDS movement interplays with current trends. We will also explore what leadership roles you can adopt, along with the communities and organizations in which you are involved.
We will begin with presentations from experts in the field and then open for questions and conversation. The call will be facilitated by Cindy Chazan, Vice President of The Wexner Foundation. Please note that this call is scheduled for one hour.
Monday, April 20, 2015 1:00 — 2:00 PM, EDT
with
Dr. Rachel Fish, Brandeis University’s Schusterman Center
Peter Joseph, WHP alum (NY/Skadden) and Chair of Israel Policy Forum
Rabbi Aaron Lerner, WGF alum (Class 22) and CEO of Hillel UCLA
Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt, Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University
Click here to RSVP and receive dial-in instructions.
Bios
Rachel Fish is Associate Director of the Schusterman Center. In 2015 she also holds the Rohr Visiting Professorship at Harvard University, lecturing on modern Israel. She recently completed her doctoral degree in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department at Brandeis University. Her dissertation, “Configurations of Bi-nationalism: The Transformation of Bi-nationalism in Palestine/Israel 1920’s-Present,” examines the history of the idea of bi-nationalism and alternative visions for constructing the State of Israel. Rachel has worked as an educator and consultant in various capacities in the Jewish community and higher education, teaching about Zionism and Israeli history at Brandeis University, UMASS Amherst and the Me’ah Adult Jewish Education program. At Brandeis she teaches the Myra Kraft seminar on Israel at the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program.
Peter Joseph is an alum of the New York Skadden class of The Wexner Heritage Program. He is the Chair of Israel Policy Forum, a policy and advocacy organization that mobilizes communal leaders within the mainstream of the American Jewish community in support of Israel’s pursuit of lasting peace and security. He currently also serves on the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Shalom Hartman Institute, the New York City Citizens Budget Commission, and the Third Way. Peter is one of the founding members, a past president, and a current board member, of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. In his professional life, Peter is the Chairman of Trenton Biogas LLC (TBL), a start-up company that is developing its first biomass processing project in Trenton, New Jersey. Peter has been in the private equity investment business for over twenty-five years, having been the founder of Joseph Littlejohn & Levy in 1985 and Palladium Equity Partners in 1998. He earned an B.A. from Cornell University in European History and a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.
Aaron Lerner is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship alum from Class 22 and is the Simha & Sara Lainer Senior Jewish Educator/Executive Director of UCLA Hillel. On campus, he focuses on creating informed, pluralistic conversations that address the fundamental questions we all have about relationships and sexuality, purpose, justice, ethics, theodicy and more. Aaron received smicha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and graduated from USC, where he studied at the Marshall School of Business and minored in Spanish. He is a member of Hillel’s Executive Director training program, Accelerate. He has also closed more than $2 billion of commercial real estate debt and equity transactions and ran his own entrepreneurial enterprises. He loves to laugh with his wife, Rachel, and daughters, Lily and Gavriella, and can often be found on the racquetball court, in the ocean or traveling the world.
is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. Her most recent books are The Eichmann Trial, described by the New York Times Book Review as having “done a great service by… recovering the event as a gripping legal drama, as well as a hinge moment in Israel’s history and in the world’s delayed awakening to the magnitude of the Holocaust” and History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier, which is the story of her London libel trial against David Irving who sued her for calling him a Holocaust denier and right wing extremist. The case was described by the Daily Telegraph (London) as having “done for the new century what the Nuremberg tribunals or the Eichmann trial did for earlier generations.” At Emory she directs the website known as HDOT [Holocaust Denial on Trial/ www.hdot.org]. Portions of the site are translated into Arabic, Farsi, Russian and Turkish. Lipstadt was an historical consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. After it opened she was appointed by President Clinton to two consecutive terms on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. She was appointed by Secretary of State Albright to the US State Department Commission on Religious Persecution Abroad (1996-2000). President George W. Bush asked her to represent him at the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2012 President Obama reappointed her to the US Holocaust Council. She represented the White House at the OSCE meeting on anti-Semitism in Berlin in November 2014. She is currently writing a book on contemporary anti-Semitism. She has taught for The Wexner Foundation for 26 years.
Tech and RSVP Information
We will be using a new technology called Zoom, which is similar to Skype and Google Hangout. Zoom allows up to 100 people to participate and is free to use. You will need to be at a computer, iPad or smartphone with internet, camera, mic and speakers to participate fully. If you don’t have a camera or mic at your computer, you can still “zoom in” – as long as you have internet and speakers you will be able to listen in, just like a conference call. You can dial in from a phone and will be in “listen only mode.” To register and receive instructions and texts which will be used during the sessions, please email Aliza Storchan.
