Conversation

The Jewish-American Relationship with Israel at the Crossroads

Oct 6, 2012

4:00–7:00pm ET

The New School, Tishman Auditorium

Anna Baltzer, Noam Chomsky, and Norman Finkelstein, each a leading commentator on the Israel/Palestine conflict, together span three generations of struggle for a just peace in the Middle East. In this public forum, moderated by Adam Shatz, they discuss the possibility that increasing awareness of the conflict among the American Jewish community is creating a more critical stance towards Israel. Such a separation between traditional allies could give new impetus to resolving a conflict that has, for many years, seemed intractable.

As a result of laryngitis, Noam Chomsky was unable to join the discussion.

Participants
Anna Baltzer, three-time volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service in the West Bank, and Fulbright scholar
Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (CANCELLED)
Norman G. Finkelstein, activist, writer, and independent scholar
Adam Shatz, contributing editor, London Review of Books

Anna Baltzer is a graduate of Columbia University, Fulbright scholar, and three-time volunteer with the International Womens Peace Service in the West Bank, where she documents human rights abuses and supports the nonviolent resistance movement to the occupation. She is the author of Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories.

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. A member of the American Academy of Science, he has published widely in both linguistics and current affairs. His books include Fateful Triangle: The U. S., Israel and the Palestinians; Necessary Illusions; Hegemony or Survival; Deterring Democracy; Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy and Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. CANCELLED

Norman G. Finkelstein was educated at Princeton University and taught political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict for many years. He is the author of nine books including Knowing Too Much: Why the Jewish American Romance With Israel Is Coming To an End; What Gandhi Says: About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage; This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion; and The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering.

Adam Shatz is a contributing editor at the London Review of Books. He has reported from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Algeria. He is also the editor of an anthology, Prophets Outcast: A Century of Dissident Jewish Writing about Zionism and Israel.

Co-sponsored by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics and the Humanities Department at The New School for Public Engagement, and OR Books.

VLC = 20 Years. Join us for our 20thanniversary, with free admissions to all VLC events.