The Hamas invasion of October 7, and the intense hostilities that followed, have left many of us traumatized—protective of Israel, but also more worried about its future and its meaning for Jewish life.
These tragic events have highlighted the pain and paradoxes of Israel's story: a tough little nation that coaxed crops from the desert and built a first-world economy, somehow still struggling to justify and defend its existence; a miraculous story of Jewish self-determination and rebirth, somehow still fragile given its enemies, and the elusive challenge of reaching genuine peace; a country so widely admired for its accomplishments, contributions and resilience, and yet somehow still often isolated and shunned.
How do we make sense of this moment? What does this all mean for the future of Israel, global Jewry and the relationship between them?
Few people are better poised to sort through the complications, the challenges and the promises than Dr. Tal Becker, Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Dr. Becker not only leads Hartman Institute’s educational initiatives on Israel and the Jewish World but also serves as the legal adviser to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has served as a senior member of the Israeli team in successive rounds of peace negotiations, was a lead drafter and negotiator of the Abraham Accords, senior policy adviser to Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and an international law expert for the Israel Defense Forces. He is winner of the Rabin Peace Prize and the 2007 Guggenheim Prize for Best International Law Book for Terrorism and the State.
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center is honored to welcome him, along with writer, journalist and podcast host Abigail Pogrebin, for an important discussion addressing our fears, rekindling our hopes and reimagining Israel at 100 in new ways.