This is a recording of a NJN webinar from June 18th, 2025.

Navigating issues related to Israel/Palestine in the queer community – and in some of the broader progressive spaces – can be challenging. There is a history of using Israel’s relatively LGBTQ friendly environment to try to distract from the Occupation, a practice which has earned the label “Pinkwashing.” At the same time, there are the sometimes unfair asks that are made of Jews and/or Israelis.

To help us make sense of how to navigate these intersecting identities and issues, NJN hosted a webinar with two leading Jewish and progressive leaders known for their thoughtfulness and nuance.

Idit Klein (she/her) is the President & CEO of Keshet, the national organization for LGBTQ equality in Jewish life, a role she has held since 2001. Under her leadership, Keshet has mobilized tens of thousands of Jewish leaders to make LGBTQ+ equality a communal value and priority for action.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him) is a social activist, storyteller, writer, and community leader. He is the Co-Founding Spiritual Leader of the thriving Lab/Shul community in New York and the creator of the ritual theater company Storahtelling, Inc.

This webinar was moderated by Noam Shelef (he/him), NJN’s Vice President for Communications. Noam is not only a veteran advocate of peace and human rights in Israel/Palestine, he also spent part of his career leading efforts to uphold LGBTQ rights in workplaces.

This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from June 19th, 2025.

The Israeli government's decision to begin a bombing campaign in Iran on Thursday marked the beginning of a new chapter in the conflict. All of us are trying to make sense of the military action, the diplomatic fallout, and what the consequences will be for Israel, the region, and for the United States. New Jewish Narrative hosted an emergency webinar with Ambassador Dan Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and one of the experts best able to brief us on what’s really happening—and what comes next.

Ambassador Shapiro was in conversation with Hadar Susskind, President and CEO of New Jewish Narrative.

Learn more about NJN - https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/

This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from June 5th, 2025.

We are living through a moment in the United States when we see both that antisemitism is rising and that the Trump administration is weaponizing antisemitism to silence its critics and to attack academia. For years, NJN has been a leader in making sure that efforts to counter antisemitism are not exploited to violate civil liberties. For this conversation, NJN's President and CEO Hadar Susskind was joined by two leaders who we frequently partner with for a discussion on antisemitism and its weaponization.

Rabbi Jill Jacobs (she/her) is the CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, an organization that trains and mobilizes more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors and their communities to bring a moral voice to protecting and advancing human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. She is the author of Where Justice Dwells: A Hands-On Guide to Doing Social Justice in Your Jewish Community and There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law and Tradition, both published by Jewish Lights.

Kevin Rachlin (he/him) serves as the inaugural Washington Director at the Nexus Project. He has over a decade of experience in U.S.-focused advocacy and non-profit leadership. Kevin previously served as the Vice President of Public Affairs at J Street and as the U.S. Director for the Alliance for Middle East Peace, a coalition of 150+ Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilding organizations. He is currently a Senior Fellow for Israel and Palestine Policy at the Alliance of Peacebuilding.

This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from June 4th, 2025.

"The perimeter" is the term used to describe the ever-expanding buffer zone on the Gaza side of the entire Israel-Gaza border from which Palestinians have been forcibly removed since the beginning of the war. As Breaking the Silence's recent report demonstrates, the area has over time been completely decimated and razed to the ground, at the expense of Palestinian residential homes and neighbourhoods, industrial areas, greenhouses, agricultural land and much more. To discuss this report and recent stories from Gaza and the West Bank, we spoke with Breaking the Silence's Luiz Aberbuj and Shay Daniely. This conversation was hosted by New Jewish Narrative's Director of Government Relations, Madeleine Cereghino.

Read the report: https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/inside/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Perimeter_English-2.pdf

Learn more about NJN- https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/

Learn more about Breaking the Silence- https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/

Brian K Barber's new book, No Way But Forward: Life Stories of Three Families in the Gaza Strip, is a heart-wrenching piece of nonfiction. Barber, a psychologist and researcher, has cultivated real relationships with three families in Gaza since 1995, allowing him to tell their stories with rare depth and authenticity.

Read the book: https://www.amazon.com/No-Way-but-Forward-Families-ebook/dp/B0DMCV9BRB

Learn more: https://bkbarber.com/

This is a recording of an NJN webinar on April 24th, 2025

Drs. Shibley Telhami and Marc Lynch, co-chairs of the Middle East Scholar Barometer, say that they have seen a “chilling effect" on the working atmosphere for Middle East scholars. Many US-based academics and scholars already felt an increasing need to self-censor when addressing the Israeli-Palestinian issue professionally. The Trump administration has put unprecedented pressure on higher education. Now, scholars face an environment in which the intensity and pace of campus protests have subsided, but the overall environment has remained oppressive and uncertain as political pressure from above has increased. Self-censorship remains rampant while actual censorship appears to be increasing.

To talk about and make sense of this frightening scenario, Dr. Telhami sat down with our President and CEO Hadar Susskind for a conversation.

Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, the Director of the University of Maryland’s Critical Issues Poll, and a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to the University of Maryland, he taught at several universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in political science. He has authored and edited numerous books, including one forthcoming book: Peace Derailed: Obama, Trump, Biden, and the Decline of Diplomacy on Israel/Palestine, 2011-2022 (co-authored). His most recent book is a co-edited volume with contributions, The One State Reality: What is Israel/Palestine?, which was published in March 2023 with Cornell University Press. He has advised every U.S. administration from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama. Washingtonian Magazine listed him as one of the “Most Influential People on Foreign Affairs” in both 2022 and 2023.

Recording of a NJN webinar on April 16, 2025

Yair Golan is the leader of The Democrats, a political party formed last year when the Labor and Meretz parties merged. Before entering politics, he had a distinguished military career, retiring as a Major General and serving as Deputy Chief of Staff of the IDF.

His actions on the morning of October 7th – in which he rushed on his own accord to the area around Gaza and rescued people from Hamas attacks – have earned him a special status in Israel.

This conversation, hosted by NJN President and CEO Hadar Susskind and NJN Co-Chair Nomi Colton-Max, covers the political situation in Israel, the developments in the war, and the World Zionist Congress.

Cast a vote in the WZC elections here: https://azm.castiron.votem.net/election/037548cb-4cbb-4a94-aa9a-8aef017d4ddf

Learn more about the Hatikvah Slate: https://www.hatikvahslate.net/

Give to NJN: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/give

Recording of an NJN webinar on April 3, 2025.

The conversation, anchored by NJN President & CEO Hadar Susskind, features Hagit Ofran and Lior Amihai from Peace Now. Our guests are on the ground, leading the push against settlements and the fight for for peace.

Lior Amihai is the current Executive Director of Peace Now as well as a previous Executive Director of Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group. He also previously served as co-director of Settlement Watch.

Hagit Ofran is the co-director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch program. With two decades of experience tracking developments in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, she is widely recognized as Israel’s foremost expert on Israeli settlements.

Hadar Susskind is New Jewish Narrative’s President and CEO. He is one of the American Jewish community’s leading progressive advocacy voices with more than 25 years of experience working in Washington DC on both foreign and domestic policy.

To make a (matched!!) donation to Peace Now, click here: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/give?comments=2025%20Donor%20Match