Community Conversation on Israel and American Jewish Identity

The Community Conversation on Israel and American Jewish Identity featured Dov Waxman, Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Israel Studies at Northeastern University; Laura Blumenfeld, senior fellow at SAIS Johns Hopkins Center for Strategic Studies; and Jonathan Rynhold, director of the Argov Center for the Study of the Jewish People and the State of Israel in the Political Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University.

The session was moderated by Cheryl Fishbein, who is a vice chair of JCPA’s executive committee and also one of the co-chairs of its Israel, World Jewry and International Human Rights task force. After a message of greeting from Ilan Sztulman, Head of Public Diplomacy at the Embassy of Israel, the session, which was off-the-record, addressed some of the underlying tensions in the relationship between American Jews and Israel and offered proactive suggestions for all participants on maintaining and strengthening the bond between the two communities.