SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–The Jewish Studies Department at San Diego State University has scheduled four lectures on the Middle East at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla.
“Our tradition at San Diego State University’s Jewish Studies Program is to bring to San Diego the latest in Israel and Middle East research and related topics of interest,” said Risa Levitt Kohn, the professor who directs the Jewish Studies Program.
“In this new year, 2010, in partnership with Congregation Beth El, we are proud to present a four-part lecture series about present-day Israel covering topics such as Obama’s Mideast policy, the shaping of the Arab-Israeli conflict and foreign diplomacy by new media such as the Internet, and the debates inside Israel about the conflict, Israel’s future and the very essence of Israeli society.”
The dates, lecture topics, lecturers, times and locations are as follows:
Tuesday, February 23–The Obama Mideast Policy: A Bridge to Peace or Nowhere? Led by Dr. Mitchell Bard. 6:30pm, Congregation Beth El, Sanctuary. Dr. Mitchell Bard is the Executive Director of the nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and a foreign policy analyst who lectures frequently on U.S.-Middle East policy. Dr. Bard is also the director of the Jewish Virtual Library, the world’s most comprehensive online encyclopedia of Jewish history and culture. For three years he was the editor of the Near East Report, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) weekly newsletter on U.S. Middle East policy. Prior to working at AIPAC, Dr. Bard served as a senior analyst in the polling division of the 1988 Bush campaign. Dr. Bard is a member of a number of speakers bureaus, including the UJC , Hillel , Israel Bonds and the Jewish National Fund . Dr. Bard has appeared on Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, CBC, the Jenny Jones Show, al-Jazeera and other local and national television and radio outlets. His work has been published in academic journals and He is the author of 18 books including Will Israel Survive?; 1001 Facts Everyone Should Know About Israel.
Monday, March 1st– New Media and the New Middle East: The Palestinian-Israeli Web War and Monday, March 8 —The Israeli Media and Israeli Foreign Policy Decision Making. 6:30 p.m. Congregation Beth El.
Both Lectures Led By Dr. Chanan Naveh, who is the Schusterman/Lipinsky Visiting Israeli Professor for the Jewish Studies Program at San Diego State University and a senior lecturer and academic advisor in the School of Communications, Sapir College (Israel) and a lecturer at the International Relations Department, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
For 18 years he taught International Relations and Communication in the Political Science Department at Tel Aviv University. From 1969-2004 he worked for Kol Israel (Israeli Radio), news division in various positions including Editor-in-Chief and managing editor.
Dr. Naveh specializes in research of the Internet and international relations, international media, media and foreign affairs, and the radio in Israel. His recent publications include: Pirate Radio in Israel (2007), awarded the distinguished grant of the Second Authority for Radio and Television (Israel); “The Palestinian-Israeli Web War”, in New Media and the New Middle East. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2007); The Web as an Israeli Solidarity Environment during The second Lebanon War (2008) & Israeli Radio during the Six-Day War: National Unity Government and Radio of National Unity, (forthcoming).
Monday, March 22–Fault-Lines and Debates in Contemporary Israel and
their Historical Roots; Led By Dr. Arieh Saposnik at 6:30 p.m. Congregation Beth El.
Dr. Arieh Saposnik holds the Gilbert Chair in Israel Studies at University of California, Los Angeles. Born in Oakland California, Arieh Saposnik grew up in Haifa, Israel. He received his Ph.D. in History and Jewish Studies from New York University. Saposnik’s research focuses on varieties of Jewish nationalism, particularly the history of Zionism and Israel. He is the author of Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine (Oxford University Press, 2008). His current research projects include a history of Territorialism and the Jewish Territorialist Organization, and a study of the shifting imagery and symbolism of the sacred in the making of Jewish nationalism.
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Preceding provided by the Jewish Studies Department at San Diego State University