From Peacemaking to Shrinking the Conflict: How do we move from a mindset of the unattainable perfect to pragmatic change?
Join Dr. Micah Goodman, bestselling author, scholar and activist, and Charlene Seidle, Leichtag Foundation Executive Vice President, for an illuminating discussion on how young Palestinian and Israeli adults are influencing policy and movement toward a generation of Palestinians who do not experience occupation and a generation of Israelis who do not experience terrorism.
We are living in a time in which there is little hope and optimism for the prospect of peace in the Middle East. But while it is unlikely that our generation will experience peace, Micah believes we can create the generation who will.
It’s time to throw out sacred cows and experience radical thinking. Join us for a provocative exploration of pragmatic actions you probably won’t hear about in the news, but ones which have the potential to dramatically transform millions of lives.
___________________________________________________________
Micah Goodman, PhD
An Israeli-American Jewish philosopher, one of Liberal Magazine’s 100 most influential Israelis in 2019, and a leading voice on Judaism, Zionism, and the challenges and opportunities facing Israel and contemporary world Jewry.
Goodman is the author of five Israeli bestsellers, including Catch-67: The Left, The Right and The Legacy of the Six Day War, published by Yale University Press in August 2018. Taking a new approach to analyzing Israel’s longest-standing and most painful national controversy, Catch 67 has been discussed by leading news outlets including the Atlantic and the New York Times, and stands to generate a new paradigm for Israel’s approach to the conflict. The book was published in Hebrew in March 2017 by Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir and topped the country’s bestsellers lists within a week of its release.
Goodman’s newest book, published in Israel in April 2018, is a compelling examination of Jewish-Israeli identity that will be published by Yale University Press in 2020 in English. His previous books, published in 2014, 2012, and 2011 by Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir, all ranked at the top of Israel’s bestsellers lists for months and earned endorsements by the likes of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and former Israeli president Shimon Peres.
Goodman directs Beit Midrash Yisraeli – Beit Prat, Israel’s leading pluralistic Zionist Beit Midrash for young adults. With some 3,000 alumni and thousands more participating in its programs annually, Beit Prat strengthens the Jewish character of Israel’s young creative class and fosters a new Israeli mainstream of thoughtful, engaged, connected young adults.
In 2014 Goodman received the Marc and Henia Liebhaber Prize for Religious Tolerance for his work and writings. Goodman lectures across North America and Europe, as well as at Israel’s leading universities, think tanks, and cultural venues to audiences that include Israel’s political and national leaders. Among other venues, in the past year he has lectured and taught at the Knesset, the official residence of Israel’s Prime Minister, and the official residence of Israel’s President. Goodman has a doctorate in Jewish Thought from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and teaches at his alma mater. He is a member of the Global Forum of the National Library of Israel and a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Stacie and Jeff Cook understand commitment. They live it.
Black, Jewish and Queer. These three identities weave the fabric of who I am, but it took a long time to believe that they could exist together.
Lee and Toni Leichtag established the Leichtag Foundation in 1991 following the sale of their business. Lee and Toni were lifelong entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation and for supporting talent. They believed that only with big risk comes big reward. Both born to families in poverty, Toni to a single mother, they strongly believed in helping those most in need and most vulnerable in our community. While they supported many causes, their strongest support was for young children and the elderly, two demographics who particularly lack voice in our society.
Lifelong Baltimoreans, Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski and their sons, 11-year-old Lennon and 9-year-old Gideon, are more than pursuing the good life in Southern California. Having moved to San Diego more than three years ago, they are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
You would think that as the executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Fernando Zweifach López Jr., who uses the pronoun they, has done all the coming out they possibly can. A queer, non-binary individual who has worked for many years on civil rights issues, López also speaks openly and often about their father’s family, Mexican-American migrant workers who tilled the fields of rural California.