Congregation Beth Elohim (Brooklyn): Book Reading and Discussion with Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street

Meretz USA (Partners for Progressive Israel) is delighted to co-sponsor an event with Jeremy Ben-Ami, Founder and President of J Street.  The event is hosted by Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  Jeremy Ben-Ami will be reading from and discussing his recently released book, A New Voice for Israel.

Additional co-sponsors: Americans for Peace Now

  Sunday, September 18, 2011 - 1:30 pm
  Congregation Beth Elohim
  274 Garfield Place in Park Slope
  Brooklyn, NY
  (718) 768-3814
  Directions

  $10 admission fee

  To register for the event by credit card or PayPal, please click here

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About the author: Jeremy Ben-Ami started J Street in 2008, bringing together both deep experience in American politics and government and a passionate commitment to the state of Israel.

Ben-Ami’s family connection to Israel goes back 130 years to the first aliyah when his great-grandparents were among the first settlers in Petah Tikva. His grandparents were one of the founding families of Tel Aviv, and his father was an activist and leader in the Irgun, working for Israel’s independence and on the rescue of European Jews before and during World War II.

His political résumé includes serving in the mid-1990s as the Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor in the White House to President Bill Clinton and working on seven Presidential and numerous state and local campaigns. Highlights from his political career include serving as Howard Dean’s National Policy Director in 2004 and helping to manage a Mayoral campaign in New York City in 2001. He also spent nearly a decade working in New York City government on homeless housing development.

For nearly three years in the late 90s, Jeremy himself lived in Israel, where he started a consulting firm working with Israeli non-profit organizations and politicians.

Ben-Ami received a law degree from New York University and is a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Relations at Princeton University.

About A New Voice for Israel: In A New Voice for Israel, Jeremy Ben-Ami shares the story of how his family’s experience shaped his political views — his grandparents were first-generation Zionists and founders of Tel Aviv, and his father fought for Israeli independence in 1948 — Ben-Ami argues that it is time for true supporters of Israel to face the truth: that efforts to secure a safe and democratic future for the Jewish homeland are heading dangerously off-track.

A New Voice for Israel emphasizes the need for strong U.S. leadership to combat three factors that stand in the way of a peaceful two-state solution: sophisticated technology and weaponry, the religious nature of the conflict, and the encroaching demographics that will soon render the Jewish people a minority in their own land. In order to move forward, Ben-Ami contends, friends of Israel must:

• Recognize that Jews are not a monolith, and that they vote and act based on various values and issues, not just the status of Israel
• Relinquish the idea that support of Israel requires unquestioning loyalty to the Israeli government and uniform support of its actions
• Ally with those who truly share their core values, instead of forging strategic relationships solely for the sake of increasing Israel’s support base
• Recognize that the creation of a Palestinian state will greatly increase Israel’s chances of survival

At a moment when the world may seem more dangerous than ever for Israel, the temptation to retrench is strong. But as Ben-Ami argues, they must seize the solution instead, before it slips away for good.