This episode features the audio from a NJN webinar, originally recorded on February 19, 2026, moderated by Hadar Susskind.
The Knesset is currently considering a bill that would create a death penalty for Palestinians who kill Israelis, but not for Israelis who kill Palestinians. It circumvents basic rights like due process and equal protection, and exemplifies the racist mindset that animates the current Israeli government.
This webinar provides an overview of the bill, the state of play in the battle to stop it from becoming law, and what this struggle can teach us about the fight for our values in Israel’s current political climate.
This webinar features Bentzi Sykora, the Policy Director at the Israeli think tank Zulat; Shira Ben Sasson-Furstenberg, the Israel Director of the New Israel Fund; and Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the CEO of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.
In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN's Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by Ittay Flescher, who some of our listeners may recognize as the Education Director of Seeds of Peace Jerusalem, others might recognize as the Jerusalem Correspondent for The Jewish Independent from Australia, and a deeply insightful analyst of Israeli politics. He has been published in Haaretz, The Age, ABC Religion and Ethics, Jerusalem Post, Fathom and last year brought the publication of his first book, The Holy and the Broken: A cry for Israeli-Palestinian peace from a land that must be shared.
Read more of Ittay's work: https://www.ittay.au/articles
Check out Ittay's US tour dates: https://www.ittay.au/
This episode features the audio from a NJN webinar, originally recorded on February 4th, 2026, hosted by Hadar Susskind.
Maoz Inon’s parents were killed by Hamas on October 7. Aziz Abu Sarah’s brother died shortly after being beaten in an Israeli prison. But these two individuals did not turn their pain into a desire for retribution. Instead, they draw on their personal tragedies to fuel peace activism. Their partnership is a challenge to the idea that Israelis and Palestinians are destined to be adversaries.
At a moment when public conversations about Israel and Palestine feel more polarized than ever, New Jewish Narrative is bringing together two voices who refuse to give up on our shared humanity.
Preorder Aziz and Maoz’s upcoming book at thefutureispeace.com.
Check out their peacebuilding work at iinteract.org.
This episode features the audio from a NJN webinar, originally recorded on January 15th, 2026, hosted by Noam Shelef.
Hagit Ofran is Israel’s leading expert on settlements and the Israeli government’s policies in the Occupied Territories. As co-director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch program, Hagit has spent decades documenting settlement expansion and tracking the legal and political mechanisms driving de facto annexation.
In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN's Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by Barak Sella, editor of Class of 95: A Literary Anthology on the Assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Class of 95 presents, for the first time in English, Israel’s poetic response to this national trauma. Originally published in Hebrew as Machzor 95, this anthology gathers diverse and powerful Israeli voices, including both renowned poets and a new generation of writers who gave words to a nation’s shock, grief, and search for meaning. This English edition brings forty of those poems to new audiences, organized according to the five stages of Jewish mourning. Together, they move readers from the stunned immediacy of November 4, 1995, through grief and reckoning, to the recognition that Rabin’s assassination is not only a personal or national trauma but a lasting chapter in Jewish history.
Learn more about Class of 95: https://www.theclassof95.com/
In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN's Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by author, internationally renowned human rights lawyer, and longtime activist Sari Bashi to discuss the new English translation of her book Upside-Down Love, originally published in Hebrew in 2021.
Told in alternating chapters by both Sari and Osama (a pseudonym), Upside-Down Love is a moving portrait of two ordinary people falling in love and navigating the regular pitfalls of a relationship, set against an extraordinary backdrop of the West Bank. The pair met when Sari represented Osama in petitions to Israel’s Supreme Court to allow him to pursue his education overseas. Their story offers a new lens on current events in Israel-Palestine—experiencing the conflict in their day to day lives, raising their children, and coping with constant threats to themselves, their families, and loved ones. Osama and Sari’s star-crossed romance—an intimate, vulnerable portrait of an astoundingly resilient Israeli-Palestinian relationship—has since become a beacon of hope in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. Now on its way to becoming an international sensation, Upside-Down Love speaks to the unique circumstances of this specific moment in history, while also illustrating a timeless truth: Love will triumph over bigotry and destruction.
Buy or pre-order the book (out in the US on January 20th, 2026)- https://bookshop.org/p/books/upside-down-love-sari-bashi/6b7db8d45024dc23?ean=9798228590052&next=t&
In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN's Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by author and journalist Micah L. Sifry to discuss his new book, When Doves Try: Israel’s Peace Now Movement 1978-1983. This book tells the story of how a handful of young Israeli reserve officers helped ignite the country’s largest grassroots peace movement, which our listeners know as Peace Now, or Shalom Achshav.
Micah Sifry first encountered Peace Now as a college student, researched its rise while living on a kibbutz during Israel’s 1982 Lebanon War, and has followed its trajectory ever since. Blending memoir, archival research, interviews with its founders, political history, and fresh reporting, When Doves Try traces how an all-volunteer movement reshaped Israeli politics—and what its struggles reveal about the possibilities and limits of democratic activism.
Get the book: https://micahsifry.com/books/
Find more of Micah's writing: https://theconnector.substack.com/
Learn more about Peace Now and their ongoing work: https://peacenow.org.il/en
In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN Director of Programs Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by comedian and podcast host Orli Matlow (host of War Is Stupid: An Antiwar Podcast About War)
Read more about War Is Stupid: An Antiwar Podcast About War: https://warisstupid.substack.com/
Listen to War Is Stupid: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNvZw9ofCuL9a0SUDFOJcT_kRAEfYhZ-N
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This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from October 1, 2025, hosted by Hadar Susskind.
At an unusual press conference at the White House on Monday September 29 — with Prime Minister Netanyahu at his side — President Trump unveiled a plan to end the Gaza War. The document, which was emailed to reporters during the event, included 20 substantive points—some of which are supposed to happen whether or not Hamas accepts the plan.
To help us make sense of these developments, NJN hosted two seasoned observers of American diplomacy for this webinar.
Laura Rozen is a veteran foreign policy journalist. She has served as the diplomatic correspondent for Al-Monitor, foreign policy reporter for Politico, and for Foreign Policy magazine, where she launched the Cable blog in 2009. She now writes and reports the Diplomatic newsletter at Substack, and also serves on the editorial board of Just Security.
Joel Braunold is the Managing Director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, the former executive director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, and a contributing editor at Lawfare. He works regularly with the US State Department, USAID, the National Security Council, and Congress on the needs of the peace-building community. Outside the United States, he has worked with national governments across Europe, multilateral institutions, and parts of the Arab world.
In this episode of PeaceCast, NJN Director of Prgrams Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by Tamar Cohen, the Resource Development Director at Comet-ME. Comet-ME is an Israeli-Palestinian NGO providing off-grid renewable energy, clean water, and wireless internet infrastructure to vulnerable Palestinian communities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Among other projects, Comet-ME is currently working on a grassroots emergency project to install community-run security cameras in Palestinian villages in Area C of the West Bank.
Learn more about Comet-ME: https://comet-me.org/
New Jewish narrative: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/
Recording of a conversation between Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) and NJN President and CEO Hadar Susskind from September 3, 2025.
Senator Welch recently reintroduced the SANCTIONS in the West Bank Act. This important legislation seeks to codify the Biden Administration Executive Order that imposed sanctions on those “undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.” While these sanctions did not end settler violence, their absence is keenly felt. Settler attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank have skyrocketed by 30% since the repeal of the sanctions in January.
In conversation with NJN President and CEO Hadar Susskind, Senator Welch shared his perspective on why this bill matters now, how it fits into the broader struggle to hold the Israeli government accountable, and what role the US can play in advancing peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.
This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from August 25th, 2025.
Experts share updates on the evolving humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Featuring:
Dr. Tarek Loubani, a medical doctor and founder of the Glia project, which provides medical aid and services in war-torn regions, Palestine the first among them. He is currently working at a hospital in Gaza.
Dr. Lee Mordecai, an Israeli historian who is well known for his recent documentation of war crimes in Gaza, especially as they relate to starvation.
Karam Al-Shanti, a native Gazan who works for the Red Cross and is currently based in Belgium.
This webinar was cosponsored by New Jewish Narrative, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Satyam, Combatants for Peace, Rabbis for Human Rights, Partners for Progressive Israel, Mizrahi Civic Collective, and Smol Emuni.
Moderated by: Annie Kantar, award-winning Israeli writer, and Noam Shelef, New Jewish Narrative’s Vice President for Communications.
NJN's Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined here by Aliza Schoffman Land and Sirin Smoom from Lissan. Lissan, Arabic for language or tongue, advances a vision of a bilingual Hebrew-Arabic Jerusalem by promoting linguistic justice and equal access to basic rights and services for all Jerusalem residents through Hebrew language instruction to East Jerusalemites.
Learn more about Lissan's mission: https://www.lissan.org/?lang=en
Lissan's current programs: https://www.lissan.org/our-work?lang=en
More about New Jewish Narrative: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/
In this episode of PeaceCast (recorded on August 1, 2025), Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by NJN's Director of Government Relations, Madeleine Cereghino, for a conversation about the mass flood of legislative actions revolving around Israel and Palestine that have hit Washington in the last handful of weeks. This episode addresses the basics of how to take action and contact your Representatives and Senators (especially since at the time that this episode is airing, they should all be in their home districts for August recess!), and touches on the ongoing conversation surrounding Palestinian statehood.
To take action on items that NJN has sent out alerts about: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/take-action
Recording of a webinar hosted by NJN and J-LINK on July 29, 2025.
The situation in Syria continues to evolve rapidly, with significant implications for regional stability and international relations. With regional alliances shifting and global attention elsewhere, what is the current state of play in Syria? What role can Syria play in future diplomacy? And how might its relations with Israel and the West evolve?
New Jewish Narrative and J-LINK cohosted a webinar featuring:
Dr. Samir Altaqi -- A former Syrian member of parliament, former advisor to the prime minister, and a leader in track-two diplomatic efforts
Amb. Alon Liel -- Former Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israeli Ambassador to South Africa
Dr. Dafna Rand -- Former US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Moderated by: Noam Shelef, New Jewish Narrative’s Vice President for Communications.
This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from July 24th, 2025.
Project Rozana, a longtime partner of NJN’s that works to promote cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis in healthcare, is working to open a new health care clinic in Gaza – an initiative that NJN is proudly supporting.
The conversation featured two Project Rozana leaders: Mohammad Asideh, Rozana’s Director of Advocacy and the Executive Director of the Rozana’s Palestine office, and Ken Bob, the Chair of Project Rozana USA (and an NJN board member). The conversation was moderated by NJN President and CEO Hadar Susskind.
Make a donation: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/give?comments=Gaza%20Clinic
This is a recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar from July 8th, 2025.
On July 7th, President Trump is met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington, DC. In the days leading up to and following the meeting, the rumors (and the Truth Social posts) have been coming fast and furious. Nobody really knows yet what this meeting means.
Some of the questions being asked include: Is a ceasefire about to be announced? Will it be genuinely linked to a process to finally end the Gaza war? When will the hostages be set free? And when can Gazans get unfettered access to humanitarian supplies?
To help us make sense of all of this, New Jewish Narrative hosted a conversation with two experts in Washington foreign policy: NJN's Madeleine Cereghino and journalist Ron Kampeas.
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