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.

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

Recording of an NJN webinar on April 3, 2025.

The conversation, anchored by NJN President & CEO Hadar Susskind, features Hagit Ofran and Lior Amihai from Peace Now. Our guests are on the ground, leading the push against settlements and the fight for for peace. 

Lior Amihai is the current Executive Director of Peace Now as well as a previous Executive Director of Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group. He also previously served as co-director of Settlement Watch.

Hagit Ofran is the co-director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch program. With two decades of experience tracking developments in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, she is widely recognized as Israel’s foremost expert on Israeli settlements. 

Hadar Susskind is New Jewish Narrative’s President and CEO. He is one of the American Jewish community’s leading progressive advocacy voices with more than 25 years of experience working in Washington DC on both foreign and domestic policy. 

To make a (matched!!) donation to Peace Now, click here: https://www.newjewishnarrative.org/give?comments=2025%20Donor%20Match

NJN Deputy Communications Director Maxxe Albert-Deitch and Director of Development Karen Paul spoke with Dr. Elana Sztokman about her new book, In My Jewish State. In this book, Dr. Sztokman uses her professional skills of rhetorical analysis cultivated from years of anthropological research, and unpacks the language and ideas that drive the pro-Israel advocacy movement and are used to justify cruel actions and attitudes. In the process, she makes some drastic personal changes, shifts her own Jewish identity, and advocates for a different vision of what it means to live in a Jewish state. 

Dr. Elana Sztokman is an anthropologist, educator, feminist, peace activist, speaker, consultant, podcaster, and two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Council Award. She has spent 25 years writing about issues of gender, language, power, politics, education, and society, especially around Israel and Jewish culture. Her previous book, When Rabbis Abuse, won the Best Jewish Non-Fiction of the Year from Hey Alma. 

Between March 10 and May 4, 2025, American Jews will vote for their delegates to the 39th World Zionist Congress, the “parliament of the Jewish people,” which will convene in Jerusalem in October 2025. Every vote determines how money is spent, how resources are allocated, and contributes to policies in Israeli society and in Jewish communities around the globe. New Jewish Narrative proudly co-leads the Hatikvah Slate, working towards progressive change within the Jewish community here in the U.S.

This discussion answered questions ranging from "what is the World Zionist Congress in the first place?" to "what is the Hatikvah platform and why should my vote go there instead of somewhere else?"

In addition to our President and CEO Hadar Susskind, our panel featured Nomi Colton-Max, co-chair of NJN and Vice President for Programming of the American Zionist Movement, and Kenneth Bob, board member of NJN and chair of Rozana USA.

Recording of a New Jewish Narrative webinar with NJN President and CEO Hadar Susskind, Director of Government Relations Madeleine Cereghino, and Hassan El-Tayyab of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FNCL).

We dug into what the new Congress and administration will mean for New Jewish Narrative, our community, and our work. We spoke about initial signals from incoming government officials, what projects we’re already gearing up for, and generally put together a picture of what to expect from both Congress and the incoming administration. 

Hassan El-Tayyab is an author, songwriter, and the legislative director for Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FNCL) Hassan leads FCNL’s work to end U.S. military involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, advocate for Palestinian human rights, and advance diplomacy with Iran. Hassan was honored by Arab America Foundation as an awardee of its 2022 “40 under 40” initiative, for his policy work on Capitol Hill.

Recording of our November 20, 2024 webinar with Yonatan Mizrachi from Shalom Achshav's Settlement Watch team. This webinar was co-produced with our colleagues at Shalom Achshav, Canadian Friends of Peace Now, and La Paix Maintenant. The conversation was anchored by Hadar Susskind. 

Yonatan Mizrachi, a leading expert from the Settlement Watch team, presents new insights from Shalom Achshav's latest annual report, "War and Annexation: How the Israeli Government Changed the West Bank During the First Year of War."

In the wake of a year-long war in Gaza and nearly two years under a far-right, pro-settler government, the Israeli government's agenda in the occupied West Bank is clearer than ever: to advance annexation policies and further reduce Palestinian presence in Area C.

Yonatan (“Yoni”) Mizrachi, who joined Shalom Achshav two years ago, co-leads the Settlement Watch team. He is also a co-founder and the former executive director of Emek Shaveh, an organization dedicated to protecting archaeology from misuse in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

View the report HERE- https://peacenow.org.il/en/war-and-annexation-how-the-israeli-government-changed-the-west-bank-during-the-first-year-of-war

Recording of our November 14, 2024 webinar. This conversation was hosted by Hadar Susskind.

Along with special guest Allison McManus, we discussed what a second Trump administration may hold for Israel-Palestine peacebuilding work. We covered Trump's recent appointee nominations, the effects of potential policies on our agenda, as well as how the US-Israel relationship could shift with Trump back in the White House.

Allison McManus is a managing director for the National Security and International Policy department at American Progress. Prior to joining American Progress, she was the managing director at the Freedom Initiative, where she advocated for political prisoners in the Middle East and North Africa. She also served as the research director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy from 2014 to 2019.

Recording of our October 29th, 2024 webinar with Joshua Leifer. This conversation was hosted by Maxxe Albert-Deitch and Karen Paul.

We spoke with Joshua Leifer about Tablets Shattered, his lively and personal history of the fractured American Jewish present. Formed in the middle decades of the twentieth century, the settled-upon pillars of American Jewish self-definition (Americanism, Zionism, and liberalism) have begun to collapse. The binding trauma of Holocaust memory grows ever-more attenuated; soon there will be no living survivors. After two millennia of Jewish life defined by diasporic existence, the majority of the world’s Jews will live in a sovereign Jewish state by 2050. Against the backdrop of national political crises, resurgent global antisemitism, and the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Leifer provides an illuminating and meticulously reported map of contemporary Jewish life and a sober conjecture about its future.

Joshua Leifer is a journalist whose essays and reporting have appeared widely in international publications, including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Haaretz, and elsewhere. He is currently pursuing a PhD in history at Yale University.