2015–2016 Events
Public Events
An Environmental and Urban Revolution in an Israeli/Palestinian Water Basin: The Example of the Yarqon/Aluja Basin
September 17, 2015, 6:00 pm, B100 A/B Blum Hall
The Yarqon/Aluja water basin spans from the national watershed line in the Samarian Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea. 40% of the basin is west of the green line (the demarcation lines set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements) and 60% is to the east of it. The Yarqon River Authority initiated a master plan for the Yarqon River in 1994. This has been the planning basis for an impressive revolution; following this change the Yarqon River Authority initiated a renewed appraisal with an updated and expanded plan now including the entire Yarqon/Aluja Basin. Join us for a conversation with Master Architect Liora Meron to discuss the new master plan as a breakthrough in Israeli/Palestinian cooperation around socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental issues. Liora received her architectural and planning degree in 1978 from the School of Architecture and Planning at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology - and her MA degree in 1994 from the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona. Her work experience includes various architectural projects as well as town and environmental planning for the public and private sectors in Israel, Madrid - Spain, London, Chicago and NY.
Do You Have a Plan for Saving the World? Ben Ferencz Does
October 13th, 2015, 12:45–2:00 pm, 132 Law Building, UC Berkeley
Reception and Lecture with Ben Ferencz: Former Nuremberg War Crimes Prosecutor, Chief Prosecutor for the United States in The Einsatzgruppen Case
What if your first criminal trial was at Nuremberg? At the age of 27, Benjamin Ferencz became Chief Prosecutor for the United States in The Einsatzgruppen Case. Now 96, he is the sole surviving Nuremberg war crimes prosecutor. He has spent his entire career working to create an effective legal response to the illegal use of armed force. He was one of the leading figures in the creation of the International Criminal Court in 1998, and continues to advocate for justice and accountability. Please join us for this special event. Joint event with the HRC, International Human Rights Law Clinic, and Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law.
Israel Facing a Changing Middle East
October 28th, 2015, Reception 5:15 pm, Lecture 6:00 pm, Bancroft Hotel, Great Room
Itamar Rabinovich: President of the Israel Institute, Former Israeli Ambassador the the United States, President of the Israel Institute
Identity Inside Israel and Out: A Conversation Through Movement
November 5, 2015, 7:00 pm Reception, 7:30 pm Performance and Conversation, Berkeley Hillel
The Miriam Engel-Angela Dance Company, will perform “De-parts” a contemporary dance piece that relates to the connection between identity and land. Joint event with Berkeley Hillel.
Diaspora and Group Rights: The Jewish Constitutional Moment
November 9, 2015, 5:00 pm Reception, 5:30 pm Lecture, Golberg, Room 295 Law Building
Willy Forbath: Associate Dean for Research; Lloyd M. Bentsen Chair in Law, University of Texas
This talk will explore a titanic clash — a moment of constitutive politics — among Jews in America a century ago. Fundamental questions about group identity and interests were up for grabs: What did it mean to be both an American and a Jew? Was Jewishness solely a private faith or did it impress on claims to group rights? Lawyers played a critical role in the battle over the politics and meaning of Jewishness-- as founders of the first national Jewish organizations, as wordsmiths and public intellectuals, and as authority figures and enthno-cultural heroes. Prof. Forbath will elaborate on lawyers’ hammering out of the basic terms of Jewish belonging and apartness in twentieth-century America and will explore the kind of constitutional settlement they reached. Prof. William Forbath focuses on U.S. and comparative constitutional law, and constitutional history and theory. His books include Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement and The Constitution of Opportunity (co-authored with Joseph Fishkin and forthcoming in 2016). Most recently, Prof. Forbath has written on Jews, law and identity politics in the early twentieth century. Forbath is on the boards of several local and international public interest and human rights organizations. View the recording here.
From Secular Judaism to Jewish Renewal in Israel — A Personal Story and Public Point of View
November 19, 2015, 5:30 pm Reception, 6:00 pm Lecture, Warren Room, 295 Law Building
Ruth Calderon: Former Knesset Member (2013–2015), Talmudic Scholar, Founder of ALMA Home for Hebrew Culture, Shalom Hartman Faculty Member
Dr. Calderon is one of Israel’s leading public figuresshe has spearheaded efforts to revive Hebrew Culture and popularize the study of Talmud. In doing so, she has helped to craft the new face of a pluralistic Israeli-Jewish Identity. View the recording here.
Ethnic and Religious Diversity in Israel: Changes, Inequality and the Quality of Life
February 4th, 2016, 5:30 PM Reception, 6 PM Lecture, Warren Room, 295 Law Building, UC Berkeley
Calvin Goldscheider: Ungerleider Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Brown University
Calvin Goldscheider will outline some of the major changes in Israeli society emergent in the 21st century. These include shifts in the ethnic composition of the population, increases 1n economic and social inequality, and conspicuous religious conflicts. We shall consider the Ideol ogical background to these changes, the relative assimilation of Jewish ethnic and Arab populations In Israel, patterns of educational attainment and social class, and the question of political priorities in the distribution of resources. An evaluation of current patterns is examined in the context of historical changes In Israel and as a basis for assessing future trajectories.
Calvin Gol dscheider is a scholar of Sociology and Jewish Studies at Brown University. He
studied at Yeshiva University for his B.A., then continued on to Brown University where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. His major research publications have focused on the sociology and demography of ethnic populat:lons, historically and comparatively, with a particular emphasis on family and immigration. He has published extensively in these fields. His books include Cultures in Conflict: the Arab-Israel/ Conflict, Studying the Jewish Future, and most recently, Israeli Society in the Twenty-First Century: lmmigrorion, Inequality and Religious Conflict.
View the recording here.
The Failures of Ethics: Confronting the Holocaust, Genocide, and Other Mass Atrocities
February 23, 2016, 5:30 PM Reception,Warren Room, 295 Law Building; 6 PM Lecture, Room 100, Boalt Hall
John Roth: Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College
Defined by the intention to encourage human action that fits sound understanding about what is right and wrong, just and unjust, good and evil, virtuous and corrupt, ethics is arguably a civilization’s keystone. At best, ethics emphasizes careful deliberation about the difference between right and wrong, encouragement not to be indifferent toward that difference, cultivation of virtuous character, and action that defends what is right and resists what is wrong. With those themes forming the context, Jonathan Roth will grapple with what he calls failures of ethics. His talk will emphasize that the Holocaust did not have to happen — nor did any other genocide or mass atrocity. Such disasters have emerged from human choices and decisions. That fact suggests that nothing human, natural, or divine guarantees respect for the ethical values and commitments that are most needed in contemporary human existence, but nothing is more important than our commitment to deferent them, for they remain as fundamental as they are fragile, as precious as they are endangered. Ethics may not be enough. It may be what the poet William Stafford calls the “forlorn cause”. Nevertheless, ethics remains and persists. An irreplaceable safeguard, it still possesses the indispensable corrective for its own failures.
Co-sponsored with the Human Rights Center, the Human Rights Clinic and the Human Rights Program. View the recording here.
Israel at a Major Crossroad: Challenges and Opportunities
February 25, 2016, 5:30 pm Reception, Warren Room, 295 Law Building, 6:00 pm Lecture, Room 100, Boalt Hall
Avishay Braverman: Former President, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Knesset Member (2006–2015); Economist; Former Senior Official, World Bank
The state of Israel is one of a complexity of paradoxes. It is a center of exciting innovations with Silicon Vady, which is second only to Silicon Valley, while at the same time, it has regions of underdevelopment. Its ideology emphasizes equality and fairness, yet it has rising levels of inequality. It is a center of liberalism, coexisting with conservatism, and tensions between Jews and Arabs, and secular and religious forces. Prof. Braverman will identify the sources of tension and social unrest, as well as the choices Israel must make, and present alternative, which will promote tolerance, economic concrete possibilities for enhanced collaboration between California and Israel.
Co-Sponsored by the Masters in Development Practice. Watch the recording here.
Building the Solar Revolution in Frontier Economies: Sustainable Development in Israel and Africa
March 8, 2016, 5:30 pm Reception, 6:00 pm Lecture, Blum Center, Plaza Level
Yosef Abramovitz: President and CEO of Energiya Global Capital, Co-founder of the Arava Power Company
Yosef Abramowitz is the Co-founder of the Arava Power Company and now serves as CEO and President of Energiya Global. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Public Policy from Boston University, and a Master of Arts in Magazine Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1991. Mr. Abramovitz became a major social and environmental entrepeneur and was named one of the top six Green Pinoeers worldwide by CNN. He will join us for a talk on Israel’s “solar revolution” and discuss questions of sustainable development.
Co-Sponsored by the College of Natural Resources, and the Blum Center for Developing Economies. Watch the recording here.
Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, & the Early Zionist–Arab Encounter
March 12, 2016, 5:30 pm Reception, 6:00 pm Lecture, Warren Room, 295 Law Building
Jonathan Gribetz: Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Judaic Studies at Princeton University
Jonathan Gribetz will speak about his book, Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter. Gribetz argues that the current focus on how to divide the territory of Palestine-Israel between Jews and Arabs obscures the fact that the encounter between these groups in early twentieth-century Palestine was imagined in ways that often had little to do with territory or borders. Rather, the encounter was frequently understood as one between religious communities with long, intertwined, and fraught histories together, or between members of a single, scientifically-defined race. In his lecture, Gribetz will discuss how understanding the importance of these two categories of mutual perception - religion and race - helps us better to understand the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Toward a Disability Critique of Torts: Case Studies from the U.S and Israel
March 30, 2016, 4:00 – 6:00 pm, Warren Room, 295 Law Building
Sagit Mor: University of Haifa Faculty of Law, Israel, Visiting at University of Washington
The law plays a significant role in shaping the meaning of disability. Tort law, specifically personal injury law, is a central arena where the meaning of disability is produced, shaped, contested, and utilized: it assigns responsibility for disabling events; awards damages to the injured to cover disability related costs; and deals with the bodily, material, social, and legal implications of disablement. Yet, there seems to be a gap, if not a contradiction, between the social vision of disability rights, inclusion and equality, and tort law’s basic rationales. While tort law focuses on the circumstances of injury and individual responsibility and views disability as an inherent state of pain and suffering, the disability critique emphasizes social disablement through stigma, lack of access, and inadequate social services. This talk will examine a social construction critique and a disability-equality critique of tort, demonstrated through several examples from Israel and the US.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Law and Society and the HIFIS Disability Cluster
A Look in the Mirror: Reflections on the Social and Economic Issues Facing Israel Today
April 7, 2016, 5:30 pm Reception, 6:00 pm Lecture, Warren Room, 295 Law Building
Avi Weiss: Executive Director: Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel
Avi Weiss will provide critical background information about the state of Israel’s society and economy. This briefing will explore issues such as the education system, the future of the Israeli labor market, the high cost of living, and the socioeconomic status of minorities such as the ultra-Orthodox, Arab Israelis, and Ethiopian Israelis.
Co-Sponsored by the Economics Department. View the recording here.
A Robbins Collection Lecture on Jewish Law and Thought
Jewish Scholars and the Study of Islam: Reflections on Modern Jewish Identity
April 12, 2016, 5:15 pm Reception, 6:00 pm Lecture, Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way
Susannah Heschel: Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College
Susannah Heschel will discuss how the culture of imperialism in nineteenth-century Europe affected the writing of Jewish history. She will examine the topics and methods of Jewish historians and theologians with particular attention to their description of Judaism’s role within Western civilization. Narratives of Islamic origins and specialized studies comparing the Qur’an with rabbinic texts parallel Jewish historiography on Christianity, and both contain implicit political connotations. The growth of German imperialism and colonialism brought about shifts in the study of religion, and the role of Jews in those projects. Prof. Heschel concludes that Jews created a unique European orientalism that reflects not only their fascination with Islam, but also gives us a nuanced window into Jewish ambivalence toward their projects of assimilation, emancipation, and the creation of a modern Jewish identity
Co-Sponsored by the Robbins Collection
Academic Events
Limbotopia and the Changing Concept of Time in Hebrew Literature after Oslo
Vered Shemtov: Stanford University (Hebrew and Comparative Literature)
Elana Gomel: Tel Aviv University (English and American Studies)
How Come Israel Still Has a Constitution? On the Status Quo as Countermajoritarian Difficulty
Ori Aronson: Israel Institute Visiting Professor; The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Visiting Professor of Israeli Law and Society, Bar Ilan University (Faculty of Law)
The Boundaries of Israel Studies
Itamar Rabinovich: Tel Aviv University (Middle Eastern History), Former Israeli Ambasador to the United States, President of the Israel Institute
The Dream of the Seventh Dominion: British Liberal Imperialism and the Palestine Question
Arie Dubnov: University of Haifa (History)
Israeli Society in the 21st Century: A Social Demographer’s Perspective
Calvin Goldscheider, Brown University (Sociology and Judaic Studies)
Performance, Disability, and Zionism in the work of Tamar Borer
Ilana Szobel, Brandeis University (Hebrew Literature)
The PLO Research Center: Israel Studies in the Arab World
Jonathan Gribetz, Princeton University (Near Eastern Studies and Judaic Studies)
Environmental Regulation of Israeli Offshore Oil and Gas
Tamara Lotner-Lev, University of Haifa (History)
Student Events
Film Screening: Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem and Discussion with Co-Director Shlomi Elkabets and Professor of Law Ori Aronson
September 30, 2015, 6:30 pm Reception, 7:00 pm Film, 100 Law Building
Join us for a film screening of “Gett” followed by a facilitated conversation with director. “Gett” is an award-nominated Israeli film which brings to light the complexities and challenges that women seeking divorce face in a religious court. Following the film, the director and writer Shlomi Elkabetz will lead a conversation about his inspiration behind the story. Visiting Professor of Law Ori Aronson will facilitate the conversation. Dinner will be provided.
In Conversation with Ari Shavit
Monday, October 26, 2015
Conversation with Ari Shavit and Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman, Executive Director of Berkeley Hillel.
Co-Sponsored Event with Berkeley Hillel and Berkeley Haas.
To The Moon and Beyond
Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm, PLACE C250, Haas School of Business
Join us for a student lecture with co-founder of Space IL, Yonatan Winetraub. Yonatan is a graduate student at Stanford University, holds a masters in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University, and is a graduate of Space Studies from the International Space University held at NASA. He gained hands-on experience in space technologies by working as a satellite system engineer for the Israeli Aerospace Industries.
The Golem of Hollywood: A Conversation with Author Jesse Kellerman
November 17th, 2015, 6:30 PM, Goldberg Room, 297 Boalt Hall
Best-selling local author, Jesse Kellerman, will join us on November 17th for a book talk. His novel, The Golem of Hollywood, is a suspenseful murder-mystery thriller with a Jewish subtext. It weaves together old and new and fuses story lines from Genesis, to 16th Century Prague, to modernday Los Angeles.
Film Screening: Manpower
Wednesday, January 27th, 2016, Reception: 6:30 PM, Film: 7 PM
Warren Room, 295 Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley
Join us for a free screening for students and faculty of the Israeli film Manpower, directed by Noam Kaplan. The film is the first part of our student series Snapshots of Immigration and Asylum Inside Israel and Out
The Local Jewish Press & Careers in Journalism: A Conversation with Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish Journal, Rob Eshman
Thursday, February 11th, 2016
Student talk with EIC of the Los Angeles Jewish Journal on working for the Jewish Press and Careers in Journalism.
In Conversation with Noah Alper: Founder founder of Noah’s Bagels and Bread & Circus
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
The Israel Innovation & Entrepreneurship DeCal is proud to present: Noah Alper, founder of Noah’s Bagels and Bread & Circus. Alper has almost four decades of business experience. He is a serial entrepreneur, whose experience includes concept creation, marketing, retailing, food service and sales management.
Lunchtime Lecture with Ambassador Felix Klein
Friday, February 19th, 2016
Join us as we welcome Ambassador Felix Klein, Special Representative of the German Federal Foreign Office for relations with Jewish organizations and Anti-Semitism issues to discuss his experiences with students and faculty over lunch.
Rape as Torture and the Responsibility to Protect
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016, 12:45–2 PM, 297 Boalt Hall
Join us for a student conversation with Prof. Roth,, who will discuss several key propositions, such as: Torture denotes more than rape, but the atrocities are closely related and intertwined. Rape-as-torture can become policy, especially in war and genocide. If the emerging international norm called the responsibility to protect (R2P) gained traction it could curb if not eliminate rape/torture as a weapon of war and genocide. Where rape-as-policy and the torture it entails are concerned, how can “a sense of urgency and reality” about that devastation be bolstered?
Co-sponsored by the Boalt Hall Committee for Human Rights.
Reporting on the Holy Land: Israel Through the Lens of a Foreign Correspondent
Thursday, March 3rd, 2016, Morrison Foester Room, 298 Law Building, 5–6 PM, dinner provided
Join us for a student conversation with Tim McGirk, former bureau chief and war correspondent for Time Magazine, on his experiences reporting on Israel and the Middle East.
Student Series: Snapshots of Immigration Inside Israel and Out
A-WA Live in Concert, Performance at the SFJCC
Tuesday, March 15th, 2016, SFJCC, 3200 California Street, San Francisco, CA, 8 PM
Join the Institute as we head across the bay to the SFJCC for A-WA’s west coast debut!
Hi-Tech Hubs: Silicon Wadi & Silicon Valley
Wednesday, April 6th, 2016, Warren Room, 295 Law Building, 6:15 PM
What are the differences, similarities and challenges of two of the world’s most vibrant tech hubs? hear from our cutting-edge guest speakers who will share their insights and experiences from different perspectives.
Bruce Taragin, Blumberg Capital, Managing Director
Efrat Turgeman, Silicon Valley Bank, Director
Gal Eschet, MoFo, Head of Israel Desk