Please note: Due to the ongoing war in Israel, we are postponing the virtual series listed below. We may also be moving some in-person events online. We will provide up to date information on this page, as well as over email. Please click here to subscribe to our email newsletter for the most information on our programming.
Throughout this year, the Helen Diller Institute will be examining the current social and political crisis in Israel. We will be going deep and wide, exploring the factors that have contributed to the current crisis, seeking to understand the dynamics on the ground, and looking at possible solutions to mitigate the crisis — in conversation with journalists and academics from a wide array of disciplines and perspectives.
[POSTPONED] Year-Long Virtual Series: A Deep Dive into the Legislative-Judicial Constitutional Crisis in Israel
This year-long virtual series will examine the ongoing legislative-judicial constitutional crisis in Israel and its associated social and political upheavals through differing conceptual lenses — law, social psychology, economics, and the arts.
Session 1: Law
Wednesday, October 11, 11 am–12:15 pm, Zoom Webinar
The first session of this series will delve in depth into the legal and constitutional dimensions of the political crisis in Israel. Both Netta Barak-Corren and Shahar Lifshitz have been deeply involved in writing about the current impasse, and contributing to solutions and compromises. Their perspectives will shed light on the current situation, how we got here, and where the crisis is going. This conversation will be moderated by UC Berkeley Professor of Law Kenneth Bamberger.
Netta Barak-Corren, Professor, Hebrew University Faculty of Law; Member, Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality; Law, Ethics, and Public Policy Fellow, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
Shahar Lifshitz, Professor of Law, Former Dean, Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law
Kenneth Bamberger, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Law, Berkeley Law; Faculty Co-Director, Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies
REGISTER HERE
Session 2: Psychology
Monday, October 16, 12–1:15 pm, Zoom Webinar
The second session of this series will delve in depth into the social and psychological dimensions of the political and constitutional crisis in Israel, with particular attention to the demographic makeup, content, strategies, and motivations of the protest movement and counter-protest movement. Social Psychologist Eran Halperin (Hebrew University) will join in conversation with Masua Sagiv, Legal Scholar and Koret Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley, to discuss these complex psychological dimensions of the current moment in Israel through the broader lens of studying social movements, social change, and public opinion.
Eran Halperin, Professor, Department of Psychology; Head and Founder, aChord Center: Social Psychology for Social Change; Head, Psychology of Intergoup Conflict and Reconciliation Lab, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Masua Sagiv, Koret Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies; Scholar-in-Residence, Shalom Hartman Institute
REGISTER HERE
The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for its Inner Soul — Book Talk with New York Times Correspondent Isabel Kershner
Monday, October 30, 5:30–7 pm, Bancroft Hotel
Please join us for a talk with New York Times journalist Isabel Kershner in conversation with Stanford professor and journalist Janine Zacharia. They will be discussing Kershner’s new book, The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for its Inner Soul as a lens into many of the pressing issues in Israel’s current social and political crisis. In the book, we meet Israelis: Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, Eastern and Western, liberals and zealots—plagued by perennial conflict and existential threats. In moving narratives and with on-the-ground reporting, Isabel Kershner reveals the core of what holds Israel together and the forces that threaten its future through the lens of real people, laying bare the question Who is an Israeli? Kershner and Zacharia will explore the ways in which the country has both exceeded and failed the ideals and expectations of its founders.
Isabel Kershner, Correspondent in Jerusalem, New York Times
Janine Zacharia, Journalist; McClatchy Visiting Lecturer, Stanford University
A light reception for all attendees will begin at 5 pm in the Bancroft Hotel. Cosponsored by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
REGISTER HERE
Report on the Ground: Social and Political Upheaval in Israel with Haviv Rettig Gur
Session II
November 15, 11:30–12:45 pm, Zoom Webinar
The second of three real-time reports will cover the latest developments in the legislative-judicial constitutional crisis, while examining social and political dimensions of the crisis from the lens of distinct communities such as the Haredim.
Haviv Rettig Gur, Senior Analyst, Times of Israel
Kenneth Bamberger, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Law, Berkeley Law; Faculty Co-Director, Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies