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“American Jews and Israel: Can the Relationship Be Saved?”- Daniel Gordis and Thomas Friedman
This 72-minute program is a fascinating discussion between Daniel Gordis (the author of the new book, “We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel”), Thomas Friedman (Pulitzer-winning columnist for The New York Times), and the moderator, Abigail Pogrebin (author of “My Jewish Year”). The program commences with Pogrebin asking some pointed and hard-hitting questions regarding how American Jews and Israelis are growing further apart in recent days and years. The speakers touch on such topics as the Kotel controversy and the perceived lack of Jewish pluralism in Israel, the challenges of the American college campus and the ever-strengthening BDS movement, the fundamental differences between the origins and stated raisons d’être of the United States and of Israel, and much more. Gordis returns to themes he writes about in his new book, “We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel,” and Friedman references his globetrotting exploits as a 40-year veteran of foreign-affairs journalism. A program of The Jewish Week Media Group and UJA-Federation New York, it was recorded at The Streicker Center at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.