December 11, 2014

Task Force All-Members Meeting with Ari Shavit and Jack Khoury

More than 80 members attended this year’s annual Task Force meeting, “Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel | 2014: Perspectives, history and future.” Members heard from Ari Shavit and Jack Khoury on Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, and Task Force executive committee members Brian Lurie, Malcolm Hoenlein (Conference of Presidents), Ken Jacobson (Anti-Defamation League) and executive director Michal Steinman on Task Force activities in light of current event and year in review.

Malcolm Hoenlein opened the discussion with remarks about Arab citizens of Israel and why it is important for North

American Jewish leadership to learn about Jewish-Arab relations in the country. He then introduced Ari Shavit who discussed current tensions between Jewish and Arab citizens from a historical perspective on Israeli society, and touched on his vision for a benign Zionist state that is Jewish and affords equal democratic rights for all. Jack Khoury, one of only a handful of Arab journalists in Israel, presented his historical perspective of Jewish-Arab relations and discussed what real participation in Israeli society would mean for him and his community.

Afternoon discussions centered on North American Jewish efforts to learn and raise awareness about these issues especially in a time of recent escalations. Ken Jacobson of the Anti-Defamation League spoke about the role and reflections of Israeli government leadership on current Jewish-Arab relations.

Martin Raffel, recent senior vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, spoke about the education about this education being taken up by more communities around the country, Michal Steinman, executive director of the Task Force, presented the breadth of educational activities over the past year, including the particular challenges and unique value of continuing to provide educational resources and support during and since the military operation and heightened tensions on the ground.

The meeting closed with a discussion of the recent attacks on the Hand-in Hand bilingual school in Jerusalem by Hand in Hand Chair Stuart Brown, and a brief presentation by Avivit Hai, Task Force program Director in Israel, about bringing leadership on missions to learn about Jewish-Arab in Israel relations first hand.

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