On Sunday, February 8, 2009 The New Israel Fund hosted a brunch with renowned author and journalist Gershom Gorenberg. Just a few days before Israel's general elections, Gorenberg talked about The Israeli Elections, Israel's Future, and American Jewry.

The event was co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Downtown Project and Meretz USA.

Gershom Gorenberg is the author of The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of Settlements, 1967-1977. Based on previously unpublished documents and extensive interviews, The Accidental Empire presents a strikingly new picture of Israel's post-1967 history, of major Israeli leaders, and of Israel-U.S. relations.

Gorenberg's previous book, The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, portrays the role of religious radicalism in the Mideast conflict. He co-authored The Jerusalem Report's 1996 biography of Yitzhak Rabin, Shalom Friend, winner of the National Jewish Book Award. As a commentator on Middle East affairs and on religion, Gorenberg has appeared on Sixty Minutes, Nightline, Dateline, Fresh Air and on CNN and BBC. For many years an associate editor of The Jerusalem Report, he is now a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Policy and in Hebrew for Ha'Aretz. He blogs at SouthJerusalem.com.

Gorenberg came to Israel from California in 1977. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children.