Are you a Jewish student worried about Israel’s new extreme right-wing Government? Are you looking to find out how to engage on this most difficult of issues?

Then join our Zoom discussion on Tuesday 7 March, starting at 8pm – where a panel of expert speakers will discuss this topic and answer your questions.

To sign up please click here.

Our speakers are:

Rabbi Lea Mühlstein is currently Senior Rabbi at The Ark Synagogue, London. She is the International Chair of Arzenu – the political voice of Reform, Progressive and Liberal Religious Zionists. In addition to her deep commitment to Zionism, she has a great passion for interfaith and social justice work as well as world Jewry. She has previously served on the boards of various Jewish and non-Jewish organisations including the WUPJ and EUPJ. She was born and raised in Germany and holds a BA and MSci in Chemistry from Cambridge University as well as an MA in Jewish Studies from King’s College London. She was ordained in 2012 by Leo Baeck College.

Joel Carmel works for Breaking the Silence – an organisation of veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli military and aim to raise awareness of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. He grew up in London, where he was an active member of the Jewish community. At age 18 Joel made Aliyah, spending a year studying at Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa before joining the IDF. He served in the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories unit (COGAT) – based initially on the Gaza border and later in the West Bank. Today, Joel and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two daughters.

Hannah Weisfeld is the Director of Yachad. She grew up in London and in her teens and early twenties was very involved in the Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror, and served as its Education Director for two years. She has campaigned professionally on a wide range of issues including climate change, the conflict in Darfur and fair trade. She chaired the Jewish Social Action Forum for two years, bringing together leading Jewish communal organisations to develop the community’s social action agenda, and also worked as a consultant for the Pears Foundation. She has spent time living and working in Israel and Malawi and holds a BA in English Literature from Sussex University and MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics.

Dr Jack Omer-Jackaman is Research Associate at BICOM – the organisation which acts to promote awareness of Israel and the Middle East in the United Kingdom – and Deputy Editor of its journal Fathom. Prior to joining BICOM in November 2022, he served for four years as Executive Director of the British Friends of Neve Shalom. He holds degrees in American Studies (BA, University of Kent), International Relations (MA, King’s College London), and History (PhD, King’s College London) and is the author of Caught Somewhere Between Zion and Galut: Zionism, Israel and Anglo-Jewry’s Identity, 1948-1982. He speaks here in a personal capacity, his views his own.

Daniel Roth is the Executive Director of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, which works to strengthen and uplift the movement of Palestinians, Israelis and Jews from around the world committed to active coresistance. Daniel is an educator, facilitator and activist who has been working for more than two decades to establish participatory communities with the aim of building a powerful movement for equality and self-determination for all peoples. He is the Co-Founder of Solidarity of Nations – Achvat Amim – a movement building platform for young people from around the world to work with Israeli and Palestinian grassroots activists and human rights organisations. He is also a founding member of the critical education language co-operative This is Not an Ulpan and All That’s Left: Anti-Occupation Collective. He has worked as a journalist in print and television and holds an MA in education, community and social change.

Rabbi Leah Jordan (she/they) will moderate the debate. Leah is the Progressive Student Chaplain for university students and Rabbi of Kehillah North London in Stoke Newington. Born in the USA, Leah has lived and worked in Britain for over a decade and received semicha from Leo Baeck College. Leah is co-coordinator of Azara–Opening the Beit Midrash – a new initiative creating Jewish text learning for everyone in the UK – and a current and founding member of Na’amod: British Jews Against Occupation. Leah spent three years of their adult life in Jerusalem, learning Torah and on-the-ground organising, as a Fellow at both the Conservative Yeshiva and the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, as well as doing a yearlong Fellowship at Yeshivat Hadar in New York City and studying in SVARA’s yearlong Pedagogy Chabura. Leah also holds an MA in Jewish studies from King’s College London and a BA in English literature from the University of Kansas.