Historical List of Our Speakers2

    Historical list of our speakers 

    Speakers at the Everett Jewish Life Center
     2009 – 2015 

    2009 Robert Pinsky Not available
    Michael Cohen Our Aging Body
    Suzanne Hoover Shylock’s Passion
    Shylock and the Drama of the Scapegoat
    Daniel Kotzin Rabbi Judah L. Magnus, Ethical Zionism
    Attempts at Jewish Arab Cooperation
    Susan Pardo Blessing our Children
    Gabriel Bach The Nuremberg Trials
    Eli Rosenbaum The Nuremberg Trials
    Shel Seligsohn The Nuremberg Laws
    Rachel Lipsky My Yom Kippur War Experience 
    Israel as Seen in the Eyes of Reformed Muslims and Arabs
    Nadine Epstein Why Print Media will Survive and an Independent Jewish Press is More Important than Ever 
    Sharon Rivo Jews in Focus
    Errol Daniels The Jews of Cuba
    Joe Davis Birthright Experiences
    Richard Cohen What and Why is Modern Jewish Philosophy
    Martin Buber and I and Thou
    Franz Rosenzweig and Jewish and Christian Renewal
    Emmanuel Levinas and the Primacy of Ethics

    2010 George Levine The Memoir of the Israeli novelist Amos Oz: A tale of Love and Darkness
    Deborah Lipstadt Holocaust Denial in the 21st Century-A Clear and Present Danger or the Contemporary Equivalent of Flat Earth Theory
    Jerry Pops The Leadership of George Marshall
    Rabbi Steve Gutow Social Justice in the World
    Emile Barnett Daring Daughter of the Covenant
    Andrew Bostom Past as Prologue:  The Historically Relevant Meaning of Jihad
    Kenneth Hechler
    Eli Rosenbaum Conversations
    Bill Schlackman Key Jewish Issues
    Judi Feniger Women and Spirit
    Rich Kellman The First Freedom: The Threat to Freedom of Speech Today
    Roy Newman Photography: Basic elements of artistic composition – Images from the 2009 dedication of the Everett Centre
    Rabbi Adam Chalom Jewish Heretis from Abraham to Amichai
    Jewish Roots, Humanist Wings:  New Possibilities
    Norman Weinberg Reclaiming Jewish Heritage in Poland
    Menachem Daum Hiding and Seeking:  Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust 
    Josh Block AIPAC
    Rabbi Sid Schwartz Finding a Spiritual Home
    Tribal vs. Covenantal Identity
    God, Prayer and Ritual for the Jewish Skeptic

    2011 Daniel Kotzin Jews in Colonial America and Revolutionary America
    Washington and American Jews
    Arnold Eisen From One, Many:  Religious and Cultural Pluralism in America
    American Judaism:  Problems, Prospects, Opportunities
    Lt. Col Don Ellison with Eli Rosenbaum Recollection from the Nuremberg Trials
    Felice Gaer Human Rights, the Holocaust and Genocide Prevention
    Religious Intolerance Worldwide
    Jacqueline Osherow Literary readings
    Chana Bloch Literary readings
    Janice Eldus Literary readings
    Anat Hoffman Follow up discussion to the Hall of Philosophy
    What we don’t talk about when we focus on Israeli Security
    Play Presentation Both Sides of the Family
    Nadine Epstein The Other Rosenbergs
    Aviva Kempner A Retrospective of 30 years of filmmaking of lesser known Jewish Heroes
    Judi Feniger Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage: Imagine the Possibilities” 
    Michael Makosky The Threat of a Nuclear Iran
    Suleiman Osman The Lower East Side: The Urban Landscape of Judaism
    Inventing Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search for Authenticity in Brooklyn
    Beth Kissileff Perlman Gender in the Hebrew Bible
    Shel Seligsohn Jews, Justice and the Civil War
    Rabbi Jonathan Perlman End of Life Issues

    2012 Reuven Kimelman The Seduction of Eve: Why Did She Do it? 
    The Problem is Monogamy: The Jewish, Christian and Muslim Conflict over Jerusalem
    Eyal Press From the Holocaust to Abu Ghraib: What Animates Individual Acts of Courage and Conscience in Dangerous Circumstances
    Israel’s Conscientious Objectors
    Frank Sherman The Road to Reconciliation:  How the Church Came to Terms with its Anti-Judaic Heritage After the Holocaust 
    Peter Beinart The Crisis of Zionism
    Why Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu don’t get along
    Rabbi Roger Klein Jewish Humor:  Why We Laugh
    Biblical Women:  Scripture’s Revolutionary Counter-Narrative
    Judi Feniger Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Blessing to One Another:  Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People
    Rabbi Sam Stahl Five Steps to Emotional Wellness: A Jewish Approach
    Morris Vogel American Identity and Citizenship
    Making the Lower East Side Iconic: The LES Tenement Museum and the Story of American Immigration
    Will Recant The Meaning of the Arab Spring to the Jewish World
    Jewish Communities Around the World: An Update
    Daniel Kotzin Jews and the Civil War
    Jewish soldiers during the civil war
    Rabbi Samuel Stahl Elijah:  Miracle Worker and the Prophet Who Never Died
    Michael Berenbaum Uses and Abuses of the Holocaust in Contemporary Politics
    Controversies Memorializing the Holocaust

    2013 Ann Kirschner Lady at the OK Corral: Lessons from the American Frontier
    Sala’s Gift: Is History a Gift or a Curse
    Aaron Lansky Outwitting History: The Last Minute Rescue of a Million Yiddish Books
    No Middle Road: The Persistent Challenge of Isaac Bashevis Singer
    David Bell France and Jews: A Vexed Relationship
    Jews Real and Imagined: Reflections on Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism
    Paul Farber Reliving the Blacklist Through Jewish Eyes
    Sheldon Seligsohn Dreyfus and Beyond
    Joyce Saltman Laughter: RX for Jewish Survival
    More Jewish Humor
    Rabbi David Kalb The Many Voices of Israel 
    Joseph:  More Than An Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat
    Ori Soltes Untangling the We: Why the Middle East is a Mess and Always Has Been
    Israel, Palestine, Iran and the United States:  Between Pasts and Futures
    Ted Deutch Israel
    Rabbi Daniel Lehmann Jewish Pluralism:  Contemporary Contemplations on Rabbinical Radicalism
    Lisa Lehmann Jewish and Secular Perspectives on Physician Assisted Dying

    2014 Ari Goldman Kol Nidre: From the Synagogue to the Concert Stage
    Book Signing The Late Starters Orchestra
    Jews in the News: How the press covers Israel and the Jewish community
    Steven Windmueller From the Tea Party to J Street, How American Jews are Reinventing their Political Identity
    Book Signing
    In this Time and in this Place, American Jewry 3.0 
    The Quest for Power: A Study in Jewish Political Behavior and Practice.
    The American Jewish Revolution is Underway!  What is Happening to Jewish Institutional Life in the United States, and Why?
    Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern and Oxana Petrovsky Taverns, Vodka, and Everyday Life in the Shtetl
    Book Signing 
    The Golden Age Shtetl: A New History of Jewish Life Princeton 
    Rediscovering Jewish Music: S. Ansky and his expedition to the Pale of Jewish Settlement in Russia, lecture and concert 
    Matthew Levitt Hezbollah and Iran’s Strategic Partnership and What it Means for the Middle East and Beyond
    Book signing:  Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God
    Hezbollah’s Global Footprint: From Africa to North America and Points         In Between
    Nancy Kaufman Gender Equality in Israel: A Status Report   
    We were Slaves: Combating Modern Day Slavery
    Alan Cooperman What Does It Mean To ‘Be Jewish’ in America Today?
    The Polarization of American Religion
    Laurence Silberstein Living Jewishness as Secular Culture: The 19th Century Legacy of Ahad Haam
    The Multiple Becomings of Jewishness in The Twenty First Century
    Neville Lamdan Why Jewish Genealogy? 
    Pope Francis, the Jews and Israel 
    Matthew Goodman You Are What You Ess: A Social History of Jewish Food
    The Rise and Fall of the Bagel

    2015 Rabbi Rosie Haim Strong Women in the Bible and Their Place in Modern Religious Life
    When Does Life Begin and End? An Examination of Current Issues of Bio Ethics
    Dr. Natan Sachs An overview of Israeli society and politics
    Jerusalem and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
    Rabbi Uri Regev The new government in Israel - good/bad news for religious freedom? (Can Israel be both Jewish and democratic?)
    "Who is a Jew": Israel's unfinished saga of religion, law and politics
    Dr. Norm Ornstein The sorry state of American politics, how we got into our tribal mess
    Coping with dysfunction: what we can do to get out of the mess
    Rabbi Ken Kanter The Jews of Tin Pan Alley - the Jewish contribution to American popular music from the 1890’s to the 1930’s.
    We Jews on Broadway - the Jewish role in the history of the Broadway Musical, from the 1890s to the present.
    Rabbi Elyse Goldstein Women are from Genesis, Men are from Leviticus!” Do Women and Men Read the Bible Differently? 
    The Power of Prayer: Halleluyah!
    Gary Rosenblatt Confessions of a Jewish journalist: covering one's community from the inside
    What's so funny about Jewish humor? (original material and classic Jewish jokes, told and analyzed)
    Becky Sebo One Student’s Story of Being Arrested at Ohio University When Standing Up for Israel
    Dr. Mitchell Bard The Arab Lobby
    The Truth About Israel and the American College Campuses
    Rabbi Michael Melchior Rabbi Michael Melchior in Conversation: Q and A session as a follow up to Rabbi Melchior’s Hall of Philosophy Lecture
    Anat Hoffman From the back of the bus to the top of the agenda
    When chicken soup won't do the trick

    2016 Dr. Steven Katz Rethinking Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust
    Saving Jews during the Holocaust
    Dr Sarah Bunin Benor Chutzpah to Chidush: A Century of Yiddish-Influenced English in America 
    Becoming Frum: How Newcomers Learn the Language and Culture of Orthodox Judaism
    Dr. Steven Windmueller Are Jews Becoming Republicans: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Jewish Vote
    Irvin Ungar Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk
    Freedom Illuminated: Understanding The Szyk Haggadah
    Yossi Prager What Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address Teaches Us About Lincoln’s Religious Worldview – and Our Own
    Applied Jewish Wisdom: Jewish Values in Charitable Giving
    Dr. Anne Lapidus Lerner Eve Exposed
    Are We Bound by the Binding of Isaac
    Jeremy Ben-Ami Choices Ahead: Defining the Future of Israel and its relationship with the American Jewish community
    What Can be Done to Save the Two-    State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
    Robert Goldberg The New Jewish Community
    Dr. Shai Feldman The Chaotic Middle East: Impact on Israel's National Security
    Israel, the U.S., and the New Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities
    Gregory Peterson 2016 March of the Living (Auschwitz to Birkenau): Personal Reflections
    Dr. Tamara Cofman-Wittes American Intervention in the Middle East: What Have We Learned?
    Slouching Toward Bethlehem:  What Future for the Middle East
    Evan Fallenberg If Only Stones Could Speak: Gentrification, Israeli Style


    2017 Dr. Gary Zola Great Voices, Civil Liberty and American Jewry
    He was one of us:  The Judaization of Abraham Lincoln
    Judge Steven Leifman Ending the Criminalization of Mental Illness
    The Judge as Change Agent: Developing an Effective Local Community Criminal Justice/mental Health System 
    Abigail Pogrebin My Big Amazing Jewish Year:  One Deep Dive into Every Single Holiday in the Jewish Calendar
    What 62 Jewish Celebrities Taught Me I Was Missing
    Dr. Bernard Avishai
    Dr. Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi The Two State Solution:  Isn’t It Dead
    Portnoy’s Complaint:  Who’s The Joke Really On?
    Why Jerusalem?
    Sheldon Seligsohn Louis D.  Brandeis – American Prophet
    The Jewish Supremes
    Rabbi Dayle Friedman Grit and Grace:  Jewish Wisdom for the Journey of Growing Older
    In the Image of God:  Making Sense of Dementia

    Ilan Goldenberg America’s Role in the Turbulent Middle East
    A Security System for the Two State Solution
    Francine Klagsbrun Just Call Me Golda
    When Israel Almost Lost A War
    Evan Fallenberg If Only Stones Could Speak: Gentrification, Israeli Style

    2018 Dahlia Lithwick Supreme Court, Religion and the Jews: The 2017 Term - Part 1: Introduction to the First Amendment's Religion clauses and a brief overview of the current Court. Masterpiece Cakeshop -- why baking a cake becomes the religious freedom case of the year
    Supreme Court, Religion and the Jews: The 2017 Term - Part 2: The other religion cases: The Muslim ban and abortion clinics. Looking ahead to the next few terms
    Jane Eisner Being Jewish in Trump's America
    Beyond the Shtetlesphere: Jewish journalism today
    David Moss Illuminating Judaism—The graphic works of David Moss
    Embodying Tradition—Moving beyond graphics into 3-D art and beyond.
    Nan Aron The Fight to Save the Federal Judiciary
    Activism in the Trump Era
    Kenneth Stern Why White Supremacists chanted "Jews Will Not Replace Us" -- understanding the role of antisemitism among neo-Nazis in the age of Trump.
    The toxic impact of the Israel/Palestine conflict on academic freedom and free speech on campus.
    Stephen M. Silverman The Catskills: Its History and How It Changed America
    The History of the Amusement Park: 900 Years of Spills & Thrills
    Deborah Tannen Why Didn’t You Tell Me?: Women (and Men) Friends in Conversation
    Conversations on the Small Screen: How Communicating over Social Media is Changing and Challenging Relationships
    Lloyd Sederer Improving Mental Health:  Four Secrets in Plain Sight
    The Addiction Solution:  Treating Our Dependence on Opioids and Other Drugs

    2019 Benjamin Carter Hett “The Beginning of the Reckoning:” Democracies Confront Fascism, 1933-1941.
    “Making Democracy Safe for the World:” The Revival of Democracy, 1941-1955.
    Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD Bedlam: Mental Illness - the National Health Crisis — (Part 1) Living in the Emergency Room.
    Bedlam: Mental Illness - the National Health Crisis - (Part 2) Crises in the LA Jail.
    Jeremy Ben-Ami The Growing Threat to Pro-Israel Centrism Part 1: Look Right - The implications of ever-tightening bonds between Netanyahu, Trump, and ethno-nationalists globally.
    The Growing Threat to Pro-Israel Centrism
    The Growing Threat to Pro-Israel Centrism Part 2: Look Left - The implications of growing progressive criticism of Israel and its policies and the end of unquestioning bipartisan support for Israel.
    Rabbi Shira Stutman Stand Your Ground. Share Your Space?
    Universalism and Particularism in 21st-Century Religious Life.
    Rabbi Jonah Pesner Prophetic Power & Politics: How the Jewish Community Can Create a More Just World.
    The Ancient and Timeless Legend of the Exodus: Lessons for our own Lives.
    Angela Himsel The Long Road from Jesus to Judaism: Facing Doubt, Arriving at Love.
    Who Are You? The Thorny Question of Identity.
    Rabbi Laura Geller  Wise Aging: Acquiring a Heart of Wisdom.
    From Equality to Transformation: How Jewish Feminism Changed the World.
    Jonathan D. Pollack North Korea: America’s Eternal Adversary? 
    The United States and a Rising China: How Should America and the World Respond?
    Ruth Messinger The Jewish Commitment to Social Justice.
    History as a Nation of Immigrants.

    2022 Amy Spitalnick` Violent White Supremacy in Court:  The Charlottesville Verdict
    Normalization of Extremism:  Charlottesville to January 6, Buffalo and Beyond
    Jonathan Boiskin
    ISTEAM and How Israel Prepares Students for the New World of Work
    Building a Shared Society in Israel Through Education
    Rabbi David Saperstein Jewish Lawyers and the Civil Rights Movement:  How Jewish Lawyers Helped Shape Civil Rights Law and Policy in the 20th Century
    For Such a Time as This:  Jewish Social Justice at a Time of Crisis and Opportunity
    Susan Pollack Ethiopian Jews:  An Overview or “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Ethiopian Jews”
    Ethiopian Jews in Israel Today:  How Are They Doing? 
    Irwin Cotler The Global Political Pandemic: Prisoners as a Looking Glass
    Antisemitism: Assault on Human Rights and our Common Humanity
    Oren Siegal Understanding Modern Antisemitism
    How Disinformation Fuels Hate and Extremism
    Jon Allen Is the Two State Solution Dead?
    Balancing Values and Interests in Foreign Policy:  A Canadian Perspective 
    Jamie Raskin Mental Health, Civic Health, and the Lies and Propaganda which threaten theme both
    Marc Masurovsky Truth, Non-Truths, and Lies: The Story of Nazi Looted Art
    Systematic and Industrial Nazi Looting:  Why and How Public and Private Entities and Their Agents Engaged in Wholesale Robbery

    2023 Joseph Kraus The Kosher Capones
    Breaking the Frame: The Jewish Gangster’s Perpetual Invisibility”
    Zalmen Mlotek The Yiddish Theater; Past Present and Future
    Yiddish Songs of Spiritual Resistance
    Robert Kolker Hidden Valley Road: A Story of Family, Trauma, and Hope
    The Mental Health Revolving Door — and How to Stop It
    Sid Schwarz The New Face(s) of American Life
    Me and Jewish Supremacy
    Heather Booth If we organize, we can change the world! (and we need to!)
    The Precious Legacy of Jewish Social Justice: a personal story
    Rebecca Erbelding Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America's Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe
    Fort Ontario and the Birth of American Refugee Policy
    Ted Deutch Why We Need A National Action Plan To Combat Antisemitism
    "All Jews Are Responsible for One Another": Global Advocacy for a Global People
    Jonathan Brent Manuscripts Do Burn: The YIVO Institute and the Recovery of Jewish Culture of Eastern Europe and Russia
    The Power of Archives and the Rebirth of Jewish Identity
    Alan Kadish U.S. Education is Failing. Can the Jewish Intellectual Tradition Provide a Useful Model?
    Jewish Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic: Practical, Legal and Theological

    2024 Ilana Kaufman US Jews of Color, the Responsibility of the Counters, and Why it Matters
    Xavier Amador I am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help! Understanding the Cause of the Problem and How we can Help
    Learn L.E.A.P. to Help Persons with Mental Illness Accept Treatment
    Norm Ornstein How We Got Here: The Roadmap to America’s Division
    Where We Are Going: The Roadmap Ah
    Steven Windmueller The 2024 Election: Reflections on the Jewish Vote
    What October 7th Means for Israel and Jew
    Daniel Greene Jewish Students and America’s Melting Pot
    Americans and the Holocaust
    Rabbi Sharon Brous Remaining Openhearted In Anguished Times: A Community Conversation
    Mona Charen The Marriage Deficit
    Did Trump Kill Conservatism
    Eliot A. Cohen The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall
    Surprise in war: from Ukraine to Gaza
    Susan Kahn Canine Pioneer: The Extraordinary Life of Rudolphina Menzel
    Zionist Dogs: Building the Canine Infrastructure in pre-state Israel
    Shulamit Reinharz Hiding in Holland: A Resistance Memoir in Four Hands
    100 Jewish Brides: Stories from Around the World

    2025 Jonathan Rosen The Best Minds
    Steven Leifman Conversation with Steven Leifman
    Norman Ornstein Coping With Tyranny: Where Do We Go From Here?
    David Bernstein Woke" Antisemitism": How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews 
    Antisemitism in K-12 Education: What it is? What to do about it?
    Phil Lerman Alan Sherman: Understanding the Cultural Shifts Affecting Jews in 1960 America
    Yair Rosenberg The End of American Exceptionalism on Antisemitism: The Structural Shifts Behind the Resurgence of Anti-Jewish Prejudice
    Einstein and the Rabbi: The Untold Story of the Physicist's 20-Year Friendship with Rabbi Chaim Tchernowitz, and Their Conversations About the Talmud, Zionism, and God
    Jamie Metzl Beyond the Blue Zones: What the Revolutionary Science of Human Life Extension Means for You
    AI from Mount Sinai? Might AI help foster a new global consciousness?
    Richard Gitlin We Are Not Fighting Discrimination. We Are Fighting Elimination.
    Lisa Leff The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust
    France and the Jews: History of a Love/Hate Relationship
    Pamela Nadell America’s Jewish Women
    Antisemitism, an American Tradition
    Jeremy Ben-Ami Antisemitism as a Political Tool: Protecting Democracy and Dividing our Community
    Suzanne Nossel Free Speech and Anti-Semitism
    David Greenberg The Alliance: John Lewis and Black-Jewish Relations, from the Civil Rights Movement to the Halls of Congress 
    Aaron Zelin Understanding the New Syria 
    Gulf States and the New Syria
    David Elcott Nationalism and the Future of Liberal Democracy: Finding a Jewish Theology of Democracy
    Rabbi Shira Milgrom The Sevenfold Path: A Traveler's Guide to Jewish Wisdom and a Spiritual Practice

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