Will Israel Survive?
Filed under Events
The 25th Annual Harold E. Hoffman Memorial Lecture returns to Temple Beth El on Thursday, September 24th at 7:30PM. In a talk titled “Will Israel Survive?” Wall Street Journal writer and former Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Bret Stephens will discuss the future of the State of Israel.
“Talk to Israelis on the right and you’ll hear that Israel faces potentially catastrophic threats from Gaza, Lebanon and above all the ticking clock of a nuclear Iran. Talk to Israelis on the left and you’ll hear that Israel faces a catastrophic Palestinian demographic threat. Talk to Israelis in-between and the threats alternate between post-Zionists, the ultra-orthodox, too much emigration and the wrong kind of immigration,” says Stephens. To complicate matters even further, “Israelis of every strip will often warn that to attend to one threat is to ignore – or aggravate – the others.” But are all these threats equally grave? Which ones should be dealt with first, which second, and which not at all? Stephens will address these questions while simultaneously assessing whether Israel has the resources to meet the challenges it faces.
Bret Stephens has reported stories from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza, among other places, and has interviewed every Israeli Prime Minister for the past 13 years. He has been the subject of profiles in publications such as the Boston Globe and the New York Observer and has appeared on television networks such as CNN and the BBC.
The Hoffman Memorial Lecture is sponsored by the family of the late Harold E. Hoffman, a former member of the Stamford community who was dedicated to many civic and Jewish causes. Some past speakers of the lecture include Elie Weisel, Abba Eban, Michael Oren, Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, Charles Silberman, Wolf Blitzer, Rabbi Robert Gordis, Edgar Bronfman, A.M. Rosenthal, Rabbi David Hartman, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Thomas L. Friedman, Ambassador Collette Avital of Israel, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Rabbi Avi Weiss, Daniel J. Goldhagen, Anne Roiphe, Michael H. Steinhardt, Ambassador Dennis Ross, James Carroll, Dore Gold, David Makovsky and David Horovitz.
As with all the Hoffman lectures, the public is invited to attend without charge. Bret Stephens stimulating remarks will be followed by a question-and-answer period and reception.
Temple Beth El is located at 350 Roxbury Rd. in Stamford. For further information please call Ariela Pelaia, Director of Programming at Temple Beth El, 322-6901 x 311.
Bret Stephens’ Full Bio:
Bret Stephens writes Global View, the weekly foreign affairs column of The Wall Street Journal. He is the paper’s deputy editorial page editor responsible for the opinion sections of its editions in Asia and Europe, and also oversees the work of the Far Eastern Economic Review. He is also a member of the paper’s editorial board and a regular panelist on the Journal Editorial Report, a weekly political talk show carried nationally by the Fox News Channel.
Mr. Stephens first joined the Journal in 1998 as an op-ed editor, and later became an editorial writer based in Brussels, where he covered European and Middle Eastern issues. In January 2002 he was named editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, a position he assumed at age 28. At the Post, Mr. Stephens oversaw the paper’s news, editorial, electronic and international editions, while also writing a weekly column.
Mr. Stephens returned to the Journal in late 2004. In January 2005 he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, where he previously had been a media fellow. He is the winner of a 2006 award from the South Asian Journalists Association for his coverage of the earthquake in Kashmir, of the 2008 Frank Knox Media Award for his coverage of U.S. military affairs, and of the 2008 Eric Breindel Prize for Excellence in Opinion Journalism.
Mr. Stephens has reported stories from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, Indonesia, China, Mexico and South Africa, among other countries, and interviewed dozens of world leaders, including every Israeli Prime Minister of the past 13 years. He has been the subject of interviews, profiles and news stories in the Boston Globe, the New York Observer, Die Zeit and the Marker, and has appeared on Charlie Rose, the Briah Lehrer Show, Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNN and the BBC.
Raised in Mexico City and educated at the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics, Mr. Stephens lives in New York City with his wife and children.
Temple Beth El is a vibrant, warm and inclusive community committed to enhancing Jewish life. We are an egalitarian synagogue with members from all generations. We welcome everyone and would love it if you joined us. 
