LITERATURE + LECTURES

The Center for Jewish Living and Learning at the Jewish Community Center of Houston presents The Vilification and De-legitimization of Israel, Thursday, March 31 at 8:00 p.m.  Join us for a lecture with guest speaker Dr. Mitchell Bard, (pictured) author of The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America's Interests in the Middle East.

The boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement is focused largely on college campuses, but it is especially nefarious because it is one element of a broader global campaign aimed at the delegitimization of Zionism and, ultimately, the elimination of Israel. The BDS campaign is also a fight about freedom of speech that seeks to stifle academic exchanges and trade with Israel and to claim for its adherents’ rights it denies to Israel and its defenders.

Join Dr. Bard as he addresses the history of the BDS movement and how the Jewish community should respond.

Dr. Mitchell Bard is the Executive Director of the nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and a foreign policy analyst who lectures frequently on U.S.-Middle East policy. Dr. Bard is also the director of the Jewish Virtual Library, the world’s most comprehensive online encyclopedia of Jewish history and culture. For three years he was the editor of the Near East Report, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) weekly newsletter on U.S. Middle East policy.

Prior to working at AIPAC, Dr. Bard served as a senior analyst in the polling division of the 1988 Bush campaign. Dr. Bard is a member of a number of speakers bureaus, including the UJC, Hillel, Israel Bonds and the Jewish National Fund. He is also represented by the Harry Walker Agency.

Dr. Bard has appeared on Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, CBC, the Jenny Jones Show, al-Jazeera and other local and national television and radio outlets. His work has been published in academic journals, magazines and major newspapers. He is the author of 18 books.

For more information, contact Naomi Barancik at 713-729-3200 ext. 3288 or nbarancik@jcchouston.org.

This lecture is underwritten by Sheila & Dr. Gordon Sack and offered in partnership between the Jewish Community Center and Congregation Beth Yeshurun.
 
The Jewish Community Center has founded the Center for Jewish Learning and Living, a collaborative process that brings together the arts and culture programming of the Center, such as the Book and Arts Fair, the Jewish Film Festival, and the Jewish Music Festival, and the education initiatives of the Center, such as the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, and the Bunny and Leo Horvitz Scholar-in-Residence Program. In addition, this collaboration brings additional programs and staff to the Jewish initiatives of the JCC, with high hopes that more members of our community may be touched by meaningful Jewish experiences.