Lecture: Ted Sasson, "On the New American Zionism"

Professor Ted Sasson will speak on his new book The New American Zionism (NYU Press, November 2013). Sasson argues that, at the core, the new relationship between American Jews and Israel is being fundamentally misunderstood. Conflicting viewpoints and strategies regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the Iran deal reflect sharpening polarization in the American Jewish community. But contrary to what many observers have claimed, the fracturing of a unified voice within the Jewish community does not reflect diminished attachment to Israel. Sasson argues that instead we are in the midst of a shift from a “mobilization” approach, which first emerged with the new state and focused on supporting Israel through consensus-oriented, centralized organizations, to an “engagement” approach marked by political pluralism and direct and personal relations with the Jewish state.