BRIDGEWATER, Conn.—The Greater Washington Coalition for Jewish Life (GWCJL) invites the public to attend the next virtual speaker in its ongoing speaker series, at 10 a.m. on Sunday, March 8.
The speaker, Jonathan Marc Gribetz, associate professor of Near Eastern Studies and Judaic Studies at Princeton University, will explain the research on Judaism, Zionism and Israel undertaken by members of the Palestine Liberation Organization prior to 1982 to understand its enemy—Israel.
To register, email jewishlifect@gmail.com.
In “Reading Herzl in Beirut,” Gribetz tells the story of the PLO Research Center from its establishment in 1965 until its expulsion from Lebanon in 1983 after Israeli forces invaded West Beirut, the home of the Research Center.
Gribetz explores why the PLO invested in research about the Jews, what its researchers learned about Judaism and Zionism, and how the knowledge they acquired informed the PLO’s relationship to Israel. “Reading Herzl in Beirut “was awarded the 2024 National Jewish Book Award in History.
Gribetz directs Princeton’s Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, and co-edits the AJS Review, the journal of the Association for Jewish Studies. He is also the author of “Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Counter” (2014). He earned his BA from Harvard University, an MS in Modern Jewish Studies from the University of Oxford, and his Ph.D in History from Columbia University.
The mission of GWCJL is to establish a spiritual home and extended Jewish family for members who reside in and around Litchfield County. As a religious group, GWCJL strives to create a strong sense of connection and personal belonging and to enrich our community with a variety of stimulating religious, spiritual, cultural and social experiences through which Judaism can be explored and practiced communally. For more information, contact jewishlifect@gmail.com.