Identity Politics and Jewish Peoplehood: A conversation with Dr. Mijal Bitton and Rabbi Elaine Zecher

What does it mean to truly belong in a Jewish community? How does the current discourse around identity politics challenge our conception of Jewish peoplehood? What are the divergent historical strategies within the American Jewish community to advocate for Jewish interests? How do these different strategies relate to debates today both within the American Jewish community, and between Israel and American Jewry?

Join us in mixed presence, online or onsite, as we explore these questions together, led in conversation by Dr. Mijal Bitton and Rabbi Elaine Zecher. This free community event is hosted in partnership by The Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Israel of Boston and the Shalom Hartman Institute. All are welcome. 

Register to attend online or onsite. Contact Brigid Goggin at bgoggin@tisrael.org with questions. 

Dr. Mijal Bitton is Scholar in Residence at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Mijal is a teacher, writer, and leading thinker on questions relating to Jewish American identity, pluralism, gender equity and sociological diversity. She is co-founder and Rosh Kehilla (communal leader) of the Downtown Minyan in New York City. Mijal received a BA from Yeshiva University and earned her doctorate from New York University, where she conducted an ethnographic study of a Syrian Jewish community with a focus on developing the field of contemporary Sephardic studies in America.  She is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship.