Congregation Ner Shalom’s Beit Midrash: Lifelong Jewish Learning will be offering a three-part class on Zoom — Eyes on Gaza — that grapples with the painful subject of Israel's current devastating war on Gaza. The class will be facilitated by Beverly Voloshin.

This follows on Ner Shalom's observance of Tisha B’Av from sundown on August 2nd to nightfall on August 3rd .Tisha B'Av is a day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the First Temple and subsequent catastrophes in Jewish history. This year we are also encouraged to fast in recognition of starvation in Gaza.

There will be three sessions on Zoom: Wednesdays, August 13th and 27th and Sept 10 from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Bev will introduce the first session with a short outline of the Jewish presence in Canaan/Israel/Palestine from antiquity to the rise of Zionism and a short history of Zionist movements. On Aug 27 we will turn to two essays that illuminate the present catastrophe, one by a great Palestinian historian--Walid Khalidi's "The Hebrew Reconquista of Palestine”--and one on the destruction of Gaza by a leading Jewish historian of the Holocaust and genocide--Omer Bartov's "Infinite License.” PDF copies of the articles will be provided when you register.

In the third session Bev will provide an introduction to Peter Beinart's short book, Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza, and then we will open up the discussion. Beinart is a writer, professor, editor of Jewish Currents, Orthodox Jew, and, formerly, a liberal Zionist. His book is easily available in print, on Kindle, and as an audiobook.

We strongly encourage you to read these materials before each of the sessions.

Facilitator: Beverly Voloshin

Bev is a professor emerita of English and American literature at San Francisco State University. She has also taught in recent years at one of the universities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. She has worked on campaigns to end the Occupation and to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She is a past board chair of Rebuilding Alliance, an NGO that, among other activities, sponsored a hot meals program in Gaza--until recently when it became impossible to procure food.