Conference: Israel and the Media (Brandeis, April 3-4, 2016)

Israel and the Media

A public conference

 

Sunday, April 3 – Monday, April 4, 2016

Brandeis University

Sunday, April 3rd – Olin-Sang Auditorium

Monday, April 4th – Sherman Hall, Hassenfeld Conference Center

Keynote speaker Ethan Bronner, senior editor at Bloomberg News and former Jerusalem bureau chief at The New York Times, will deliver the inaugural Ilan Troen Lecture on Contemporary Israel Affairs.  The program includes a roundtable discussion with leading journalists and panels on “The Changing Landscape of the Media,” “Israeli Media and Portrayal of the Conflict,” and “Coverage of Israel by Jewish Newspapers.”  Click here for Program and registration.

 

Cosponsored by the Israel Institute.

PROGRAM

SUNDAY APRIL 3: Olin-Sang Auditorium, Mandel Quad

3:00 PM Coffee

3:30 PM Welcome
Lisa M. Lynch, Interim President, Brandeis University

3:35 PM Introduction and Inauguration of the Ilan Troen Lecture on Contemporary Israel Affairs
David Ellenson, director of the Schusterman Center and visiting professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

3:40 PM The Ilan Troen Lecture on Contemporary Israel Affairs
Inaugural Speaker: Ethan Bronner, senior editor at Bloomberg News and former Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times

5:00 PM Coffee Break

5:15 PM Roundtable discussion: Israel and the Media
Ethan Bronner, senior editor at Bloomberg News
Jodi Rudoren, deputy international editor, The New York Times
Jeff Jacoby, Op-Ed columnist, The Boston Globe

6:45 PM End of Sunday’s program

MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2016: Sherman Hall, Hassenfeld Conference Center

8:30 AM Breakfast

9:00 AM Changing Landscape of the Media
Joshua Benton, director, Nieman Journalism Lab, Harvard University
Aliza Landes, Captain (Reserve), IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, and a dual MBA/MPA student at Harvard and MIT Universities
Anne Herzberg, legal advisor to the NGO Monitor

10:30 AM Coffee Break

10:45 AM Israeli Media and Portrayal of the Conflict

Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, founding director, Wasatia Academic Graduate Institute, Jerusalem; Visiting Weston Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Yoram Peri, Jack Kay Professor of Israel Studies and director of the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies, University of Maryland
Shlomi Eldar, columnist for Al-Monitor’s “The Pulse of the Middle East” and research fellow at the Taub Center for Israel Studies, New York University

Menahem Milson, professor emeritus of Arabic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-founder and academic adviser of MEMRI

12:15 PM Lunch

1:30 PM Coverage of Israel by Jewish Newspapers
Jane Eisner, editor-in-chief of the Forward
Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The Jewish Week of New York
Rob Eshman, publisher and editor-in-chief, Tribe Media Corporation – producer of The Jewish Journal and Jewish Insider
Liel Leibovitz, senior writer for Tablet Magazine and co-host of the podcast Unorthodox

3:00 PM Conference Conclusion
Rachel Fish, associate director of the Schusterman Center

3:30 PM End of Program

New Article: Harpaz & Jacobsen, EU Funding of Israeli Non-Governmental Human Rights Organizations

Harpaz, Guy, and Elisha Jacobsen. “The Israeli Collective Memory and the Masada Syndrome: A Political Instrument to Counter the EU Funding of Israeli Non-Governmental Human Rights Organizations.” Mediterranean Politics (early view; online first).

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2016.1151136

 

Abstract
The EU’s practice of funding Israeli non-governmental human rights organizations (hereinafter ‘HRNGOs’) has in recent years encountered a counter-strategy, pursued by certain Israeli NGOs and members of the Israeli government, media and academia. This counter-strategy has succeeded in discrediting the HRNGOs and the EU and rendering their mutual collaboration less effective. The purpose of this article is to contextualize the counter-strategy within the sphere of Israel’s collective memory. The article analyses the manner in which certain politicians and various members of the Israeli society (agents of memory), who themselves are the product of the evolving Israeli collective memory and identity (structure), attempt to draw on Israel’s collective memory/structure in order to advance their particular political agenda.