top of page

SPEAKING TOPICS

​

  • Israel Current Affairs Briefing: Catch up on the latest news and understand the context and the factors driving events in Israel and the Middle East.

​​

  • A Century of Deals: Introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: Learn about the conflict by examining attempts to resolve it. From the origins of modern Zionism and Palestinian national identity through 100 years of commissions, mediators and special envoys, this presentation introduces the demands and dilemmas of both sides. Gayle focuses on the elements that have led to the current situation and puts the latest headlines into context.

​

  • Grassroots Peace Organizations in Israel and Palestine: What Helps, What Harms, and What Just Might Work: There are more than 160 organizations currently engaged in peace, conflict resolution, or cross-conflict civil and human rights work in Israel and Palestine, as well as a host of less formal initiatives. What are the goals of these organizations? How do they believe they are contributing to peace, and what is their actual track record? How are they viewed in Israeli and Palestinian society? How can listeners decide where to invest their time, their money, and their passion to build peace? 
     

  • The Four Tribes of Israel: This information-packed talk goes behind the headlines to describe how different segments of the Jewish Israeli population relate to the land, to the Palestinians, and to each other. It discusses the structures, like Israel's four separate school systems and mostly segregated cities, towns, and neighborhoods, that perpetuate divisions and polarization in the society, and it looks at demographic and social trends that influence not only the the outcome of the next election but also the prospects for ending the occupation and resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

​

  • The Survivor, the GI, and the Boston Businessman: One Family's Stories of Clandestine Immigration to Israel:  On one side of Gayle's family tree is a man who secretly secured arms, equipment, ships, and personnel in order to rescue the remnants of European Jewry and arm Israel’s fight for independence. On the other side are a woman who survived Auschwitz and an American GI who went AWOL to accompany survivors on their clandestine voyage to Israel. This storytelling event describes how their separate tales of Zionism, courage and ingenuity, and no small amount of luck combined in the voyage of the illegal immigration ship Tel Hai.

​

  • Simulation of the 1947 United Nations Vote on the Partition of Palestine: Participants in this exercise re-enact the deliberations leading up to the historic resolution that was supposed to create a Jewish state and an Arab state in the area of British Mandatory Palestine. By stepping into the shoes of figures such as David Ben Gurion, Abba Eban, and Jamal Husseini, they will learn about the internal and external pressures, needs, and interests that led to the decision. They will look at how these positions have changed—or not—over time and how they apply to today’s debate over a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

​

bottom of page