Ruth Wisse, Yossi Klein Halevi and David Hazony discuss proposals for the future of the Jewish people.

With the unprecedented Jewish Priorities: Sixty-five proposals for the future of our people, writer and author David Hazony brings together voices from across the Jewish world for a no-holds-barred debate on the future.

With essays from thought leaders including Natan Sharansky, Dara Horn and Fania Oz–Salzberger and featuring rabbis, scholars, activists and novelists, the collection explores everything from philanthropy and Torah study to Zionism and Jewish intimacy. Here he is joined by two of the book’s most illustrious contributors: leading scholar of Yiddish literature and Jewish history Ruth Wisse and Israeli author and journalist Yossi Klein Halevi.

Buy a copy of Jewish Priorities by David Hazony.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval.

Digital events will take place over Zoom, with an event link sent to bookers 24 hours in advance of the event and a reminder email 30 minutes before the event starts. Ticket holders for digital events will also be sent a link to a recording of the event, available to watch until the end of March.

Book Week 24 Digi-Pass gives access to all 16 online streaming events for £39.50.

About the speakers:

David Hazony is an award-winning editor, translator, and author. His newest work, Jewish Priorities: Sixty-Five Proposals for the Future of Our People (Wicked Son, 2023), brings together a remarkable array of new essays from across the Jewish world. He is the former editor-in-chief of the journal Azure. His book The Ten Commandments (Scribner, 2010) was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. His translation of Uri Bar-Joseph’s The Angel (Harper-Collins, 2016) was a winner of the National Jewish Book Award. He has a PhD in Jewish Philosophy from the Hebrew University and lives in Jerusalem.

Ruth R. Wisse was Professor of Yiddish literature and Comparative Literature at Harvard University 1993-2014, and before that at McGill University in Montreal. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Tikvah Center in New York. She has published several books on literature, culture, and politics, including The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey through Literature and Culture (2000), No Joke: Making Jewish Humor (2013), Jews and Power (2007; 2020) and most recently Free as a Jew: A Personal Memoir of National Self- Liberation.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He co-directs the Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI), which teaches emerging young Muslim leaders in North America about Judaism, Jewish identity and Israel. Over 150 Muslim leaders have participated in the unique program. He is co-host, together with Donniel Hartman and Elana Stein Hain, of the Hartman Institute’s podcast, For Heaven’s Sake.

Halevi’s 2013 book, Like Dreamers, won the Jewish Book Council’s Everett Book of the Year Award. His latest book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, is a New York Times bestseller and has appeared in a dozen languages.

He moved to Israel in 1982 and lives in Jerusalem with wife, Sarah, who helps direct a center for Jewish meditation. They have three children.