A vital discussion on how Israeli identity, life and literature have been shaped by the seismic events of 7 October and their aftermath.

How has Israeli identity, life and literature been shaped by the seismic events of 7 October and their aftermath? Journalist and author Jenni Frazer leads a thought-provoking conversation about resilience, creativity and the enduring power of words with three outstanding Israeli writers: journalist Amir Tibon, whose The Gates of Gaza is the story of his family’s rescue from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the day of the attacks; award-winning essayist and novelist Ayelet Tsabari; and renowned author and journalist Yossi Klein Halevi.

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

About the speakers:

Amir Tibon is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz, Israel’s paper of record, and the author of The Last Palestinian: the rise and reign of Mahmoud Abbas (co-authored with Grant Rumley), the first-ever biography of the leader of the Palestinian Authority. From 2017–2020, Tibon was based in Washington, DC, as a foreign correspondent for Haaretz, and he also has served as a senior editor for the newspaper’s English edition. He, his wife, and their two young daughters are former residents of Kibbutz Nahal Oz but are currently living as internal refugees in northern Israel.

Ayelet Tsabari is the author of Songs for the Brokenhearted, winner of a National Jewish Book Award for fiction and the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award. Her memoir, The Art of Leaving, was a finalist for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston Prize, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir, and an Apple Books and Kirkus Review Best Book of 2019. Her first book, The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is co-host, together with Donniel Hartman, of the Hartman Institute’s podcast, For Heaven’s Sake – the number one Jewish podcast in the English-speaking world. 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 is currently writing a book about the meaning of Jewish survival.

He has written for leading op-ed pages in North America and is a former contributing editor to the New Republic. He is frequently quoted on Israeli, Middle Eastern and Jewish affairs in leading media around the world and is one of the best-known lecturers on Israeli issues in the North American Jewish community and on North American campuses. He co-directs the Hartman 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.

Jenni Frazer is an award-winning journalist who now freelances for a number of publications. She spent three years in Israel on assignment.