Co-sponsored by

Or Zarua, Reconstructionist Havurah of the East Bay

Or Shalom, Jewish Community of San Francisco

and Congregation Ner Shalom

Join Reconstructing Judaism’s Israel Affairs Specialist, Rabbi Maurice Harris, for an analysis of the current state of affairs in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and the wider region in light of terrible recent events and the ongoing unfolding situation. There are multiple possible trajectories for the next few years in the region, some of them bleak, some of them middling, and some of them actually hopeful.

The Israel-Hamas war has been a horror show in ways that are very familiar to members of Reconstructionist congregations everywhere; nevertheless, at the same time it is the kind of crisis that sometimes leads towards unexpected opportunities for breakthrough political and diplomatic agreements to emerge between nations and peoples. Rabbi Maurice will offer a presentation followed by Q and A. The beliefs and opinions expressed are solely his own and do not necessarily represent formal positions of the Reconstructionist movement.

Rabbi Maurice Harris (RRC ’03) is Associate Director for Thriving Communities and Israel Affairs Specialist at Reconstructing Judaism in Wyncote, Penn. Maurice has previously served as a rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, Ore., and has taught on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an adjunct member of the Judaic studies faculty at the University of Oregon.

Maurice is the son of a Moroccan-Israeli mother whose family fled Morocco in 1956 to Israel, and he spent most of the summers of his childhood visiting extended family in working class Moroccan-Israeli neighborhoods of Tel Aviv. He served as a volunteer on Kibbutz Ein Dor in 1993, and has participated in multiple seminars and peacebuilding trips to Israel and the Palestinian Territories. He is also the author of three books: Moses: A Stranger among Us (2012); Leviticus: You Have No Idea (2013); and The Forgotten Sage (2019), all from Cascade Books.