The Judaic Studies Department will sponsor a lecture by Professor Geoffrey Levin of Emory University called “Addressing the Palestine Question: Binghamton Professor Don Peretz vs. the American Jewish Leadership” on Monday, March 17, at 4:30 pm, at Binghamton University in the Fine Arts Building Room 258. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Levin is the author of the recent book “Israel and American Jewish Dissent: 1948-1978” (Yale University Press, 2023) in which Professor Don Peretz, who taught at Binghamton University from 1966-92, figures prominently. In his book, Levin focuses on the American Jews who, in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, were involved in consideration of the Palestine question and who wanted the Jewish community to seriously address issues like the Palestinian refugee question, Arab minority rights in Israel, and Israel’s post-1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Peretz was considered one of the most prominent of these American Jews. Levin will explore the reasons for the activism of Peretz and other American Jews who were critical of Israeli policy, and the reasons why their efforts to influence the American Jewish community were met with little success.