RCPI Event Recordings

Recordings and summaries of past RCPI Seminars and Conferences.

Raef Zreik, Religion and Public Life Visiting Scholar in Conflict and Peace 2022-23

Video: The Palestinian Question as a Jewish Question

May 9, 2023

On March 23, 2023, the Divinity School hosted Religion and Public Life Visiting Scholar in Conflict and Peace Raef Zreik. The question of Palestine and the Palestinians, according to Zreik, is shifting more and more from an external matter to an internal question of Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish people writ large. Zreik interrogates the ways questions of war and peace, borders, security, or the ‘two state’ solution become more and more internal to Israel. Related intimately to the state's identity, character and constitutional structure and democratic nature, these questions highlight the merging conversation of existence and essence.... Read more about Video: The Palestinian Question as a Jewish Question

Crossing a Line by Amahl A. Bishara book cover

Audio: Book Event: Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence and Roadblocks to Political Expression

March 10, 2023

Amahl A. Bishara, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tufts University, and author of Back Stories: U.S. News Producation and Palestinian Politics, discusses her book Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence and Roadblocks to Political Expression. The book looks to sites of political practice, such as journalism, historical commemorations, street demonstrations, social media, in prison, and on the road, to analyze how Palestinians create collectivities in circumstances of constraint. Drawing on firsthand research, personal interviews, and public media, Crossing a Line illuminates how expression is always grounded in place, and how a people can struggle together for liberation even when they cannot join together in protest.

The discussion was moderated by Raef Zreik, Religion and Public Life Visiting Scholar in Conflict and Peace. The event was co-sponsored by The Center for Middle Eastern Studies Harvard University.... Read more about Audio: Book Event: Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence and Roadblocks to Political Expression

RCPI

Video: Another Israeli Election: Assessing Trends of Israeli and Jewish Politics

October 27, 2022

Repeated elections in Israel reveal the intensification of rhetoric around "transfer" and the normalization of the settlement project in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. At the same time, recent reports by a host of respected human rights organizations brought into question the limits and blinders of the construct of "Jewish democracy." A panel of public intellectuals examined the gradual strengthening of Jewish exclusionary political parties, the influences of Jewish and Christian American agendas on Israeli political trends, and the historical and philosophical meanings of Jewish political modernity.... Read more about Video: Another Israeli Election: Assessing Trends of Israeli and Jewish Politics

American and Israeli flags hang above a Torah

Video: Yom Ha’atzmaut and the Colonization of American Judaism

August 24, 2022

In conversation with Daniel Boyarin, Rabbi Brant Rosen interrogated the ways that Zionist hegemony is expressed through the Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) that has become a staple on the American Jewish holiday calendar, projecting themes of militarism, colonialism, and empire on to sacred religious tradition. He also presented an alternative framing of this day as a religious observance – one that expresses remembrance, repentance, and reparations. Presenters: Brant Rosen: Topol Fellow at RCPI; Rabbi, Tzedek Chicago In conversation with: Prof. Daniel Boyarin: Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and Joseph S. Gruss Visiting Professor in Talmudic Civil Law at Harvard Law School (2021-2022) Moderator: Atalia Omer: Professor of Religion, Conflict, and Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at University of Notre Dame and T. J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding and Senior Fellow in Conflict and Peace at Harvard Divinity School.... Read more about Video: Yom Ha’atzmaut and the Colonization of American Judaism

RCPI

Video: Expressions of Sumoud in Palestinian Higher Education

August 22, 2022

What is the role of Palestinian universities in the struggle for freedom and justice? Rana Khoury, Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative Fellow and Vice President for Development at Dar Al-Kalima University, shares her exploration of developing a dedicated curriculum and the experience of Dar Al-Kalima University in shaping Palestinian students as cultural activists. Khoury is in conversation with Hilary Rantisi: Associate Director of the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative at Harvard Divinity School.... Read more about Video: Expressions of Sumoud in Palestinian Higher Education

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