Critical Conversations | Israel Education at an Inflection Point: Complexity, Conviction, and Community

Israel is an integral part of Jewish identity, peoplehood, education, and Jewish communal leadership today. Israel also represents one of the most complex and emotionally charged issues facing Jewish communities today. In the wake of October 7, North American Jews experience events in Israel not as distant news, but as deeply personal and communal realities.  

Yet, conversations within Jewish educational settings about Israel often feel fraught, surfacing profound disagreements, moral tensions, and anxieties about belonging and legitimacy, or are avoided altogether. Israel has become a “third rail”—too risky to touch, yet impossible to ignore. 

This program asks: Why are these conversations so difficult? What fears and identity questions lie beneath them? How should we teach, learn, and lead around Israel? How can we cultivate resilient Jewish communities capable of engaging across difference without sacrificing integrity, complexity, or connection? 

Critical Conversations is an annual Spertus Institute program that brings together high-profile experts and practitioners to address the most critical issues of the day. Critical Conversations in recent years have focused on the emergence of AI, economic vulnerability within Jewish communities, and combating antisemitism.