Smol Emuni US Conference

Sunday, March 30, 2025
Rosh Chodesh Nisan

Co-sponsored by the Baruch College Wasserman Jewish Studies Center

NEW LOCATION:
B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue
257 West 88th Street, New York, NY

Registration

Register
$36 + service fee
$18 for students
Kosher lunch included
Pre-registration required.

Livestream will be avaliable for the morning and afternoon plenaries, and for the “No Other Land” breakout session (see description below).

Donations make a tax deductiable donation to Smol Emuni. After entering the payment information click the box “I would like to designate this gift” and write “WJSC/Smol Emuni US Conference” to earmark the funds.

About the Conference

The last two years have challenged our American Jewish communities with pressing questions about democracy and justice both here and in Israel. In this conference we will explore our responsibility in the present moment as observant Jews in North America.

Recent events have raised questions about Jewish power, Messianism, the occupation, U.S. support for Israel and the conduct of war. We watch in dismay as our Orthodox and observant communities have avoided these discussions and remained indifferent to the staggering Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza and the ongoing occupation of 5 million people.

This conference will explore our Jewish tradition’s values and teachings about peace, equality, dignity, co-existence and self-determination for Israelis, Palestinians and all people.

Conference Program

11:00-11:30 Registration

11:30-1:00 Morning Plenary

Dean Jessica Lang - Welcome

Rabbi Yosef Blau - Video Address

Esther Sperber - Opening Remarks

Am Segula and B’Tzelem Elokim – Observant Jewish Identities in an Unjust World

This session will focus on the existing tensions between two Jewish principles, the particularist idea of Jewish chosen-ness and the universalist notion that all of humanity is created in the divine image. What obligations flow from the principle of B’Tzelem Elokim (the idea that all human beings are created in the image of God)? Does Am Segula (the idea of the Chosen People) imply entitlement or obligation? How have the Jewish people navigated chosen-ness in the diaspora and in the State of Israel? How does this affect others, especially Palestinians? What should be the religious response to violence by Jews and have we discharged that duty?

Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha
Sofia Freudenstein
MK Naama Lazimi
Mikhael Manekin
Moderator - David Myers

Ruth Messinger - How Does Change Happen?

1:00-2:00 Kosher Lunch & Mincha

2:00-3:00 Breakout Sessions

1. “No Other Land” Film Clip and Conversation

Hanin Majadli, Mikhael Manekin, Dr. Michelle Friedman - moderator
(Sanctuary)

Join us for a 20-minute screening of a powerful clip from the Oscar-winning film No Other Land. Following the screening, a Palestinian Israeli journalist and a Jewish Israeli anti-occupation activist will share their personal reflections on the film's themes. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions about and share their reactions to the movie.

2. Halachic and Hashkafic Perspectives on Navigating the Israel Identities in Orthodox Communities

Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter, Arnold Franklin - moderator
(Reception Room - Ground Floor)

In today’s polarized climate, Orthodox kehillot are struggling with fundamental questions about ideological diversity, communal boundaries, and the integration of differing perspectives on Israel within our batei midrash and tefillah spaces. How do we uphold communal achdut while addressing deep-seated disagreements, including over what is just? We will explore halachic and hashkafic sources that can help guide our communities through these tensions, using Tefillah L'Shlom HaMedina as a case study.

3. “Now, more than ever, it is our duty to stand with Israel!” Or is it?

Chana Borow, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Avraham Oriah Kelman, Rabbi Shuli Passow - moderator
(Middle Room - Ground Floor)

As observant Jews, when is it our duty to speak out against Israel's actions? When should we stand with Israel unequivocally? In the face of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, what are the costs of each of these choices? Activists from the religious world talk about choice points in organizing; the challenges of putting values into action; and the religious, moral, and political dimensions of answering these questions–especially since October 7.

4. Middle East Sholem-Sallam: Yiddish and Arabic Political Legacies

Adi Mahalel, Miriam Udel, Sahar Bostock
(Chapel - Ground Floor)

The flourishing of Modern Hebrew in Israel is a miracle—but one that came at a cost. To promote Hebrew, languages like Yiddish and Arabic were suppressed, sometimes violently. This panel explores the political value of diasporic Jewish languages and the dual role of Arabic as both a language of self and a bridge to a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians.

5. On the Ethics and Exercise of Jewish Power: Reading Leibowitz's 'After Kibiyeh' Seventy Years Later

Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, Tirza Leibowitz, David Myers, Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller
(Frankel Hall - 88th Street Lower Level)

This session will examine the ongoing relevance of an essay by the powerful and iconoclastic Israeli Jewish scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz called "After Kibiyeh." This essay discusses a massacre of residents of the Palestinian village of Kibiyeh in 1953 during a reprisal raid by the IDF that followed a terrorist attack on a Jewish family. Leibowitz's concern about the ascription of holiness to acts of state, including that of the army, remains keenly relevant—and compels us to reflect on the exercise of power by Jews in Israel today.

3:00-3:15 Break

3:15-5:00 Afternoon Plenary

Cantor Shimon Smith - Opening Song

Nationalism, Religion, and Social Democracy - Religious Identity in Relation to Israel

Israel was founded as a national homeland for the Jewish people. Is support of Israel a part of Jewish religious identity? Is commitment to democratic values a part of one’s religious identity, or separate from it? What are the risks of making religious identity contingent on a particular national-political reality? What are the dangers of attributing religious significance to a state and its institutions? In light of recent events, is it time for a course correction?

Avraham Oriah Kelman
Hanin Majadli
Rabbi Chaim Seidler Feller
Rabbanit Leah Shakdiel
Moderator - Tirza Leibowitz

Rachel Landsberg - Closing Remarks

Cantor Shimon Smith - Closing Song

Plenary Speakers

Rabbi Yosef Blau

Rabbi Yosef Blau has served as Mashgiach Ruchani at Yeshiva University for forty eight years. He is a former president of the Religious Zionists of America.
Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha

Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, specializes in internal medicine and is currently completing both a clinical fellowship in critical care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a research fellowship at the Middle East Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School. She serves on the board of the New Israel Fund.
Sofia Freudenstein

Sofia Freudenstein is completing her studies at Yeshivat Maharat while simultaneously finishing an MA in Jewish Philosophy at Bernard Revel Graduate School. Last year, while attending Yeshivat Drisha in Kfar Etzion, she was active in Smol Emuni and Standing Together.
Rav Avraham Oriah Kelman

Avraham Oriah Kelman grew up in Israel, where he studied and taught in several yeshivot. He is currently a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at Stanford University and an activist with the Bnei Abraham group.
MK Naama Lazimi

Naama Lazimi is a Member of Knesset, representing The Democrat Party. She is the chair of the Youth Committee and a member of the Finance and Education Committee. A social democrat, she is a peace activist who believes in justice and equality.
Hanin Majadli

Hanin Majadli is a journalist, publicist and editor at Haaretz and a participant in the Haaretz 21 initiative, which aims to amplify voices and stories from Israel's Arab community. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Middle-Eastern Studies and Arabic and Islamic Studies from Tel Aviv University. Originally from Baka al-Garbiyeh, she now resides in Tel Aviv.
Mikhael Manekin

Mikhael is the director of the Alliance Fellowship Program and an activist in the Israeli Faithful Left. He previously led the progressive think tank Molad and, before that, directed the veterans' organization Breaking the Silence. His book, End of Days: Tradition and Power in Israel, was translated into English in 2023. Most recently, he published a Hebrew collection titled Sermons from the Abyss. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Yael, and their three children, Ruth, Sarai, and Noach.
Ruth Messinger

Ruth W. Messinger had a 20-year career in public service that included roles as a New York City Council member and Manhattan Borough President. She also served from 1998 to 2016 as president of American Jewish World Service and is now the organization’s inaugural Global Ambassador. Her work has focused on a range of issues, including social justice advocacy, public education, campaign finance reform, LGBTQ+ rights, neighborhood development, and small.
Prof. David Myers

David N. Myers is Distinguished Professor of History and the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. He is the author or editor of many books, including, with Nomi Stolzenberg, American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (Princeton, 2022) – winner of a National Jewish Book Award – and, with Nechumi Malovicki-Yaffe, New Trends in the Study of Haredi Culture and Society (Purdue, 2024). From 2018-2023, David served as president of the New Israel Fund.
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller

Ordained at Yeshiva University in 1971, Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller served for forty years as the Executive Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA. A founding member of Americans for Peace Now, he currently is a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute, North America and of the Wexner Heritage Foundation.
Rabbanit Leah Shakdiel

Leah Shakdiel is an Orthodox rabbi and teacher of Torah and democracy. Through teaching, interfaith dialogue and continued activist work with Israeli human rights NGOs like Machsom Watch, Mirkam Azori, Darom4Peace, and Rabbis for Human Rights, Shakdiel works to bring the values of peace, equality, human rights, civil rights, feminism and social justice to the next generation of Israelis.