The Progressive Israel Network (PIN) invites you to an energizing gathering marking the 75th anniversary of Israel’s founding. The creation of the State of Israel represents one of the most profound and important achievements of Jewish history, even as the day means something very different for Palestinians. As a group of organizations dedicated to a progressive, democratic and peaceful vision for Israel, we know that, today, the country and its people stand at a critical juncture – and we’re coming together as a movement to honor the moment, reflect on this milestone, and commit to building a better future for everyone in the region. Join us for conversations with American, Israeli and Palestinian leaders and activists, for music and community, for discussion and connection.
Moderators
Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is the Founding Spiritual Leader of Lab/Shul NYC and the creator of Storahtelling, Inc. An Israeli-born Jewish educator, writer, activist and performance artist, he received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 2016. Rabbi Amichai is a founding member of the Jewish Emergent Network, serves on the Leadership Council of the New York Jewish Agenda, is a member of the Global Justice Fellowship of the American Jewish World Service, the Advisory Council for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, an advisor to the Jerusalem Open House, and is a founding faculty member of the Reboot Network. He’s the proud Abba of Alice, Ezra and Charlotte Hallel.
Noa Landau is an Israeli journalist. She is the Deputy-Editor-in-Chief of Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily. Landau worked at Haaretz since 2009 as a reporter, commentator and news editor. She served as Haaretz head of the news department and editor of Haaretz’s English edition and is a member of the paper’s editorial board. Landau is also the founder of Haaretz21, an organizational project aimed at amplifying underrepresented voices and stories of Arabs/Palestinians in Israel. Before joining Haaretz, Landau worked as a journalist for Galei Tzahal radio, Channel 10 TV and Maariv.
She is also an Advisory Board member and alum of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, where she studied the rise of gag orders in Israel.
American Panel
Zach Harris was raised in Skokie Illinois. After High School, he spent a gap year in Israel at Mechinat Nachshon in Sderot before attending Brown University. He graduated in 2022 with a B.A. in Political Science. His senior thesis, on the development and ramifications of the 2018 Israeli Nation-State Law, won the Alan S. Zuckerman prize for outstanding political science undergraduate thesis. While at Brown, Zach helped revitalize and grow his campus’s J Street U chapter. He also interned at Americans for Peace Now and J Street’s New England regional office.
This year, Zach is participating in the NIF social justice fellowship. Specifically, he’s working at Standing Together (Omdim B’yachad/Naqaf Ma’an) a progressive social movement organizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of equality, peace, and social and climate justice. Through Standing Together, he’s organized pro-democracy and anti-occupation protests, helped coordinate community film screenings, and managed a fair-price rental calculator. In his free time, Zach enjoys long-distance running, learning how to fix even more parts of his ever-breaking bike, and practicing Arabic.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was elected on November 2nd, 2021. Lander’s background in community organizing and urban planning informs his work to make government work better for all New Yorkers. First elected to the City Council in 2009, Lander co-founded the Council’s Progressive Caucus and has a strong track record of partnering with community advocates to win transformative change for a more just and equitable city.
In the City Council, Lander spearheaded efforts to protect workers and build a more equitable economy, working closely with labor advocates to win groundbreaking laws to end unfair firings and establish a fair work week for fast food workers, protect freelancers from wage theft, ban discriminatory credit checks for employment, and guarantee a living wage for app-based drivers and delivery workers. Throughout his work, Lander has taken an innovative, data-driven, and collaborative approach to tackling some of NYC’s biggest challenges, from reckless driving to infrastructure investments.
Lander was one of the founders of Local Progress, now a 1000-member strong network of local elected officials advancing a racial and economic justice agenda through all levels of local government. Prior to holding public office, Lander spent 15 years in the nonprofit sector as the director of the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Pratt Center for Community Development. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Meg Barnette, President and CEO of NonProfit New York, and their children, Marek and Rosa.
Rabbi Andrea London is a nationally recognized leader who has served Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston, IL since 2000. She has worked to forge interfaith relationships in Evanston and throughout the Chicago area. For many years, she was the co-chair of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs Jewish Muslim Community Building Initiative. She is also a leader in the Evanston Interfaith Clergy and Leaders association and the Evanston reparations movement.
She is co-chair of the J Streets Rabbinic and Cantorial cabinet, a member of T’ruah, and a board member for Partners for Progressive Israel. She has been an activist for Israeli-Palestinian peace and justice for more than 35 years.
In 2014 she was named by The Forward newspaper as one of America’s most inspiring rabbis for her work on racial equity, and in 2020, she received the Religious Community Service Award from the Evanston/ Northshore Branch of the NAACP. In 2022, she received the Justice and Peace Award from J Street for her efforts on Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Rabbi London holds a degree in applied mathematics from Brown University. She is married to Danny London and has two children, Yonah and Liora.
Israeli Panel
Sally Abed is a member of the national leadership at Standing Together, the largest Jewish-Arab grassroots movement in Israel. In recent years, Sally has become a prominent Palestinian voice in Israel, advocating progressive causes for social and climate justice, and highlighting their connection to the struggle for peace and and end to the occupation through building a new majority in Israeli society. Sally is the Co-host of Groundwork – a podcast series about Palestinians and Jews refusing to accept the status quo and working to change it.
Avi Dabush was born in Ashkelon to a religious, right-wing, Mizrahi family and attended Zionist-religious schools and the Bnei Akiva youth movement. In his early twenties he founded and headed a school for children with autism. Over the last two decades he has been involved in and has led several social organizations and movements, including the Negev Council and the Movement of the Peripheries, and was one of the organizers of the Equality March in 2016 and 2022. He is director-general of Rabbis for Human Rights, author of the book The Periphery Rebellion and regular op-ed contributor for Haaretz and Israel Hayom newspapers. Avi is a rabbinical student at Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis, holds an MA in organizational sociology from Ben Gurion University of the Negev and is a graduate of the Heschel Institute Sustainability Leadership Fellowship Program. He was awarded the New Israel Fund UK’s human rights prize in 2021.
Yonatan Levi is a PhD student at the London School of Economics and a research fellow at the Berl Katznelson Foundation and at Molad – the Centre for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy. His academic research focuses on two topics: the rise of right-wing populism in Israel and the generational politics of millennials in Israel and abroad. Before embarking on his doctoral studies, Yonatan worked as a journalist for ‘Yedioth Aharonoth’, as a political researcher for various Israeli think-tanks, and as a researcher in the British Parliament. In 2011 he was one of the organisers of the Israeli Social Protest Movement. Over the years his writing has appeared in The Guardian, Ha’aretz, and Contemporary Politics.