The Center for Freedom and Civilization hosted three speakers during the spring 2024 semester, with lectures and discussions focused on the Israel-Gaza war, the Northern Ireland Protocol, and immigrant writing.
“Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism, Israeli Diversity, the War: A Balanced Approach”
Yair Rosenberg, staff writer at The Atlantic
March 5, 2024
The center, together with 51 Jewish Studies and the Office of the Chaplains, invited Yair Rosenberg of The Atlantic to talk about the present Israel-Gaza war in an in-person-only conversation with Prof. Alice Nakhimovsky, Distinguished Chair in Jewish Studies, professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, and CFWC Faculty Advisory Board member.
At The Atlantic, Yair writes about the intersection of religion, culture, and politics. He tries, as he told us, to get an audience on multiple sides of difficult issues by avoiding wording that locks users into specific positions. Like all speakers 51 has had, Yair is not a fan of the Netanyahu government. But he does not see Israel as a colonialist state, or as a state, alone among all others, whose existence should be questioned, said Center Director Carolyn Guile.
As a Hebrew speaker, Yair was able to correct a significant mistranslation of a speech by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. One of the wire agencies, followed unquestioningly by the New York Times, the BBC, NPR, and numerous other sources, had Gallant saying that Gaza should be destroyed. In Gallant’s Hebrew, the object of the destruction was Hamas. After Yair’s article pointing out the problem, most of the outlets corrected themselves (the International Court of Justice, using the same mistranslation, notably did not). Yair expressed some surprise — he is not cynical — that media fact-checkers did not consult the original, where the word “Hamas” could be clearly heard.
Professor Alice Nakhimovsky noted, “I hope that students take seriously Yair’s advice to study foreign languages, especially if they are aspiring journalists. I hope also that he is correct in his optimism that this terrible conflict will not go on interminably.”
“Brexit and Borders: The Northern Ireland Protocol”
Tony Connelly, Europe Editor, RTÉ News and Current Affairs
April 9, 2024
Tony Connelly, journalist at RTÉ News and Current Affairs came to speak about how Brexit has affected Anglo-Irish political and economic relations. Students learned about the Northern Ireland Protocol, a policy that has effectively created a distinction between the political border (in Ulster) and the economic border (in the Irish Sea) separating the UK and Ireland.
The lecture complemented an extended study program to the two countries, co-led by Morgan Davies and Chad Sparber, in which students visited important institutions including The Economist, The Adam Smith Institute, IDA Ireland, and The Central Bank of Ireland. Prof. Chad Sparber, W. Bradford Wiley Chair in International Economics, professor of economics, and director of the CFWC Forum on Economic Freedom, initiated the event.
“The Texture of (Un)Remembrance: Immigrant Writing, Translingualism, and the Memory of the Shoah”
Maxim D. Shrayer, bilingual author and professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College
May 1, 2024
Maxim D. Shrayer, bilingual author and professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College read from his new memoir, Immigrant Baggage, during a lecture and discussion May 1, 2024 in Persson Hall Auditorium.
The event was sponsored by the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization’s Forum on Security and Democracy, Chapel House, The Michael Saperstein Jewish Center, Jewish Studies, Core Communities, and the Russian and Eurasian Studies Program.