SAPIR Conversations SAPIR: Ideas for a Thriving Jewish Future

In stark contrast to previous generations, younger American Jews are growing up increasingly disconnected from Israel and Zionism. What accounts for this shift? How durable is it? And what are the implications for tomorrow’s leaders of American Jewish communities? Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and Dr. Noam Weissman of OpenDor Media discuss the future of Zionism among Gen Z.

Former Human Rights Watch senior editor Danielle Haas
sits down with SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens
to discuss her recent essay, “The Human-Rights Establishment,” which chronicles years of behind-the-scenes experience and presents deep-seated concerns that human rights NGOs have become “increasingly hijacked by politics and dominated by
groupthink.”

The rapid ascent of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and other technologies requires Jewish leaders to understand the dramatic effects these innovations will have on Jewish life and faith. Are we ready for this technological Jewish future? SAPIR Institute Director Chanan Weissman hosted a conversation with Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter of Yeshiva University and Dr. David Zvi Kalman of the Shalom Hartman Institute on what Jewish communal, philanthropic, and religious leaders must do to prepare for this new digital age.

SAPIR Institute Director Chanan Weissman hosted a conversation about the future of synagogue life in a time of disruption with Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City and Rabbi Rachel Isaacs of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life in Maine. They explored the shock of the October 7 attacks, the long-term structural changes brought on by the Covid pandemic, and their visions for the synagogue in a digital age.

SAPIR Institute Director Chanan Weissman is joined by Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, and Zvika Krieger, former director of responsible innovation at Meta discuss their recent essays in SAPIR’s Technology issue and explore how the virality of unsubstantiated information on social media is impacting perspectives on the Israel-Hamas war.

SAPIR Institute Director Chanan Weissman hosted a conversation about the conflict over free speech on college campuses with Nadine Strossen, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and Ilya Shapiro, the director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute. Strossen and Kenneth S. Stern co-authored “SJP Still Deserves Freedom of Speech” in Sapir‘s War in Israel special edition, while Shapiro recently published “Where Free Speech Ends and Lawbreaking Begins” in The Free Press.