The Jew­ish return to polit­i­cal pow­er is a mod­ern mir­a­cle. But with great pow­er comes great respon­si­bil­i­ty. Has Israel lived up to its promise? And what comes next for the Jew­ish state, as it nav­i­gates a deeply unsta­ble region and a new Amer­i­can pres­i­dent? Join Daniel Gordis and Nir Baram, two cel­e­brat­ed authors writ­ing from Israel, for a provoca­tive con­ver­sa­tion.​Copies of Gordis­’s new his­to­ry of Israel will be dis­trib­uted at the event as a part of The Israel Book­shelf. Copies of Baram’s title will be avail­able for sale, a month before the offi­cial pub­li­ca­tion date. Mod­er­at­ed by Bari Weiss.

Nir Baram was born into a polit­i­cal fam­i­ly in Jerusalem in 1976. His grand­fa­ther and father were both Israeli Labor Par­ty min­is­ters. He has worked as a jour­nal­ist and edi­tor, and began pub­lish­ing fic­tion 22 years old. Between 1998 and 2006 Nir pub­lished three nov­els in Hebrew; his Novem­ber 2016 nov­el Good Peo­ple was the first to be released in Eng­lish, and his forth­com­ing mem­oir A Land With­out Bor­ders: My Jour­ney Around East Jerusalem and the West Bank pub­lish­es inter­na­tion­al­ly April 2017.

Daniel Gordis is senior vice pres­i­dent and the Koret Dis­tin­guished Fel­low at Shalem Col­lege in Jerusalem, Israel’s first lib­er­al arts col­lege, and for­mer vice pres­i­dent of the Man­del Foun­da­tion. He writes reg­u­lar columns for The Jerusalem Post and Bloomberg View. Israel: A Con­cise His­to­ry of a Nation Reborn is his eleventh book to pub­lish in English

Host­ed at the Jew­ish Muse­um in New York City (1109 5th Avenue), Unpack­ing the Book: Jew­ish Writ­ers in Con­ver­sa­tion brings togeth­er some of the finest writ­ers of the day for con­ver­sa­tions around con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish life and iden­ti­ty. This event is FREE with pay-what-you-want admis­sion and includes wine and refresh­ments, a book sale and sign­ing, and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to vis­it the Jew­ish Muse­um gal­leries on the day of the pro­gram; how­ev­er, space is lim­it­ed and guests must reg­is­ter in advance.