At our next Book Group meeting we will discuss I am Forbidden, by Anouk Markovits

Please note this group is for BHS members only. No RSVP required.

Israeli society is not divided by a single line, but shaped by multiple overlapping tensions. This series explores several of the most significant fault lines that continue to influence Israeli identity, politics, and cultural life, and concludes by examining how these tensions shape Israel’s present challenges and future possibilities. Rather than beginning with headlines or ideological arguments, we begin with culture.

Through music, poetry, film, and popular media, each session combines historical grounding with cultural expression. Participants encounter the past that explains the present, connect deeply with Israeli cultural creativity, and engage in honest conversations about identity, belonging, and responsibility.

Exploring politics, and how identity and tensions in modern Israel society, as well as future pathways, are shaped by history and culture – including expression through music, poetry, film and popular media.

Session I 

East and West: The Mizrahi Ashkenazi Divide

This session explores the ethnic and cultural hierarchy that emerged in the early decades of the state. We will examine the absorption policies of the 1950s, the dominance of European Zionist elites, and the long struggle of Jews from Middle Eastern and North African backgrounds for recognition and dignity.

Through protest movements, political transformation, and especially Israeli music — from marginalized voices to mainstream influence — we will explore how culture became both a battlefield and a bridge.

Session II

Religious and Secular: Competing Visions of Zionism

Early Zionism was largely secular and revolutionary in spirit, seeking to create a new Hebrew identity. Religious Zionism was initially a minority partner within a predominantly secular national leadership. After 1967 and the rise of the settlement movement, however, it began reshaping the national narrative and redefining the relationship between faith, land, and sovereignty.

Through songs written after the Yom Kippur War, cultural responses to 1967, and contemporary debates about democracy and state power, we will examine how different communities imagine the purpose of the Jewish state — and what happens when religion and nationalism become intertwined.

Session III

Jewish and Arab: Shared Land, Conflicting Narratives

This session addresses one of the most complex and painful tensions within and around Israel.

We will explore competing national stories, the lived experience of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the cultural spaces where encounter and friction coexist. Through literature and media, we will ask how two peoples narrate the same land differently — and what culture reveals that political discourse often obscures.

Session IV
Israel Today: Democracy, Boundaries, and the Future

The final session turns from the historical fault lines we explored to the pressing questions shaping Israel today. Building on the social, religious, and national tensions discussed in the previous sessions, we will examine several contemporary challenges facing Israeli society.

Topics will include the presence of anti-Zionist currents within parts of the Haredi community and the questions this raises about citizenship and shared responsibility; the ongoing struggle to strengthen democratic norms and institutions in a deeply divided society; and the continuing debate over Israel’s borders, security, and regional future.

Alongside these tensions, the session will also highlight the social, civic, and cultural forces that continue to generate hope within Israeli society. Through cultural voices and public debate, we will ask what kind of society Israelis are trying to build, and what possibilities still exist for a shared future.

About the Facilitator

Lior Lekner serves as the Brooklyn Community Shlicha of the Jewish Agency for Israel. She holds a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Biblical Studies, and brings years of experience in informal Jewish education, cultural programming, and public dialogue around Israeli identity. She previously facilitated educational initiatives at the Shitim Institute, connecting Jewish historical consciousness to contemporary Zionist thought.

Rooted in a liberal humanistic perspective, her work engages complexity rather than avoiding it, fostering connection grounded in depth, historical awareness, and moral responsibility rather than slogans.

Join us for Israeli Dance, engaging in mindful movement and learning basic classic and modern Israeli dances. The class is taught by dance instructor Elaine Sohn, who has led the Brooklyn Heights International Folk Dance group for more than thirty years. No prior experience or partners are necessary.

RSVP here.

In the next Film Group Meeting we’ll discuss Yentl, a 1983 film.

Please note this group is for BHS members only. No RSVP required.

Join us for a special Legacy Shabbat service, celebrating the strengthening of our congregation’s future and the support made to our community to ensure it thrives for generations to come. As shared recently, there are two new initiatives created to fulfill this vision of an enduring impact: the BHS Fund and the BHS Legacy Society.

About the BHS Fund: Created to reinforce our financial foundation, the BHS Fund is a dedicated investment in our future. Unlike our annual appeal, which supports current operations, the Fund provides long-term stability — positioning BHS to meet significant new opportunities and challenges as they arise in the years to come.

About the BHS Legacy Society: The BHS Legacy Societyrecognizes members who include Brooklyn Heights Synagogue in their estate plans. These powerful expressions of confidence in our future help ensure that the values, community, and Jewish life that sustain us today will continue to flourish tomorrow.

For any questions about these initiatives, please contact Jenny Powers, Director of Development, at 718-522-2070 ext. 103 or Jenny.Powers@bhsbrooklyn.org.

Legacy Shabbat will be held jointly with Shir Shabbat musical services, led by the BHS choir and band with a special farewell to Sarina Elenbogen-Siegel — who is graduating and being ordained as Cantor.

For three years Sarina has been leading our religious school children in song, teaching our B'Mitzvah students, leading our Friday night and Holy Day services, facilitating Chavurah, making pastoral visits, and bringing BHS wonderful programing. Join us to say goodbye to and congratulate Sarina!

More about Lecturer, Laura Arnold Leibman:

Laura Arnold Leibman is the Leonard J. Milberg ’53 Professor in American Jewish Studies and Director Judaic Studies at Princeton University. Her books on Jews in early America have won four National Jewish Book Awards and a Jordan Schnitzer Book Award. She is the immediate President of the Association for Jewish Studies.

More about the Exhibition, Circa 1776: Jews and the American Revolution:

Although numerically only a small proportion of the people living in the thirteen colonies, Jews played a disproportionate role in the American Revolution. Jews fought on both sides of the conflict, with the war fracturing the small community between loyalists and patriots. In addition to serving in militias, Jews contributed essential funding and ran supplies. The war would also reshape Jewish communities. As patriots fled the British invasion, families were brought together and romances and marriages flourished. In the wake of displacements, new communities rose while other older centers of Jewish life faltered. For generations after the war ended many families held on to mementos of the conflict, weaving the objects into the story of Jewish belonging. 

Please see below a sample of work from the exhibition.

A 4-part series on Tuesdays at 7pm at BHS on May 26, June 2, June 9 and June 16.

Reform Judaism evolved from strong anti-Zionism in the late 19th century—viewing Judaism solely as a religion, not a nationality—to becoming a firm supporter of a Jewish state. This shift, driven by rising antisemitism and the Holocaust, was solidified by the 1937 Columbus Platform and later strengthened by the 1997 Miami Platform, which fully embraced Zionism.

Rabbi Josh Weinberg (he/him) serves as the vice president for Israel and Reform Zionism for the Union for Reform Judaism, and as the president of ARZA.

Read Rabbi Weinberg’s article, Reform Zionism: A Sacred Responsibility, here.

Men’s group, facilitated by Congregant Jeff Gold, meets together monthly to support one another and hold thoughtful discussions. Please note this group is for BHS members only. For questions or interest in joining, please reach out to Jeff at jeffreygold12@gmail.com.

Join BHS for the Israel Day Parade on Fifth

Sunday, May 31, 2026

A project of JCRC-NY in partnership with the UJA Federation New York

Details coming soon

Join our Israel Matters group on Thursday, June 18 at 6:30pm for a discussion of the new book, The Future is Peace, by Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli Maoz Inon. The conversation will be facilitated by Lior Lekner, our BHS shlicha (emissary from the Jewish Agency for Israel to the Brooklyn Jewish community).

In their book, Aziz and Maoz, lifelong peace activists and guides to Israel/Palestine, wrote about their life-changing journey across their lands and the mythic, political, and personal histories that divide—and bind—them and their peoples. Having each lost family to the conflict, Maoz and Aziz forged an unlikely bond of friendship when the world would expect them to become enemies. 

You can read more about Aziz and Moaz and their work, including their recent interview with Jon Stewart. Please plan to read the book prior to the discussion. 

Please note this event is for BHS members only.