AJC – “Israel/Diaspora”

Dr. Steven Bayme, who has been with AJC since 1982 and scheduled to retire this July, will be conducting a number of “oral history” Zoom sessions on how AJC has evolved over the course of his four decades at the agency. The first of these, titled Israel-Diaspora Relations, will focus on how the question of relations between Israel and world Jewry erupted during the 1982 First Lebanon War, subsequently became critical over the 1988 “Who is a Jew” controversy, enjoyed an era of Israel-Diaspora warmth and mutual identification during the Oslo period, and became again a point of friction in the 21st century. The session will serve both to clarify ties and tensions between Israel and world Jewry and to understand AJC’s evolution and journey in addressing those ties and tensions.