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A Year After October 7: Reclaiming the Humanist Legacy of Zionism

Younes Nazarian Memorial Lecture

Upon the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Professor Fania Oz-Salzberger presents the case for Zionism's humanist legacy as a vital key for "the day after," and for prospective agreements between Israelis and Palestinians.

Organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Co-sponsored by The UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies.


About the Talk

 

Turning the tables on the global anti-Zionist response to the horrific war opened by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, Professor Oz-Salzberger presents the case for Zionism's humanist legacy as a vital key for "the day after," and for prospective agreements between Israelis and Palestinians. She will argue that the humanist legacy of Herzl, Ben-Gurion, and Israel's Declaration of Independence is crucial for the current debate and provides a realistic route between the extremes of ultra-nationalism and starry-eyed coexistence utopias. Oz-Salzberger will also assess the enormous collective trauma suffered by Israelis on October 7 and since, and offer a cautious roadmap to a future "Peace of the Moderates."

 

About the Speaker

Professor Fania Oz-Salzberger is an Israeli historian, author and public intellectual. She was born and raised in Kibbutz Hulda, served as an intelligence officer in the IDF, and is Professor Emerita of History at the University of Haifa's Faculty of Law and Center for German and European Studies. She formerly held a full professorship and the Israel Studies Chair at Monash University, Melbourne, as well as a Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching at the Princeton University's Center for Human Values. She was a Fellow of the Jerusalem Institute for Advanced Studies and of the Federal Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin.
 
 Oz-Salzberger's doctoral thesis from Oxford (1990) was mentored by philosopher Isaiah Berlin. She also holds an honorary doctoral degree (2020) from Uppsala University, Sweden, won the Grimm Brothers Award (2021) and is a member of the German Federal Republic's Order of Merit. Her authored books include Translating the Enlightenment (Oxford, 1995), Israelis in Berlin (Jerusalem, 2001, and Frankfurt am Main, 2001) and, with her late father Amos Oz, Jews and Words (Yale, 2012); alongside several edited volumes and dozens of academic articles.
 
 Oz-Salzberger is a well known speaker and writer on Israeli affairs, has a column in Moment Magazine, and published op-eds in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Haaretz, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and New Statesman, among others. Since 2023 she has been active in the Israeli pro-democracy movement. Following the 7 October 2023 massacre she has written and spoken on CNN, BBC and numerous other venues, offering a moderate, future-oriented Israeli voice.

 

About Younes Nazarian z"l

 

Younes Nazarian was a prominent businessman and philanthropist who, along with his wife Soraya, supported numerous causes in education and the arts in Los Angeles and in Israel. Their generous contributions helped to establish UCLA's Israel Studies Program and, in 2010, they created a permanent endowment that led to the naming of the university's Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.

 

Nazarian grew up in an impoverished household in the Jewish ghetto of south Tehran. As teenagers, he and his brother traveled to Israel to support the newly formed country by working in the construction industry. These formative years influenced Younes and cemented his lifelong support for Israel. After returning to Iran, the brothers created a successful construction distribution business. However, the Nazarian family fled Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution and made their new home in Los Angeles, where they rebuilt their lives.

 

In Israel, the Nazarians’ foundation helped to create the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library at Sapir College and the University of Haifa, and it has supported Haifa University scholarships, the Bezalel Academy of the Arts, the Hebrew University and Israel’s National Library. In 2009, Nazarian was selected among 12 recipients to receive Israel’s highest honor of the torch-lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl. In Los Angeles, their philanthropy has supported the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Performing Arts at Cal State Northridge, the Nazarian Pavilion in Doheny Library at University of Southern California, Beit Midrash at the Milken Community High School, and the Hammer Museum at UCLA.

 

Younes passed away on March 18th, 2022, at the age of 91. He is survived by his wife, Soraya; four children, David, Shula, Sharon, and Sam; daughters-in-law, Angella and Emina; son-in-law, Fernando; and 11 grandchildren.

 


DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions of our guest speakers and the content of their presentations do not necessarily reflect the views of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Hosting speakers does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker's views or opinions.