A POORER MODERN LIFE– how do we better combat food insecurity, housing precarity, social disconnection, and other social care gaps?

1.        Introduction & Context:

-              ‘What is poverty?’, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, https://www.jrf.org.uk/what-is-poverty

-              ‘UK Poverty 2025: The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK’ , Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 29th January 2025, https://www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2025-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk

-              ‘Austerity’s Children’, by Gordon Brown, Alison McGovern, Rachel de Souza, Mike Brewer, The New Statesman Spotlight, https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:eu:6032bcba-4d21-4ce9-aa3a-941962327ee1

-              ‘End of year food bank stats’, the Trussell Trust, 21st May 2025, https://www.trussell.org.uk/news-and-research/latest-stats/end-of-year-stats

-              ‘Voices Beyond the Food Bank: Testimony, Food Poverty & Dignity’, René Cassin, June 2023: https://renecassin.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Voices-beyond-the-foodbank.pdf

-              ‘Latest government homelessness statistics: Record-high numbers of children growing up homeless in temporary accommodation, by Lucy Cheetham, 27th February 2025, https://assets.ctfassets.net/6sxvmndnpn0s/1uSTOjvidmOVBFRgDSUDEi/365f3112dbf286b9313eba7821b486f4/Homelessness_statistics_briefing_Feb_2025.pdf

-              ‘Homeless families stuck in a debt trap, says report’, Professor Katherine Brickell, Kings College London, 17th October 2023, https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/homeless-families-stuck-in-a-debt-trap

-              ‘Half of all Britons feel socially disconnected from society’, UCL Policy Lab, 23rd May 2025, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/may/half-all-britons-feel-socially-disconnected-society

2.        What is being said/done in the Jewish Community?

-              ‘It is a Jewish imperative to alleviate poverty: Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi was speaking at Limmud Festival’, by Gaby Wine, 23rd December 2024, https://www.thejc.com/community/it-is-a-jewish-imperative-to-alleviate-poverty-bzkiwr9w

-              ‘The Case for Global Responsibility’, OLAM International, 3rd April 2024: https://www.olamtogether.org/resources/the-case-for-global-responsibility

-              Mitzvah Day is the UK’s largest faith-led day of social action, where over 55, 000 volunteers come together over the course of one day to work on projects that address real needs for local communities. https://mitzvahday.org.uk/

-              United Synagogue’s Chesed is a community-driven initiative rooted in Jewish values that provide practice and emotional support to those in need. They operate a series of projects, including food banks, bereavement support and asylum seeker drop-ins. https://theus.org.uk/what-we-do/chesed/

-              The JW3 Foodbank JW3 Foodbank | JW3 The JW3 Foodbank is the central food hub for the north of the Borough of Camden. Since the start of Covid, we have distributed over 500,000 meals to local beneficiaries in need.

-              GIFT About | Gift - Give It Forward Today Jewish food poverty and social care charity operating in Manchester, London and Israel

3.        What other initiatives are out there?

-              Multibanks: “A Multibank is a clothes, bedding, baby, hygiene products, toys and furniture bank all rolled into one. The idea is simple: companies have the surplus goods people need and local charities know the people who need them. The Multibank initiative connects the two to reduce the effects of poverty, enable children to access opportunities while contributing to a sustainable economy”, https://themultibank.co.uk/about-multibanks

-              Zarach: “Zarach’s mission to ensure that every child in England has a bed of their own gives them a greater chance to learn and succeed at school” https://zarach.org/

-              Sebby’s Corner: Sebby’s Corner provides essentials to children & families, from new parent baby essentials, birthday presents & celebrations, Christmas support and school uniform support. They support a range of families who have been referred by professionals across London and the Home Counties. https://www.sebbyscorner.co.uk/our-services

-              Chatty Café Scheme is a UK-based social enterprise to combat loneliness. They offer face-to-face meet ups, weekly online chatting sessions and a telephone friendship service:  https://thechattycafescheme.co.uk/

-              Too Good To Go is a social enterprise whose aim is to reduce food waste by connecting people with surplus food from restaurants, cafes, stores. It works with over 175, 000 business partners and has saved 400million + meals. https://www.toogoodtogo.com/en-us/about-us

BRIDGE BUILDERS – at a time of heightened tensions between the Jewish community and other communities, what practical steps do we need to take to build bridges with each other’?

1.        Introduction & Context:

-              The events of 7 October 2023 and the ongoing war in Gaza have placed unprecedented strain on Jewish-Muslim relations in the UK. Both communities have faced increased levels of antisemitism and Islamophobia. As the war and hostage crisis continue, efforts to foster dialogue and interfaith engagement between Jewish and Muslim communities have become increasingly difficult. ‘Religious Hate Crime at record high, figures show’, by Aleem Maqbool and Josh Parry, BBC, 10th October 2024. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0kjrr44mvdo

-              Social media amplifies tensions in already divided societies. It can also rapidly inflame divisions and anger in local communities in response to international conflicts. ‘Social media don’t start fires but they may make them harder to extinguish’ by Dr Paul Reilly, University of Glasgow, 2nd May 2024.  https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/glasgowsocialscienceshub/resources/all/headline_1070470_en.html

-              Key Findings from the Woolf Institute Diversity Report 2024: https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/diversity

• Attitudes towards diversity in the UK are mixed: Public attitudes toward ethnic and religious diversity have become slightly more positive since 2020, with 56% agreeing that ethnic diversity is good for British society. However, attitudes toward migrants have become slightly more negative, and a majority (57%) feel migration has increased too quickly in the last 10 years.

• Local trust across differences remains low: Over half of respondents (52%) don’t know anyone locally from a different ethnic background well enough to ask for a favour, and 45% say the same about people from different religious backgrounds, highlighting low intergroup trust and limited everyday cross-cultural interactions.

• Local priorities focus on basics, not diversity: When asked what makes a place good to live, respondents prioritised health services, crime levels, and the cost of living over community relations. The factors most in need of improvement matched these priorities—affordable housing, wages, and health services—while interfaith and interethnic relations ranked among the lowest priorities.

-              The Runnymede Trust’s report ‘Facing antisemitism: the struggle for safety and solidary’, by David Feldman, Ben Gidley, Brendan McGeever (2025), explore how antisemitism intersects with broader racism in the UK. It’s a key resource for building bridges between Jewish communities and wider anti-racist movements.

•   You can find a summary of the results here: https://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/facing-antisemitism-the-struggle-for-safety-and-solidarity#:~:text=The%20Runnymede%20Trust%20urgently%20calls,and%20wider%20anti-racist%20organisations

• And the full publication here: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/61488f992b58e687f1108c7c/6788d9b2cb0c9a0ababe3265_FA%20Report%20-%20Final%20v3.pdf

-              LSE’s Global Religious Pluralities Summary Report (July 2024) detail some of the challenges facing religious organisations today, including the impact of social media in globalising political and religious conflict and the gap which currently exists between increasingly ineffective secular systems and the rise of religious nationalisms. The report also provides directions in how we can cultivate new religious pluralities. https://www.lse.ac.uk/rgs/Research/Summary-Report-Global-Religious-Pluralities

2.        How to build bridges?

-              The Inter Faith Network ‘Let’s Talk: Practical Pointers for Inter Faith Dialogue’: a booklet detailing the importance of dialogue and giving practical pointers to start and engage in dialogue. https://www.interfaith.org.uk/resources/lets-talk-practical-pointers-for-inter-faith-dialogue

-              BBC Beyond Belief, ‘Interfaith: Can We Still Talk?’ A 30-minute conversation with Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers, Dr Ed Kessler, Julie Siddiqi and Professor Harriet Baber https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001xwtj

-              Interview with Dr James Sunderland, Research Fellow at the Woolf Institute, about the current challenges for Muslim-Jewish relations in the UK and the importance of ‘Listening groups’ for interfaith engagement, University of Cambridge, 27th February 2025 https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/cambridge-festival-spotlights/james-sunderland

-              ‘What does it mean to be human?’: 2025 ICJS Silber-Obrecht Lecture with Rabbi Dr Rachel S. Mikva & Dr Younis Mirza, from the Institute for Islamic, Christian, Jewish Studies, 22nd April 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOYYSQsqaLo

-              ‘The Dignity of Difference’ – Rabbi Sacks at The National Prayer Breakfast, 1st February 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNEPPA3B8Gw

-              ‘BRIDGE’ (2019) by Imagineer Productions & created by artistic director Orit Azaz was a public art project that used the structure of a bridge to spark conversations about connection and community. Through a series of pop-up events and performances, it invited people to come together across divides. Find out more about the project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUoNle5oT2M&t=4s

3. Who are the existing organisations/current initiatives?

-              The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ) is the leading nationwide forum for Christian-Jewish engagement. They run national programmes in education, dialogue and social action, working with faith leaders, policy makers and local communities.  https://ccj.org.uk/about-us

-              Solutions Not Sides is an educational charity who run workshops in secondary schools across the UK for young people to learn about and engage with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Led by Palestinian and Israeli educators, their workshops are centred around humanising encounters, diverse narratives and solution-based discussions. https://solutionsnotsides.co.uk/what-we-do/mission-values

-              Nisa-Nashim is a national network, bringing Jewish and Muslim women together to inspire and lead change. They have established 24 groups of women across the UK, each co-chaired by a Jewish and Muslim woman: https://www.nisanashim.com/

-              The Abraham Initiatives.Home - Abraham Initiatives.  The Abraham Initiatives is a Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli organisation that advances social inclusion and equal rights for Israel's Palestinian citizens by influencing public policy, shaping public opinion and demonstrating practical models for a shared society.

-              The Faith & Belief Forum is an interfaith charity which creates spaces in schools, universities, workplaces and wider society where people can discuss, engage and navigate questions of belief and identity. Its programmes reach over 16,000 people a year. https://faithbeliefforum.org/about/

-              The Woolf Institute specialises in interfaith dialogue among the Abrahamic faiths. It combines research, teaching and public engagement to facilitate dialogue and understanding between people of all beliefs. https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/

-              Set up in 2014, the Birmingham Conversations initiative creates safe spaces for people of all faiths and none to constructively discuss contentious issues of faith and public life. It aims to foster understanding, build new friendships and, importantly, prioritise healthy disagreement above the need for consensus. https://www.fncbham.org.uk/birmingham-conversations/

BEING AND DOING JEWISH IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND AI – how can we draw on our Jewish experience to navigate an age of disruptive technology in a post truth world?  

1.        Key Statistics & Context: 

·      ‘What is AI, and how do programmes like ChatGPT and DeepSeek work?’, BBC, 18th February 2025: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65855333

·      ‘How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025’ by Marc Zao-Sanders, Harvard Business Review, 9th April 2025: https://hbr.org/2025/04/how-people-are-really-using-gen-ai-in-2025

·      ‘Big Tech lines up over $300bn in AI spending for 2025 by Stephen Morris & Rafe Uddin, The Financial Times, 6th February 2025: https://www.ft.com/content/634b7ec5-10c3-44d3-ae49-2a5b9ad566fa

·      ‘UK Artificial Intelligence (AI) Statistics And Trends in 2025’ by Mark Hooson, Forbes, 1st May 2025: https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/business/software/uk-artificial-intelligence-ai-statistics/

·      ‘The 2025 AI Index Report’ by Stanford University: Human-Centred Artificial Intelligencehttps://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2025-ai-index-report

·      ‘Explained: Generative AI’s environmental impact’ by Adam Zewe, MIT News, 17th January 2025: https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117

·      ‘Digital 2025: The State of Social Media in 2025’, Data Reportal, 5th February 2025 https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-sub-section-state-of-social

·      ‘New UNESCO report warns that Generative AI threatens Holocaust memory’, by Clare O’Hagan’, 18th June 2024, https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/new-unesco-report-warns-generative-ai-threatens-holocaust-memory

• See the full report here: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000390211

·      ‘Online Antisemitism and the Risks of Artificial Intelligence’, Antisemitism Policy Trust, 2024, https://antisemitism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/7112-APT-Ai-and-Anitsemitism-v4.pdf

2.        Responses from the Jewish community?

·       “On AI, Jewish Thought Has Something Distinct to Say” by David Zvi Kelman

https://futureoflife.org/religion/ai-in-jewish-thought/

·       “From Golems to AI: Can Humanoids Be Jewish?” by Yehuda Shurpin https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/6797063/jewish/From-Golems-to-AI.htm

·       ‘What can religion contribute to the AI debate?’ by Harris Bor (AI Ethics: Global Perspectives), 11th July 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWb1nWKss_4

·       ‘The rehumanising project: A Jewish response to artificial intelligence’ by Rabbi Joshua Fixler, JewishInsider, 29th April 2025: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-re-humanizing-project-a-jewish-response-to-artificial-intelligence/

·       ‘One Year After October 7, Here’s How the Jewish Community Uses Social Media Differently’, Hey Alma Staff, 7th October 2024: https://www.heyalma.com/one-year-after-october-7-heres-how-the-jewish-community-uses-social-media-differently/

·      Canaries in the Coalmine. Building Resilience to Online Misinformation among Young People in the UK research paper commissioned by JW3 and German civil society foundation Frederich Ebert Stiftung.

3.         Responses from other communities & perspectives?

·       ‘Misogyny in the metaverse’ by Pippa Bailey, The New Statesman, 14th May 2025: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2025/05/misogyny-in-the-metaverse

·       ‘The New Age of Sexism with Laura Bates’, The Observer, 20th May 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfgiWjOaKPI

·      ‘Big Tech wants us to believe in their vision of the future’, by Asher Kessler, LSE Blog, 29th May 2024 https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2024/05/29/big-tech-wants-us-to-believe-in-their-vision-of-the-future/

·       ‘Gen AI and the Islamic Perspective on Reality and Deception’ by Simon Chan, Edelman, 12th December 2025: https://www.edelman.hk/insights/gen-ai-islamic-perspective-reality-deception

·       ‘The UK riots force Western democracies to confront their reliance on technology giants’ by Alex Krasodomski, Chatham House, 9th August 2024: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/08/uk-riots-force-western-democracies-confront-their-reliance-technology-giants

·       “Never summon a power you can’t control”: Yuval Noah Harari on how AI could threaten democracy and divide the world’, The Guardian, 24th August 2024: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/24/yuval-noah-harari-ai-book-extract-nexus

·       ‘Did social media fan the flames of riot in Southport?’, Marianna Spring, BBC, 31st July 2024: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd1e8d7llg9o

·       ‘Using Machine Learning To Help Refugees Succeed’, by Dylan Walsh, Stanford University: Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence, 13th November 2023: https://hai.stanford.edu/news/using-machine-learning-help-refugees-succeed

·       ‘Making Kin with the Machines’ by Jason Edward Lewis, Neolani Arista, Archer Pechawis, and Susanne Kite, Journal of Design & Science, 16th July 2018: https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/lewis-arista-pechawis-kite/release/1

-     Smartphone Free Childhood

A JEWISH LENS ON CLIMATE CHANGE – how do we positively harness Jewish learning to take on the challenge of Climate Change?

1.        Key Statistics & Context:

-              ‘Key facts and figures: COP29 special report on climate change and health – Health is the argument for climate action’ by the WHO, 7th November 2024, https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/environment-climate-change-and-health/key-facts-and-figures-cop29-special-report-7nov2024.pdf?sfvrsn=f817f3e_3

-              ‘State of the Climate 2024 Update for COP29’, by World Meteorological Organisation’, 2024,  https://library.wmo.int/viewer/69075/download?file=State-Climate-2024-Update-COP29_en.pdf&type=pdf&navigator=1

-              ‘What was agreed at COP29?’ by Nuala Burnett, Philip Loft, Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paolo and Andy Russell, House of Commons Library, 5th December 2024, https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10151/#:~:text=A%20new%20climate%20finance%20goal&text=Climate%20finance%20is%20provided%20by,of%20%241.3%20trillion%20per%20year.

-               ‘Ticking timebomb’: sea acidity has reached critical levels, threatening entire ecosystems – study’, by Lisa Bachelor, The Guardian, 9th June 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/09/sea-acidity-ecosystems-ocean-acidification-planetary-health-scientists

-              ‘What I learned about eco-anxiety after listening to the climate stories of 1,000 people from around the world’, by Emma Lawrance, The Conversation, 11th September 2024. https://theconversation.com/what-i-learned-about-eco-anxiety-after-listening-to-the-climate-stories-of-1-000-people-from-around-the-world-237724

2.        How is the UK Jewish community responding?

-              EcoJudaism is a cross-denominational Jewish movement which aims to make environmental responsibility integral to Jewish identity and practice. It seeks to inspire through education, Torah teaching and through the Jewish tradition of justice and social reform, act by promoting practical environmental solutions for the Jewish community, and influence by advocating for climate justice within the wider faith and by learning from other international Faith climate movements. Explore their past and present campaigns here: https://ecojudaism.org.uk/campaigns/

-              In this interview with the LSE Faith Centre, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg sets out the Jewish imperative to care for and be stewards of our environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enw2FtXs1gY

-              ‘Case Study: The Climate Crisis’ by Rabbi Yedidya (Julian) Sinclair and foreword by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, commissioned by World Jewish Relief, frames the climate crisis as a humanitarian emergency and a Jewish ethical imperative. Using the principle of tzedakah, the article explains how we have a global responsibility to act.  https://www.worldjewishrelief.org/the-climate-crisis-a-humanitarian-and-a-jewish-issue/

-              The Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) published a report in 2021 detailing how Jews in the UK view and respond to climate change and how factors like age, sex, education and religiosity link to their attitudes on this topic. https://www.jpr.org.uk/reports/climate-change-what-do-jews-uk-think

-              Sadeh Farm is the UK’s Jewish community farm and environmental community based in Kent. Rooted in Jewish values, Sadeh focuses on environmental education, regenerative agriculture and community building to foster a deeper connection between Jewish communities, tradition and land. They organise school-trips, volunteer days, and fellowships to inspire social and environmental justice and cultivate eco-stewardship and leadership.

3.        How are international Jewish communities responding?

-              Adamah is a Jewish farm based in upstate New York and the largest Jewish environmental organisation in North America. They lead initiatives such as the ‘Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition’, uniting hundreds of organisations to reduce their ecological footprint, and the ‘Jewish Youth Climate Movement’, which equips young leaders to address climate change and environmental injustice. Adamah also supports action within the community via their ‘Climate Action Fund’, offering grants and zero-interest loans for emission-reducing projects. https://adamah.org/climate-action/

-              Eco-Peace Middle East is a multi-national, interfaith and environmental organisation, bringing together Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis to co-create solutions to support climate security in the Middle East. They have campaigned for a water and renewable energy exchange in the region to address water scarcity and energy needs. They also collaborate with entrepreneurs to identify environmentally sustainable initiatives in the Jordan Valley. https://ecopeaceme.org/about/

-              ‘Climate Change: How should Jews respond?’, a conversation between Gideon Bromberg, Rabbi Sergio Bergman, Rabbi Daniela Touati and Bill Echikson, hosted by the European Union for Progressive Judaism, 9th August 2024, https://eupj.org/climate-change-how-should-jews-respond/

-              Work of the Israeli based Arava InstituteAbout Our Community - Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Cooperating on climate change research across political borders in the middle east.

4.        What is being done outside of the Jewish community?

-              The Church of England Environment Programme is a national led initiative to address the issue of climate change in the Church of England. It has set itself a target to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 2030, setting aside significant funding to kickstart local projects in each diocese. Here are some real-life case studies of initiatives churches have already taken to begin working toward the goal: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/environment-and-climate-change/towards-net-zero-carbon-case-studies

-              ‘Climate Sunday’ was an initiative of over 2,200 churches and church groups who addressed climate change collectively together by holding Climate Sunday services. https://www.climatesunday.org/

-              The Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences is a UK based charity reaching out to Muslim communities all over the world to care for a healthier planet. One of their campaigns is focused on creating plastic free iftars during Ramadan. https://www.ifees.org.uk/projects/plastic-free-iftar/

-              The rise of the Climate Café - “welcoming, informal pop up space in a community – or a workplace, campus or school – to get together to chat and act on climate change” https://www.climate.cafe/what-is-a-climate-cafe/

-           This article highlights the importance of listening circles in sustaining strong climate movements:  ‘A Strong Climate Movement Needs Listening Circles’, Sustaining All Life, https://sustainingalllife.org/resources/listening-circles/

5.        How to engage people into climate action?

-              ‘Engaging people in climate action’, Community Fund, 2nd February 2024 https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/insights/differences-we-make/difference-we-make/learning-from-communities-tips-ideas-and-solutions/engaging-people-in-climate-action

FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT – how do we help Jews of different views understand each other better? 

1. Introduction & Context:  

• ‘One Jew, Two Opinions’, by Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/one-jew-two-opinions/

• ‘Division’ from Uncivil War: The Israel Conflict in the Jewish Community, by Keith Kahn-Harris, David Paul Books, 2014: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:80a6b8f4-3b2e-4d60-89a0-9b964b8440d4

• ‘UK Jewish body launches probe into letter criticising Israeli offensive in Gaza’ by Andrew England, Financial Times, 22nd April 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/4af46399-6287-4f1f-9251-aed6cc275b05

2. Jewish voices and their perspectives on difficult conversations:  

• ‘The Art of Passionate Disagreement’ by Levi Brackman, Chabad.org, 2017: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/381921/jewish/The-Art-of-Passionate-Disagreement.htm

• ‘How to Argue, Discuss, and Disagree...in a Jewish Way’ by Rabbi Jonathan Prosnit, Reform Judaism, https://reformjudaism.org/learning/how-argue-discuss-and-disagree-jewish-way

• ‘OPINION: Jewish experience is complicated’, by Rabbi David Mason, Jewish News, 9th November 2023, https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/opinion-jewish-experience-is-complicated/

• ‘How To Have Hard Conversations About Israel and Palestine With Fellow Jews’, by Hey Alma Staff, Hey Alma, 15th Feb 2024: https://www.heyalma.com/how-to-have-hard-conversations-about-israel-and-palestine-with-fellow-jews/

• ‘There are lots of us who hover on the margins, who are not quickly defineable’: my life as a so-called ‘stealth’ Jew’, by Tom Lamont, The Guardian, 20th July 2024: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jul/20/there-are-lots-of-us-who-hover-on-margins-who-are-not-quickly-definable-my-life-as-a-so-called-stealth-jew

• ‘Upstart grassroots org calls for mending societal rifts as Israel begins its ‘4th quarter’, by Sue Surkes, The Times of Israel, 12th November 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/upstart-grassroots-org-calls-for-mending-societal-rifts-as-israel-begins-its-4th-quarter/

• ‘Civil Discourse – How to Facilitate Productive Conversations about Hard Topics’, by Rachel Margolis, 6th December 2023, https://urj.org/blog/civil-discourse-how-facilitate-productive-conversations-about-hard-topics

• Uncivil War: The Israel Conflict in the Jewish Community - Keith Kahn-Harris - book exploring the impact of changing opinion about Israel on the UK Jewish community and how we might apply conflict resolution techniques to help people have better conversations.  

• ‘Framing Conflict: Why American Congregations Cannot Not Talk about Israel’, by Ari Y. Kelman & Ilan Zvi Baron, Contemporary Jewry, 12 November 2019, https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1283652/framing-conflict-why-american-congregations-cannot-not-talk-about-israel

• ‘Beyond Dispute’ by Daniel Taub draws on rabbinic teaching and his experience as a peace negotiator to present a ‘third way’ in approaching and understanding conflict, one which is based upon listening, difficult compromises and deconstructing a singular truth.  ‘Beyond Dispute: Rediscovering the Jewish Art of Constructive Disagreement’ by Daniel Taub, Hodder Faith, 2025. https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/daniel-taub/beyond-dispute/9781399815062/

3.How to have difficult conversations? 

• Abi Dauber Sterne and Robbie Gringas discuss the value of arguments and explain the 3 different types of argument. You can find their explanations here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg6WDbBER-0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQOaaiXBQ9Q  These videos are part of their non-partisan educational initiative, ‘For the Sake of Argument’, where they lead workshops and trainings to tackle complex and contentious issues, primarily related to Israel.  

• ‘UCL’s Disagreeing Well’ campaign, launched in 2023, explores how individuals, people and communities with different viewpoints can coexist and embrace civil debate. The campaign provides strategies and tools to help navigate difficult conversations. You can see their ‘Disagreeing Well skills video series’ here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/about/disagreeing-well/disagreeing-well-skills-video-series

• ‘Why ‘Disagreeing Well’ Could Save Us All: The hidden power of civil debate, The Independent partnered with UCL, 17th April 2025: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/ucl-disagreeing-well/disagree-well-debate-ucl-b2708185.html

• ‘The Dialogue Toolkit’, Harvard Project Zero:  https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/DigDil%20and%20OOEL%20Dialogue%20Toolkit.pdf

• Constructive Dialogue Institute About Us | Constructive Dialogue Institute. US based viewpoint diversity programme, co-founded by Jonathan Haidt Social psychologist - Author - Professor | Jonathan Haidt

• ‘How to talk to just about anyone about Israel-Palestine: First steps toward meaningful dialogue’, by Joyce Schriebman and Yehezkel Landau, 2016, https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:c3cdeb28-525b-4aac-a9db-e2ee39ecb8ee