Our History, Our Future: NIF Australia presents Deborah Lipstadt and Sir Simon Schama
In an exclusive virtual event for the New Israel Fund, eminent historians Sir Simon Schama and Deborah Lipstadt will join NIF’s global president and UCLA Jewish History Professor David Myers to discuss how our understanding of history shapes our current reality.
Sir Simon Schama
“At a time of real challenges to democracy and increases in nationalism and racism around the world, it’s a real honour for NIF Australia to host these amazing speakers,” said executive director Liam Getreu. “Schama and Lipstadt are probably the two preeminent Jewish historians of our age and we can’t wait to hear what they have to say,” he added.
In a time of fake news, rising populism and renewed antisemitism history continue to influence current events. Schama and Lipstadt will bring their unique perspectives to better understand how a fractured Israel and a divided America can learn from their past to create more just and tolerant societies.
Both historians will be well known to Australian audiences. Lipstadt is most well known for successfully winning a libel case from Holocaust denier David Irving. This case was later made into the movie Denial. An author, Lipstadt is a professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University.
Schama, a prolific award-winning author, who has published over 30 books, is a professor of Art History and Archeology at Columbia University. He has also done television work for the BBC and PBS. He was knighted by the Queen in 2018.
Getreu predicted that there would be great demand for this digital event on Tuesday 20 April at 7:30pm, especially given the two iconic historians had never before shared a stage.
“Although we’re looking forward to the time when we can host overseas speakers in person, we are thrilled to bring accomplished thinkers from across the globe – whose vast insights bring deep perspective and fresh ways of looking at current events around us – into the living rooms of the Australian Jewish community,” Getreu said.
Last year thousands of people attended NIF Australia events with speakers like Kevin Rudd, Thomas Friedman, Tanya Plibersek, AB Yehoshua and Merav Michaeli.
Register for the event on the NIF website: https://nif.li/historyjwire
I love to follow and read J-Wire. While all 3 are scholars and well known and respected. It appears to me that all 3 are Liberal/Leftist academia intellectuals with if not an anti-Zionist vision but I believe a non-Zionist vision and opinions and therefor have a somewhat skewed interpretation of Jewish History I would think that you should at least balance the opinions.