Israel’s Black Panthers

Journalist Asaf Elia-Shalev (he/him), author of the new book Israel’s Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation’s Founding Myth, will share parts of the powerful story of an activist movement that challenged racial inequities in Israel. Elia-Shalev’s book tells the story of the young and impoverished Moroccan Israeli Jews who challenged their country’s political status quo by rebelling against the ethnic hierarchy of Israeli life in the 1970s. Inspired by the American group of the same name, the Black Panthers mounted protests and a years-long political campaign for the rights of Mizrahim, or Jews of Middle Eastern ancestry, which still resonates today.

This event is part of our Open Doors Sukkot programming.