Adam Horowitz, Rabbi Brant Rosen, and Cecilie Surasky
Sunday, January 10, 2010 | Oak Park Public Library
Approximately 230 people turned out on a frigid January afternoon, packing the Oak Park Public Library Veterans Room for an electrifying presentation by three Jewish bloggers, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Cecilie Surasky, and Adam Horowitz. The presentation was the fourth event in the Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine 2009-2010 community education and dialogue series, "Creating a Just Peace in the Age of Obama: The American Conversation on Israel/Palestine." The speakers reported on major shifts in American Jewish attitudes toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as a dramatic decline in the ability of old-guard mainstream Jewish organizations to control the discourse and silence dissenting voices.
Rabbi Brant Rosen, author of the influential blog rabbibrant.com, is a longtime champion of human rights, social justice, and Jewish ethical values. His application of these values to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has brought him some criticism, but also an outpouring of support from Jews who have previously found Jewish institutions closed to healthy debate about Israeli policy. Cecilie Surasky's blog for Jewish Voice For Peace, muzzlewatch.com, reports on the attempts of institutions to shut down open conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the U.S. role in perpetuating it. Adam Horowitz, who writes for mondoweiss.net (with its founder Phil Weiss), reports on a tremendous surge in readership as more Americans actively seek out perspectives on the conflict usually absent from mainstream media. As long as the media fail to cover the conflict in a balanced and probing way, blogs and alternative media will continue to be essential in fostering awareness and understanding.