Middle East Expert to Focus on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Perlow Talk

A foremost expert on the Middle East peace process will give this spring’s Jacob Perlow Lecture at Skidmore.

Henry Siegman, senior fellow and director of the U.S./Middle East Project at the Council on Foreign Relations, will discuss “Who Doesn’t Want Peace? Road Maps/Road Blocks and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” at 8:15 p.m. Monday, April 7, in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.

A refugee from Europe early in World War II, Siegman came to this country, where he earned a B.A. degree at the New School for Social Research and later studied to become a rabbi. He was an Army chaplain during the Korean Conflict and received both a bronze star and a purple heart for his service. He has served as the director of the American Association for Middle East Studies and edited its quarterly publication, Middle East Studies. He founded the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, was executive director of the American Jewish Congress for 16 years, and is now at the Council on Foreign Relations, a center for the study and practice of international affairs and U.S. foreign policy.

During the late 1990s he directed the ground-breaking Council Independent Task Force, “Strengthening Palestinian Public Institutions.” He is now a key participant in efforts undertaken by the U.S., the U.N., the European Union, and Russia to develop a “road map” for ending the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He has been a powerful critic of the Sharon government and the settler movement, and an advocate for an end to the Intifadeh. He supports the creation of an independent Palestinian state and its peaceful coexistence with a secure Israel. In a New York Times profile published last year, Siegman explained that his life experiences – as a refugee, as a soldier, as a rabbinical student – fueled his passion for justice and made him empathetic toward the Palestinian issue. He said then, “American Jewish organizations confuse support for the state of Israel and its people with an uncritical endorsement of the actions of Israeli governments.” He acknowledged that his views have made him a pariah among American Jewish groups.

Siegman is the author of a number of studies and reports for the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as more than 100 articles and essays on the Middle East in a number of mainstream publications in this country and abroad. His publications have earned him the admiration and the ire of readers in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.

Skidmore’s series of Perlow events is made possible with support from the estate of Jacob Perlow, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s and was committed to furthering Jewish education.

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