Rojas-Tal will host October 27 webinar “Zionism. Women. 2022: Navigating Multiple-Identity Politics”
CONTACT: Mitchell Slepian mslepian@hadassah.org
NEW YORK, NY: October 13, 2022 – Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, is pleased to introduce Michelle Rojas-Tal, an expert in helping Jews navigate complex conversations about Jewish identity, Zionism and engagement with Israel, as Zionist Scholar-in-Residence. Rojas-Tal, whom Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has called “a game-changer for the larger global Jewish community,” will work with Hadassah’s national and local (Hadassah chapter) leadership to develop programs that integrate Zionist themes and encourage open discussion about what Israel and Zionism mean to different generations of American Jewish women.
Hadassah will kick off Rojas-Tal’s tenure on Thursday, October 27, at 7:00 pm, with Zionism. Women. 2022: Navigating Multiple-Identity Politics, an online conversation about what it means to be a Zionist woman in 2022. Rojas-Tal, a Jewish Latina, will speak with Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh, a Druze woman whose role as senior envoy for The Jewish Agency for Israel to The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington is to strengthen the relationship between American Jews and Israel. The event is free and open to all; program details and registration information can be found below.
It is well known that many American Jews in their 20s and 30s wrestle with their Zionist identity and seek new ways to engage with Israel. Less well known is the fact that many Jews in their 40s and 50s, do, too, as a Pew Research Center published in 2021 showed (How American Jews View Israel).
“We live in an age in which many things formerly sacrosanct are being challenged, including the traditional definition of Zionism and the assumption that all American Jews feel the same way about Israel,” said Rhoda Smolow, Hadassah National President. “As an organization with Zionism at its core, we want to be the place where the complexities of Israel and Zionism are not hurdles but opportunities to educate one another and form bonds between older and younger Zionists.”
Said Naomi Adler, Hadassah CEO, "Hadassah is the voice of so many American Zionist women as well as a unique place where all can share their views on Israel and Zionism without being judged or ostracized. That gives us a unique opportunity to be the forum in which Jewish-American women honor the power of Zionism while not shying away from its nuances and intricacies."
Added Rojas-Tal, “This work is essential to building bridges among different generations of American Zionists, and building those bridges is essential to ensuring a future for the Zionist cause. My role is to create opportunities for different generations to both articulate their perspectives and listen to the perspectives of others.”
“Evolving Zionism: A Contemporary View from Young Women’s Perspectives,” an event Rojas-Tal helped create for a Hadassah conference in September, exemplifies the kind of program she will help Hadassah’s national and local leadership develop.
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Thursday, October 27, 2022, at 7:00 pm
ZIONISM. WOMEN. 2022: NAVIGATING MULTIPLE IDENTITY POLITICS
An online conversation between Michelle Rojas-Tal, Hadassah Zionist Scholar-in-Residence, and Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh, Senior Envoy to Washington, DC, for The Jewish Agency for Israel
FREE and open to all. To register, click here.
In this conversation, Michelle Rojas-Tal, Hadassah Zionist Scholar-in-Residence, and Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh, Senior Envoy for The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) to The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, discuss what it means to be a Zionist woman in 2022. Rojas-Tal is a Jewish Latina and a recognized expert at helping Jews navigate complex conversations about Jewish identity, Zionism and engagement with Israel. Kamal-Mreeh is a Druze woman whose role as senior JAFI envoy is to strengthen the relationship between American Jews and Israel. As the Jewish Insider wrote of Kamal-Mreeh in February, as a member of a minority group who was the first non-Jewish woman to anchor a Hebrew program on Israeli TV and the first female Druze member of the Knesset, she “brings a unique perspective to the conversation plaguing American Jewish leaders about how to better connect young Jews to Israel.”
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About Michelle Rojas-Tal
Michelle Rojas-Tal is a global speaker and advocate who is recognized as a trailblazer in helping young Jews navigate complex conversations about Zionism, Jewish identity and Israel engagement. She served as a senior shlicha (emissary) to Hillel International, working with then-CEO Eric D. Fingerhut, now President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of North America (JFNA), and as director of the Israel Fellows program of The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), working with then-chairman Isaac Herzog, President of Israel. Earlier in her career, she worked as the director of Diaspora education for the Israeli advocacy organization StandWithUs while studying at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and taking part in a student leadership course at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Tel Aviv Institute recently named Rojas-Tal to “The Jewish 100” list for 2021-2022, a list of the 100 most influential activists, educators and leaders who “raise awareness, educate, and offer resources that help to fight hate.” In 2013, she was featured in The Jerusalem Post's list of the 50 most influential Jews in the world and named one of only six “Women to Watch” in the Jewish world. Rojas-Tal is a proud member of the Schusterman Foundation’s ROI community for global Jewish leaders, a network of Jewish and Israeli changemakers. A native New Yorker, Rojas-Tal traveled to Israel for the first time in 2004, with Taglit-Birthright Israel.