Join us for a conversation and Q&A with Breaking the Silence Israel.

Engaging with Israel-Palestine can be confusing and tense. This event is part of SIJCC’s ongoing efforts to create safe space to learn, ask questions, and challenge ourselves together as a community.

Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran IDF Soldiers who focus on exposing to the Israeli public the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. Breaking the Silence puts a mirror up to Israeli society, highlighting the high price being paid by Israelis themselves as occupiers, and speaking on the Occupation’s violation of Palestinian human rights.

At this event we will be hearing testimony directly from our guests, watching a short documentary film, and have plenty of time for Q&A. Snacks & Soda provided.

RSVP REQUIRED

Questions or Accessibility Needs? Email Rachelleider@sijcc.net.

PROOF OF VACCINATION REQUIRED

About the Speakers:

Benzion (Benzi) Sanders grew up in the Orthodox community on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. After graduating from a leading Modern Orthodox high school in New York he went to Israel and studied for three years in yeshivot in Beit Shemesh and Maale Adumim. In 2011 he took on Israeli citizenship and was drafted into the IDF where he served in the Sayeret Nahal special forces unit between the years 2012-2015. After a lengthy training, Benzi spent most of his service stationed in different parts of the West Bank and was also deployed to the northern Gaza Strip during the 2014 war. Following his service, he studied Philosophy and Middle Eastern Studies at Bar Ilan University and was an active member of the Meretz party. Since 2020 He has been the Jewish Diaspora Education Coordinator at Breaking the Silence.

Maya Eshel is an Israeli American anti-apartheid activist living in Tel Aviv. She gave testimony to Breaking the Silence in 2017 after serving as a human resources non-commissioned officer and spent 9 months in the Etzion Brigade Headquarters in the West Bank. In 2019, while speaking on panels with Breaking the Silence about her military service and the unlearning she went through, she witnessed how storytelling builds bridges, opens minds and creates new pathways towards community and growth. She is currently an activist, facilitator and teacher focusing on supporting communities in Masafer Yatta, the South Hebron Hills.

What to expect:

• Proof of vaccination required and masks encouraged!

• ADA accessible

• Gender Neutral Bathrooms