Next Friday night, we are honored to have Dr. Daniel Gordis return to his alma mater once again and spend Shabbat with the Hillel community. Please join us at dinner Friday night (catered by Carlos and Gabby’s!), followed by a keynote address delivered by Dr. Gordis. Saturday afternoon Dr. Gordis will be leading a shiur (study session) before afternoon services at Hillel.

To sign up for dinner on Friday night, find any LionPAC board member or pay on PayPal. The $5 is definitely worth it for this amazing dinner!

If you have any questions about the weekend, please email lionpac@hillel.columbia.edu

On Sunday, October 16th, Alan Dershowitz came to the Kraft Center for Jewish Life at Columbia University to speak:

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most controversial topics in the media today. How do journalists balance this contentious issue to produce an even-handed portrayal of the conflict? This event will feature three distinguished panelists with extensive experience in journalism and reporting on Israel. Ethan Bronner is the Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times and Yaakov Katz is the military correspondent and defense analyst for The Jerusalem Post. Ari Goldman is a professor at the Columbia Journalism School who worked for many years at the New York Times. Their combined insight will help illuminate the media’s treatment of Israel and will present a method for understanding Israel independent of how the media portrays the country.

For more information, check our Facebook event.

Alan Dershowitz is a renowned American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He is known as “Israel’s single most visible defender – the Jewish state’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion.” He has authored numerous books about politics and law, including The Case for Israel, The Case for Peace, and most recently, The Trials of Zion.

He will be speaking on the topic of “America, Israel, and the Palestinians: In Pursuit of Peace” on Sunday, October 16th. For more information, please view the event page.

This piece was featured in the Columbia Spectator on Tuesday, September 20, 2011.  It was written by the Columbia Spectator Editorial Board (Samuel E. Roth recused himself from the writing of this editorial because he previously served on CIRCA’s executive board).  It was not written by a LionPAC member.

Columbia International Relations Council and Association’s plan to dine with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this Wednesday has raised a few eyebrows on campus and in national and international media. Given the implications of dining with a man accused of gross human rights violations, political repression, and hostility toward the United States, we urge CIRCA to reconsider its decision to participate.

Numerous media outlets­—American and Iranian alike—have inaccurately equated CIRCA’s acceptance of the invitation as from the University as a whole. National news outlets have demonstrated no more commitment to honest reporting than Iran’s, and we hope that the international community understands that CIRCA’s actions do not represent the University’s views as a whole. Fox News inaccurately claimed that President Bollinger was attending the dinner, a statement it later corrected.

While we uphold Columbia’s commitment to free speech, open dialogue, and freedom of association, CIRCA’s attendance at the dinner surpasses the bounds of responsible group behavior. We don’t doubt that the students involved in the dinner identify an opportunity to engage a world leader in a sincere gesture of diplomacy, but to do so with a leader like Ahmadinejad is not constructive.

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