Tuesday, May 6
6-8PM | Prime Produce
424 West 54th Street
New York, NY 10019
"No other book goes so deeply into American culture and intellectual life to explain the bond between two countries” – Rashid Khalidi
An essential account of America's most controversial alliance, Our American Israel sheds light on how the "special relationship" between Israel and the US came to be and how that strong and divisive partnership plays out in our times.
Through an impeccably researched examination of popular narratives in American news media, fiction, and film, Amy Kaplan shows how cultural stories helped create a shared sense of identity between two nations that both had histories as settler societies.
Since its oringinal publication in 2018, the events of October 7, 2023 and the subsequent destruction of Gaza have made Kaplan’s insights more urgent than ever. It is therefore our honor to celebrate the release of Our American Israel in paperback, so that its imperative message can help to educate more people and may continue to inform the conversation about the U.S.’s deeply embedded relationship with Israel.
Books will be available for sale. If you wish to order the book from the publisher, you can save 20% before April 30th with the code OAI20.
AUTHOR
Amy Kaplan was Edward W. Kane Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. The author of Our American Israel, The Anarchy of Empire in the Making of U.S. Culture, and The Social Construction of American Realism, she was a past president of the American Studies Association and was awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Advanced Study before her untimely passing from brain cancer in 2020. For more information about the book and Kaplan's work, click here.
SPEAKERS
Simone Zimmerman is a Jewish American activist and co-founder of the IfNotNow Movement. Her story is featured in the film 2023 documentary Israelism.
Andrew Ross is a social activist, writer and Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU. He is author of numerous books and articles, including Cars and Jails: Freedom Dreams, Debt, and Carcerality (with Julie Livingson) 2022, and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Newsweek, and Al Jazeera.
Moustafa Bayoumi is a writer, journalist, and professor of English at Brooklyn College, CUNY, and author of How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America, winner of American Book Award and the Arab American Book Award.
Shoshana Akua Brown is an organizer, popular educator and healer who offers trainings on such topics as Pedagogy of the Oppressed, restorative justice, and antiracism. Co-founder of the Black Jewish Liberation Collective and US Director of Pedagogy and Training for the Diaspora Alliance, Shoshana hosts the radio show Beyond The Pale on WBAI, with Rafael Shimunov.
ATTEND | "Our American Israel" Panel Discussion, 05/06/25
