A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Author Nathan Thrall in Conversation with Michelle Goldberg
In the past weeks, as the violence in Israel/Palestine has escalated so terribly, we have grieved losses so huge that they can be difficult to grasp. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy, a new book by essayist and journalist Nathan Thrall, renders the struggle over Israel/Palestine at the human scale by way of the heart-wrenching story of an accident that killed Abed Salama’s five-year-old son. Situating the personal narrative in the context of structural forces, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama elucidates the daily injustices faced by the roughly 3.2 million Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and details the painful realities of life in the region. Join Thrall in a conversation with New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg at Congregation Beth Elohim. You can register here.
This conversation is sponsored by Congregation Beth Elohim and Kane Street Synagogue.
Location: Congregation Beth Elohim, 274 Garfield Place in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. Please use the Garfield Place entrance to the building; the one on Eighth Avenue will not be open. There is street-level wheelchair access.
Please take a Covid-19 test before arriving, to support those at higher risk in our community. Masks are encouraged, but not required. If you are experiencing symptoms of an illness, please do not attend. If you have any further questions on accessibility or accommodations, email us at events@jewishcurrents.org.
Nathan Thrall is the author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy and the critically acclaimed essay collection The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine. His reported features, analyses, and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, the London Review of Books, and The New York Review of Books. He spent a decade at the International Crisis Group, where he was director of the Arab–Israeli Project, and has taught at Bard College.
Michelle Goldberg became an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times in 2017. She is the author of three books: Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World, and The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West. Previously she was a columnist at Slate. A frequent commentator on radio and television, Goldberg’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, Newsweek, The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian, and many other publications. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.
Congregation Beth Elohim offers authentic, meaningful, and outside-the-box Jewish experiences for those in our Brooklyn community and beyond. The Reform congregation welcomes seekers from all Jewish movements, from other faiths, and at all levels of Jewish experience, including those who are new to our traditions and those who are questioning.
Kane Street Synagogue brings the wisdom and compassion of Jewish traditions to all, regardless of one’s background. Within our community are traditional Jews and secularists, families, couples, and singles, LGBTQIA+, non-binary, and straight. Our members include interfaith families, and Jews who are returning to their roots. We are a community where any sincere person can find a place.
