In April, Prof. Uriya Shavit, Head of the Institute, and Dr. Carl Yonker, the Institute’s Academic Director, spoke with dozens of educators and students in India and the United States.

Over the Passover holiday, Dr. Yonker spoke to several dozen teachers and students in the social and historical studies department at Poudre High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. During his visit to his alma mater, Dr. Yonker addressed the current situation in Israel and its security challenges in Gaza and the region, the diversity of Israeli society, and his experience living in Israel. The thoughtful and insightful questions posed by students and teachers following his lecture led to an engaging and interesting discussion on the topics addressed.

Earlier in the month, Prof. Shavit spoke to a group of over 70 students and faculty from the departments of political science, international relations, and history at the Imperial College – Bargarh in the Odisha state of India. Prof. Shavit’s lecture, delivered via Zoom, discussed a range of issues related to the current geopolitical situation in Israel, addressing the war in Gaza, Hamas’ genocidal ideology, the state of the Israeli economy, the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and Israel-India bilateral relations.

The lecture was organized by Mr. Jyoti Ranjan Pradhan, who studied in Tel Aviv University’s MA program in Security and Diplomacy in 2017-2018. Mr. Pradhan reflected on his time in Israel as a life-changing experience, fondly remembering his visits to Timna, the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim, and the Mahmoudiya mosque in Yafo.