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Breaking the Silence presents

Kingdom of Olives and Ash
Compiled and Edited by
Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman

Book reading and discussion with: 
Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman,
Yehuda Shaul, and Rabbi Sharon Brous

Sponsored by HarperCollins and the New Israel Fund
Hosted by the IKAR Culture Series

Monday, June 5th
Doors open at 7:30pm
Program starts at 8pm
Reception to follow

Pico Union Project
1153 Valencia St, Los Angeles, CA 90015

June 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Israel occupation of the West Bank. Over the past two years, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, two of today's most renowned novelists and essayists, have joined forces with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence—an organization comprised of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories and saw firsthand the injustice there—and a host of illustrious writers to tell the stories of the people on the ground in the contested territories.

Kingdom of Olives and Ash includes contributions from some of our most esteemed storytellers, including essays from editors Chabon and Waldman, as well as Geraldine Brooks, Colum McCann, Colm Toibin, Dave Eggers, Madeleine Thien, Asaf Gavron, Raja Shiehada. Their writing enables readers to understand the human narratives behind the litany of grim destruction broadcasted nightly on the news. Together they all stand witness to the human cost of the occupation.

 
— Our Speakers —

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mysteries of PittsburghA Model World, the middle-grade book Summerland, and several others.

Ayelet Waldman is the author of, among other books, the memoir A Really Good Day and the novel Love & Treasure. She is the editor of the anthology Inside This Place Not of It: Narratives from Women's Prisons.

Avner Gvaryahu was born in the Israeli city of Rehovot, raised in the religious nationalist community, and served as a paratrooper in the Israeli Defense Forces. He has been a member of Breaking the Silence since 2010 and hold an M.A in human rights from Columbia University.

Rabbi Sharon Brous is the founding/senior rabbi at IKAR in Los Angeles, and a leading voice in reanimating American Jewry.

 
— Sponsors —

Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. We endeavor to stimulate public debate about the price paid for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on a daily basis and control its everyday life.

HarperCollins Publishers is the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world. Harper Perennial is one of the paperback imprints of HarperCollins in the United States. We publish paperback originals and reprints by authors like Ann Patchett, Justin Taylor, Barbara Kingsolver, and Blake Butler.

The New Israel Fund is the leading organization committed to equality and democracy for all Israelis. Widely credited with building Israeli progressive civil society, we have provided millions of dollars to more than 850 organizations since our inception in 1979.

IKAR is a leading edge Jewish community that seeks to inspire people across the religious spectrum in Los Angeles and throughout the country. Fusing piety and hutzpah, tradition and imagination, activism and spiritual practice, IKAR seeks to reclaim the essence (the ikar) of Judaism and to help redefine what it means to be Jewish in the twenty-first century. The IKAR Culture Series brings together today’s most creative minds to explore the dynamic intersection between Judaism and contemporary culture.



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