10/06/2026
Strategies: If and When You Choose to Engage with Someone Who Is Anti-Zionist
Monday, October 26 from 6:30 - 8:00 PM at Darchei Noam (18+ members only)
Conversations about Israel and Zionism have become increasingly difficult and emotionally charged. Whether with children, grandchildren, family members, friends, colleagues, students, or others in our communities, encounters with people who identify as anti-Zionist can often leave us wondering whether it is productive to engage at all.
Andrew Goretsky, EdD, will explore strategies for navigating these conversations when we choose to have them. Drawing on 23 years of experience working with university students, as well as his research on student engagement and mobile technology, Goretsky will examine the environment in which attitudes about Israel and Zionism are being shaped— an environment influenced by peers, social media, activism, campus and community culture, and rapidly moving online information.
Rather than focusing on how to “win” an argument, this interactive discussion will offer practical strategies for understanding what may be driving another person’s beliefs, recognizing when engagement may be productive, keeping communication open, asking better questions, reducing defensiveness, and moving conversations in a more constructive direction.
Participants will leave with concrete approaches for deciding when and how to engage, creating opportunities for meaningful dialogue, challenging assumptions without immediately shutting down conversation, and helping others encounter perspectives on Israel and Zionism they may not previously have considered.