The Woodrow Wilson School will host a public panel discussion titled "Civil Society- A Hidden Component in Israeli Society" at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 19, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall, on the Princeton University campus.

Panel discussants include Benjamin Gidron, Visiting Professor at Brandeis University, and founder and director of the Israeli Center for Third Sector Research at Ben Gurion University; Paula Kabalo, the Schusterman visiting Israeli professor at Boston University; and Eran Kaplan, Lecturer in History and the Program in Judaic Studies.

Opening remarks will be delivered by Asaf Shariv, Consul General of Israel in New York. Stanley Katz, faculty chair of the Woodrow Wilson School's undergraduate program and director of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies will chair the event.

Asaf Shariv assumed the post of Consul General of Israel in New York in August 2007.  Immediately prior to his appointment, he was the Director of Media and Public Affairs to Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon. Shariv got his start in Public Affairs in 1990, as a soldier in the I.D.F., during which time he was a reporter and senior editor for the weekly BaMachane, the official newspaper of the Israeli military.  In 2002, Mr. Shariv joined the Prime Minister’s Office as Senior Advisor to Ariel Sharon’s Chief-of-Staff.  While at this position, he sat on the Prime Minister’s committee that discussed strategic issues with the American government, and was instrumental in formalizing the MOU between Israel and the United States regarding the Road Map for Peace.   He was also a member of the special task force which dealt with issues such as the route of the security fence, the disengagement from Gaza and the US guarantees on Israeli bonds. 

Stanley Katz is president emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies. His recent research focuses upon the relationship of civil society and constitutionalism to democracy, and upon the relationship of the United States to the international human rights regime. He is also a commentator on higher education policy. Formerly Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor of the History of American Law and Liberty at Princeton University, Katz is a scholar of American legal and constitutional history, and on philanthropy and non-profit institutions. He is the editor of the "Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the Supreme Court of the United States" and of the forthcoming "Encyclopedia of Legal History" (OUP, 2009).

Professor Gidron is an expert in nonprofit/nongovernmental/third sector organizations management and policy. He has been studying these and related topics for the past 25 years, with a focus on Israel. He was the Founding President of the International Society for Third sector Research (ISTR) based at Johns Hopkins University.  Gidron  serves often as a consultant to governments and universities abroad on issues pertaining to nonprofit management and policy.

Kabalo’s  major fields of research are the history of civil society and the Third Sector in Israel before and after the statehood; and the role of citizens’ associations, NGOs and voluntary agencies. Kabalo also studies the characteristics and archetypes of Israeli youth and their relationship with Ben-Gurion during the nation building process in the first years of statehood. Since 2001, she has been associated with the International Philanthropy Fellows Program at Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Policy Studies, Center for Civil Society Studies.

Eran Kaplan received his PhD in Comparative History from Brandeis University in 2001.  From 2002 to 2008, he taught in the Department of Judaic Studies at the University of Cincinnati.  The recipient of several grants and fellowships, Dr. Kaplan’s research interests center on Zionism and Israel studies as well as the contemporary Israeli arts and culture scene. His book, “The Jewish Radical Right: Revisionist Zionism and Its Ideological Legacy” was published in 2005 and he is now completing, with Derek Penslar, “Zionism and the Yishuv: A Source Book.”

This event is co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the Program of Judaic Studies, and the Israeli Consulate General. It is free and open to the public.