Renowned author, editor and correspondent on Judaic affairs to deliver lecture at Fairfield University

October 20, 2004

The Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University will present a free lecture by Yossi Klein Halevi, contributing editor and correspondent for The New Republic and a columnist for the Jerusalem Post, on Tuesday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. Halevi will deliver the Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Lecture in Judaic Studies, entitled "The Future of Diaspora-Israeli Relations," in the Barone Campus Center Oak Room.

Halevi also contributes regularly to the Los Angeles Times on Israeli affairs, and occasionally to the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is an Associate Fellow of the Shalem Center, an institute for Jewish social thought and Israeli public policy in Jerusalem. Of his book "At the Entrance of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land" (2001), the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Seldom has a religiously themed book been as prescient and deserving of attention…His words echo with the possibility of transcendence." He is also the author of "Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist" (1995), and is active in Middle Eastern reconciliation efforts and educational projects.

His 1985 documentary film "Kaddish," directed by Steven Brand, a senior producer for "20/20" at the time, focuses on Halevi's relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor. It was named by the Village Voice as one of the ten best films of the year.

Halevi is currently writing a book about the Israeli paratroopers who reunited Jerusalem in 1967 and what happened to them over the next 35 years. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. and now lives in Jerusalem with his wife and their three children.

The lecture is open to the public, but space is limited and reservations are requested. For information and to register, please contact Judaic Studies at Fairfield University at 203-254-4000, ext 2066.

Contact: Dana Ambrosini, 203-254-4000, ext. 2726

Fairfield University is a comprehensive Jesuit university that prepares undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students for leadership and service in a constantly changing world. In the 2005 U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Colleges" Fairfield ranks third among universities with master's programs in the North and The Princeton Review named Fairfield one of the nation's 77 "best value" undergraduate institutions in "America's Best Value Colleges." Approximately 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 37 states, 43 countries, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are enrolled at the University's six schools. The University was founded in 1942 in the scenic shoreline community of Fairfield, Connecticut.