Sharon Abraham-Weiss, one of Israel’s foremost legal experts and litigators, comes to the Twin Cities to share the vibrancy of Israel’s democratic values at a time when liberal Zionism and Jewish democracy is under question from inside Israel and out.

WHEN: Monday, November 10 from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: Sabes Jewish Community Center, 4330 Cedar Lake Rd S., Minneapolis, MN 55416

During this summer’s war, already gaping societal divides in Israel were widened. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the country’s equivalent of the ACLU, advocated for the protection of vulnerable populations near Gaza and the protection of civil liberties in wartime. ACRI has won legal landmarks before Israel’s Supreme Court such as recognition of same-sex marriages and non-Orthodox conversions from outside Israel, the right of women to become IDF pilots, and this month a petition safeguarding Africans seeking refuge from genocide.

Sharon Abraham-Weiss is the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Israel’s oldest and largest human rights organization. Previously, she represented ACRI in such landmark cases dealing with family unification, social welfare, and state land distribution. She has also served on the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission of the Ministry of Economy. Ms. Abraham-Weiss is a founding member of Itach-Maaki: Women Lawyers for Social Justice and co-founder of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Breira Center, which coordinates law students volunteering in the community. Ms. Abraham-Weiss holds LL.B. and B.Sc. degrees from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an LL.M from Tel Aviv University. She also holds an M.A. in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a Wexner Fellow.