Perspectives on Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians: A Civil Discourse

Israel Programming at GJC and the Men’s Club present Perspectives on Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians: A Civil Discourse with moderator Judge Abraham Gafni and panelists Dr. Gwynn Kessler, Curt Pontz, and Rabbi David Teutsch
(this event will be held in person only at Germantown Jewish Centre)

RSVP to Dick Menin at menin1911@comcast.net
Brunch will be served. $5 donation appreciated.

Judge Abraham J. Gafni is a graduate of Yeshiva University and Harvard Law School. In addition, he studied for a year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1958-59.  He is a retired Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County (for part of which time he served as the Court Administrator of Pennsylvania) and a Professor of Law Emeritus from Villanova Law School. In addition, he has authored in excess of 100 articles relating to various legal topics, including one in Hebrew in the Judges’ Journal of Israel on alternative dispute resolution. Among his activities relating to the Jewish Community and Israel have been:

• Thirty -five years on Committees of the Jewish Agency for Israel including serving as Chair of JAFI’s Resolutions Committee.
• Chair of the Area Elections Committee of the American Zionist Movement overseeing the US elections to the World Zionist Congresses of 2015 and 2020.
• Director of a Program for US Law Students at Haifa University School of Law.
• Lecturer on various legal topics at Haifa and Tel Aviv Law Schools, and before bar association groups in Israel including the judges of Israel’s Labor Court and attorneys in the Ministry of Social Welfare.
• President of the Arbitration Tribunal of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims.
• Currently, Chair of the Israel and World Jewry Affairs Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Philadelphia.
• Honorary Member, Board of Trustees, Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

Dr. Gwynn Kessler is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Swarthmore College. She received her Ph.D. in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and she has taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of Florida, and the Harvard Divinity School. Gwynne’s book publications include Conceiving Israel: The Fetus in Rabbinic Narratives, and co-editor of A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism: Third Century BCE to Seventh Century CE. Her current research is on queer and nonbinary constructions of gender and bodies in rabbinic halakhic traditions. She lives in Mt. Airy with her partner, Rabbi Tamara Ruth Cohen, and their two sons, Tobias and Kliel.

Curt Pontz graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1961, and from Temple University School of Law in 1964.  Following military service, he held several prominent positions in Pennsylvania state government and private industry, including serving for five years as a Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General and as a lawyer and corporate officer for more than twenty-five years with a Fortune 300 company.  Upon retirement from his corporate position in 2001, he became an Adjunct Professor at Drexel University’s College of Engineering, where he teaches organizational ethics. He received the Young Leadership Award of the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia in 1968, as well as CertainTeed Corporation’s “President’s Award of Excellence” in 1982, and was the recipient of the 1990 State of Israel Bond Organization Heritage Award. He has taken an influential role in a wide range of civic and community activities, including serving as President of Germantown Jewish Centre in 1987-88, on the Board of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia since 1970, and as an officer and member of the Board of Directors of West Mt. Airy Neighbors from 2007 thru 2020.  Curt resides with his wife, Leslie, in West Mt. Airy.

Rabbi David A. Teutsch is the Wiener professor emeritus at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he previously served as president for a decade, and later as director of the Center for Jewish Ethics. He is the editor in chief of the groundbreaking Kol Haneshamah prayerbook series and of a three-volume Guide to Jewish Practice, the first volume of which won a National Jewish Book Award, as well as dozens of other books and articles. He earned his A.B. with honors from Harvard University, his ordination from HUC-JIR in New York, and his Ph.D. at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where his dissertation was on organizational ethics. He also holds four honorary degrees. An internationally known consultant and trainer, primarily to not-for-profit organizations and synagogues, Teutsch has been helping organizations for more than 35 years. He is co-chair of JStreet’s Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet and a past president of the Society of Jewish Ethics and of the Academic Coalition of Jewish Ethics.

GJC extends thanks and gratitude to the Men’s Club for organizing this program, the Stern/Gafni Endowment for Israel Engagement for their support in Israel Programming, and the Wolfe Family Foundation for their support in all GJC programming.