Ambassador Martin Indyk is Speaker at 44th Annual Feigenbaum Lecture
(Pittsfield): Temple Anshe Amunim is pleased to announce that “The Middle East – Transition or Total Transformation” will be the topic of the 44th Annual Hilda Vallin Feigenbaum Memorial Foundation Lecture on Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. This year’s speaker, Martin S. Indyk, is a former ambassador to Israel and a respected Middle East expert. The free lecture will be held at the Temple on 26 Broad Street, Pittsfield and is open to the public.
Ambassador Indyk is the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Andy Hochberg, lecture committee chairman noted that “We are looking forward to sharing an evening with Ambassador Indyk as he discusses the issues that confront us all in America and the Middle East during these difficult times.”
Ambassador Indyk served two tours in Israel, the first during Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s years (1995-97), and the second (2000-June 2001) during efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace and stem the violence of the intifadah. Prior to his first assignment in Israel, Dr. Indyk served as special assistant to President Clinton and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). While at the NSC, he served as principal adviser to the president and the National Security Adviser on Arab-Israeli issues, Iraq, Iran and South Asia.
A senior member of Secretary Christopher’s Middle East peace team, Ambassador Indyk served as the White House representative on the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Commission. In the second Clinton Administration, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, responsible for Middle East policy under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Before entering government service, Dr. Indyk served for eight years as founding executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has also been an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and has taught at the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, the Dayan Center for Middle East Studies at Tel Aviv University, and the Department of Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Ambassador Indyk has published widely on U.S. policy towards the Arab-Israeli peace process and the complex challenges of the Middle East.
The Hilda Vallin Feigenbaum Memorial Foundation continues to enhance the spiritual and intellectual life of Temple Anshe Amunim and the larger community. The lecture series presents an opportunity to emphasize the civic and spiritual legacy of this outstanding woman and is a special tribute from her sons, Dr. Armand Feigenbaum and Dr. Donald Feigenbaum, who established this annual event as a living memorial to their mother’s spirit.
The Foundation has sponsored leaders in government, literature, theology, and journalism including such personalities as Julian Bond, Representative Barney Frank, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Bernard Kalb, Stephen Roberts, Steven Emerson, Mara Liasson, Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer and Lawrence O’Donnell.
Refreshments will be served after the lecture. For more information, please call the Temple office: (413) 442-5910.
