Teach In Speakers 2023

David Bernstein 

A passionate advocate of the free expression of ideas and the State of Israel, David Bernstein is the founder of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (JILV), which opposes illiberal ideologies and supports liberal values in and out of the Jewish community, and author of Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews. He is also a co-founder of the Institute for Liberal Values, a consortium of like-minded organizations supporting liberal principles. He is past President and CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs and former executive director of the David Project. He spent 13 years at the American Jewish Committee in senior roles. David is a prolific speaker, podcaster and writer, having written hundreds of opinion pieces in the Jewish and general press. 

Eilon M. Adar

Eilon Adar is a Professor Emeritus (since 2018) at the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at the BIDR-Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion University in the Negev. Since 2019 he has served as the Chair of the Board of Directors at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Starting in 2022, he is a visiting professor at the Technical University of Panama (UTP). He is the founder and acting director (2001-2003) and Director (2004-2016) of Ben Gurion University’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research. In recognition of his achievements in hydrology, he received the Alain Poher Chair in Hydrogeology and Arid Zones (2000-2018). Eilon Adar is a Water Technologies Advisory Board member attached to Israel’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

Steven E. Zipperstein

Steve Zipperstein is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the UCLA Center for Middle East Development. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Policy in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, a Lecturer in the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and a Lecturer in the UCLA Global Studies program and the UC Santa Barbara Department of History. Zipperstein is the author of two recent peer-reviewed academic books: Zionism, Palestinian Nationalism and the Law: 1939-1948 (Routledge 2022), and Law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Trials of Palestine (Routledge, 2020). . Zipperstein has practiced law for nearly 40 years in California, Washington D.C. and New York/New Jersey. Zipperstein worked as a law firm litigator, a federal prosecutor and Justice Department official, and as the Chief Legal Officer of two large companies, Verizon Wireless and BlackBerry. Zipperstein continues to maintain a small, specialized practice representing large corporations in a variety of matters. Zipperstein has been elected to the American Law Institute and named a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.