GAIL WINSTON

winston@winstonglobal.org

+972-2-534-1135 +972-52-686-4495

August 19, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

I wanted to offer you this introduction with a man I hold in the highest regards. I believe there is a good chance you’ve heard of him, and possibly attended one of his lectures in the past: Dr. Mordechai Kedar.

I personally believe he is one of the best speakers we have, extremely knowledgeable and offers a vast variety of topics to speak about, all extremely interesting.

I wanted to help spread the word about his upcoming tour of the US and Canada, so that people could help set up additional events for him to speak.

Here are the details:

His U.S./Canada Lecture tour will be between January 7 and February 17, 2016. He is available to be booked for lectures and various presentations. He can be a scholar-in-residence for a weekend or give presentations and lectures during the weekdays.

Thanks & all the very best, Gail Winston

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

These days the Middle East is undergoing a profound and historic transformation. Many Middle East scholars are attempting to understand the developments in the Arab world and in the Arab and Muslim culture and religion. Additionally, Iran’s nuclear aspirations are the cause of a deep concern to many all over the world.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, the Director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), a research associate of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and a lecturer in the Department of Arabic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, is one of Israel’s leading figures in understanding the Arab world. Until recently he was the Middle East analyst of the daily newspaper “Makor Rishon” as well as other publications.

Dr. Kedar is a frequent guest in the Israeli, Arab and international media. In January of 2011, Dr. Kedar gave a very insightful presentation on Capitol Hill on “Why is the Middle East Such a Difficult Area for Americans and Westerners to Understand?”

Dr. Kedar will be on a speaking tour, visiting North America, between January 7 and February 17, 2016. He is available to be booked for lectures and various presentations. He can be a scholar-in-residence for a weekend or give presentations and lectures during the weekdays.

His lectures are about the Middle East, Israel’s existence within the Middle Eastern environment, the struggle over Jerusalem, Anti-Semitism in the Islamic world and Iran. Please see the list of topics below.

A number of Dr. Kedar’s lectures in English are on

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mordechai+kedar

You might have watched Dr. Kedar’s famous interview on al-Jazeera about the right of Jews to build in Jerusalem:

Mordechai Kedar in al-Jazeera about Jerusalem & Islam

In May 2012 Dr. Kedar spoke in a conference about the problems of the Israeli public diplomacy

Lt. Col. (ret.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar

Dr. Kedar’s weekly analysis about the Middle East:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Author.aspx/614

Dr. Kedar would like to offer his lectures (see list below) to Synagogues, Churches, Mosques, universities, colleges, schools, community centers, organizations etc. He does not need a 5 star hotel and prefers to stay overnight with a family. Dr. Kedar travels in economy class and his fee is reasonable.

Dr. Kedar is planning to be in North America between January 7 and February 17, 2016.

If you would like to view a sample lecture or if you have any ideas or suggestions please feel free to contact Dr. Kedar at the e-mail: kedar.tour@gmail.com

Dr. Mordechai Kedar

Director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation);

Research Associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies; Lecturer in the Department of Arabic,

Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Phone in Israel: +972-544-778-908

US Mobile (while in North America): 917-868-3551

Kedar.tour@gmail.com

Possible Topics:

Israel and her neighbors

1. Israel at 67: Achievements and Challenges

2. Israel in a Changing Middle East – Challenges and Opportunities

3. Israel and the Palestinian Issue – Possible Solutions

4. The Middle East between ISIS and SISI – where to?

5. Peace in the Middle East – What does it Need?

6. The New “Islamic State” – a Challenge to Global Stability

7. Iran – A Threat to Global Stability.

Understanding Arab and Muslim Culture

1. “The Arab Spring” – Where does it lead to?

2. Tribalism in the Middle East and its influence on politics and state building.

3. Turkey – What went wrong?

4. What is the struggle over Jerusalem all about?

5. Why do many Muslims hate the West?

6. Understanding the Iranians – What motivates the Ayatollas?

7. Hezbollah – Ideology, politics and modus operandi.

8. Hamas – Ideology, politics and modus operandi.

9. Islam – A culture in crisis.

10. Islam in Democratic State – The Islamic Movements in Israel.

11. Democracy in the Middle East – Opportunity or danger?

12. Islamic Radicalism – Causes, ideology and ways to face it.

13. The Middle East – Quo vadis?

14. Sunnis and Shi’is – Why do they hate each other so?

15. Islamic Women between Tradition and Modernity.

16. Palestinian Political Illustrations – Cartoons and messages.

17. The Right of Return in the Palestinian National Ethos.

18. Hizballah, Hamas, and Israel – Living with the enemy.

19. Clash of Values: Gender and Family Issues – Sources of tension between Islam & the West.

20. Arab Intellectuals – Where are they?

21. Arab Mass Media.

22. The Other Voice in the Arab World – My personal experience.

Lecture Subjects Concerning Military Intelligence:

1. Flawed intelligence assessments and mistaken policies resulting from cultural differences.

2. What motivates Arab states, societies and armies?

3. How to understand the Arab state media?

4. Major mistakes made by the Western coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lectures on Israeli domestic issues can also be considered

http://mordechaikedar.com

We in the West often delude ourselves into believing that all cultures have exactly the same goals (peace, prosperity, freedom) and exactly the same values (human life, honesty, human rights). And although all of these goals and values are undoubtedly part of every human culture, not all cultures value them to the same degree that we do in the West.

The purpose of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation at Bar-Ilan University, led by Dr. Mordechai Kedar, is to open a window into the Muslim and Arab world, past and present, including variations according to religion, sect, country, ethnic origin, etc. – its culture, its history, its aspirations, its thought patterns, and issues covered in the Arabic media. We hope that this will provide essential insight into this varied and important part of the world.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar

Mordechai Kedar (born 1952 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic culture and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University. He holds the Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University.

Kedar is an academic expert on the Israeli Arab population. He served for twenty-five years in IDF Military Intelligence, where he specialized in Islamic groups, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic press and mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena. The Los Angeles Times‘ Edmund Sanders described him as “one of the few Arabic-speaking Israeli pundits seen on Arabic satellite channels defending Israel”.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Summary

BA: 1982, Arabic and Political Science, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

PhD: 1998, Arabic, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Areas of Research: Islam, Islamic Movements, gender issues in Islam, Arabic mass media,

popular culture in the Arab world, state and society in the Arab world.

Languages: Fluent in Hebrew, English and Arabic.

Assistant Professor: Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Military service:

Lieutenant Colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, Military Intelligence, head of a branch in the hi-tech 8200 unit.

On active duty until 1995.

Teaching experience:

Teaching at Bar-Ilan University since 1994, Departments of Arabic and Middle East Studies.

Adjunct lecturer: Tel-Aviv University, Israel, 2005 (Course on Islam)

Adjunct lecturer: Ariel College, Israel, 2006. (Course on Islam)

Member of academic institutions:

· Director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

· Research Associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

· Member of the Herzliya Inter-Disciplinary Center, Israel – Study team: “Facing Radical Islam”

· Member of the international board of The Berlin International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (BICSA)

· Member of the international board of Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR)

Columnist

· Weekly analysis about the Middle East of the Israeli “Makor Rishon”

· Weekly analysis about the Middle East of the Israeli “Yom le-Yom”

Academic Publications (partial list):

Clash of Values: Gender and Family Issues as Sources of Tension between Islam and the West, Herzliyya, 2007.

Asad In Search of Legitimacy: Messages and Rhetoric in the Syrian Press under Hafiz and Bashar, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, 2005.

“Our Children Are in Danger” – Education as Viewed by the Islamic Movement in Israel in: Ami Ayalon and David Wasserstein (eds.), Madrasa: Education, Religion and State in the Middle East (in Hebrew), Tel-Aviv, 2004, pp. 353-381.

Islam and ‘Female Circumcision’ – The Dispute over FGM in the Egyptian Press, September 1994, Medicine and Law – World Association for Medical Law, Vol. 21 No. 2, 2002, pp. 403-418.

The Clash of Values: Islamists and the UN 1994 Population and Development Conference in Cairo, Paper presented at an international colloquium at Tel Aviv University, entitled: “Middle Eastern Societies and the West: Accommodation or Clash of Civilization?”, December 2002.

In Search of Legitimacy: Asad’s Islamic Image in the Syrian Official Press in: Moshe Ma’oz et al. (eds.), Modern Syria from Ottoman Rule to Pivotal Role in the Middle East, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, 1999, pp. 17-32.

“Arabness” in the Syrian Media: Political Messages Conveyed by Linguistic Means” in: International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Joshua A. Fishman (ed.) (Guest ed. Jacob Landau), No. 137 (1999), pp. 141-146.

With David Yerushalmi, “Shari‘a and Violence in American Mosques“,Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2011, pp. 59-72.

“The Future Vision of the Islamic Movement” in Elie Rekhess and Arik Rudnitzky (eds.), Muslim Minorities in Non-Muslim Majority Countries: The Islamic Movement in Israel as a Test Case, Tel Aviv University, 2013, pp. 115-124.

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