Israeli journalist Natasha Mozgovaya headlines this year's event with a focus on the Israeli elections

Israeli journalist Natasha Mozgovaya, chief United States correspondent for Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper from 2008-2012 will be one of the featured speakers at "Israel in 3D" - One Day University, organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.  The program, which explore the diverse political and cultural aspects of Israel, takes place on Sunday, March 10th at the UCLA Faculty Center, from 9:30 a.m. – 4:15 p.m.  The day promises to bring the in-depth knowledge and expertise of UCLA and visiting faculty to the community.

Mozgovaya’s keynote presentation, “The Israeli Elections: Deepening the Divides or Renewing the Social Contract?” will address the impact of the January elections on society in Israel.  Mozgovaya has been covering Israeli news since the late 90’s, and has reported from around the world.

Past speakers at this event have included top experts on the Middle East, as well as Howard Gordon, co-creator and co-producer of the 2012 Golden Globe Award-winning television series Homeland, based on the Israeli series, Hatufim.

“This is an excellent opportunity to share the knowledge, innovative research and overall expertise of our UCLA Israel Studies faculty, plus a few guest speakers, on critical topics relating to Israel,” says Professor Arieh Saposnik, director of the Nazarian Center, one of America’s premier sources of scholarship and education about Israel. The goal is to bring the off-campus community into the UCLA environment to learn about Israel in a way that goes well past the headlines they may be used to seeing, he says.

The morning begins with panel discussions about the future of Israel with regional instability and domestic discord, featuring Professor Steve Spiegel, a political scientist and director of the UCLA Center for Middle East Development <//www.international.ucla.edu/cmed/> , Anat Maor, a visiting Israeli professor at UC Irvine and former Member of Knesset, as well as Ayelet Harel-Shalev, Assistant Professor of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University.  Norman Abrams,  professor Emeritus of Law at UCLA, will moderate the panel.

This year’s event includes four short courses from which participants may choose, based on their interest.  The first, taught by Director of Y&S Nazarian Center for Israeli Studies, Arieh Saposnik, will cover The Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; the second features Neal Brostoff, Visiting Professor of Music, on Modern Music in an Ancient Land.  Two more courses follow the lunch and keynote address, including Recent Developments in the Israeli Economy, taught by Anderson School of Management Professor Stuart Gabriel, and The Sabra in Israeli Visual Culture taught by visiting art historian Anat Gilboa.   A final panel will focus on Israel, American Jewry, and American Foreign Policy.

“We hope to inspire real conversation between the research and teaching taking place on our campus and the interests and concerns of people beyond campus,” says Saposnik, who will be moderating the final panel with Gil Riback, Director of American Jewish University’s Institute on American-Jewish Israeli Relations, Warren Bass of RAND and a  former Senior Adviser to UN Ambassador Susan Rice, and Ted Sasson, a Brandeis University professor of International Studies.   “We believe this will result in a greatly enriched understanding of the multiple dimensions of Israel: its fascinating and diverse society, its strengths and challenges, and its complex history.”