23. Barak Sella - Identity, Not Ideology

Barak Sella is an educator, activist, writer, researcher, and one of the leading Israeli experts on US-Israel relations and World Jewry. Born in Texas, Barak moved to Israel in 1994, exactly one year before the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister who was most dedicated to making peace with the Palestinians. This event deeply affected him and became an inseparable part of his socialization in Israeli society. Ten years later, as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, Barak was part of the disengagement from Gaza and in the unit that evacuated the very last Jewish settlers from the region. We talk about all of this in this episode and how those formative events have impacted the way Barak understands his family's past, the world presently, and his hopes for the future. Throughout his career, Barak has focused on building bridges within communities in Israel and worldwide. He was formerly the Executive Director of the Reut Institute, one of Israel's foremost think tanks on strategy and leadership. During his years at the institute, Barak worked with leading actors in the Israeli government and with NGOs from Israel and the US on various issues: Israel delegitimization, antisemitism, Jewish Peoplehood, and Israel-US relations. Barak recently graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School for Government and is currently a Middle East Initiative fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. You can read the transcript of our conversation here. Barak in The Along The Seam newsletter:• A Reflection for Yesterday• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com