In a split: Being Jewish between two places

MAKOM – Between Place and Moral Compass

After 77 years of occupation and oppression in Palestine, a growing number of voices within Jewish communities around the world are calling for reflection, solidarity with Palestinians and resistance. These emerging voices express a deep yearning: to make space for pain and remembrance, and also for ethics and connection – beyond physical borders.

As part of the series Imagine Peace: Jewishness between two places, we invite you to join us for a moment of reflection on the meaning of “place” – Makom – in Jewish thought and life.

Makom refers both to a physical location and to one of the names of God – a paradox that confronts us with fundamental choices. Do we choose rules and rituals that seek to justify claims to land? Or do we choose the Makom that is everywhere: a moral compass that centers on life, justice, and humanity?

This contribution will explore the current moral crisis, the transformations within Jewish communities, and the urgent responsibility to choose again – for liberation, for connection, for human dignity.

Programme

13:00 Reception
14:00 Start of programme in the Main Hall
16:30 Start of drinks reception in the Restaurant
17:00 End of drinks reception *

* Everything may start half an hour earlier due to Shabbat.

Sprekers

Yuval Gal

Yuval Gal is a long standing activist for solidarity with Palestinians and was also involved with campaigns for immigration rights.

Yuval started to investigate his Jewish identity even more around the time of giving up his Israeli citizenship. Living in a multicultural country as the Netherlands what does it mean to be Jewish and Dutch?

As part of this search he has written, self-produced, played and cooked during a theater piece “eating while Jewish” and was later part of the group that started “Erev Rav”, a Jewish anti Zionist community in the Netherlands which is part of a global wave of new and old Jewish groups that seek to distance Jewishness from the Israeli ideology and reawaken languages, traditions and values that are progressive, cosmopolitan and Jewish.

Niv Fux

Niv Fux is an Amsterdam-based curator, film programmer, and Festival Director of Leiden Shorts film festival. He holds a bachelor's degree in Film (2015), and a master’s in Arts & Society from Utrecht University (2019). He served as Artistic Director of the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival (2015–2017) and has worked as a guest curator for institutions including the Nederlands Film Festival and IMPAKT (2021–2023). His curatorial approach and interests centers on sociopolitical themes, highlighting criticality and (self-) reflection. Niv is the co-founder of T-Port, an online industry platform for short films supported by Creative Europe MEDIA. Since 2021, he has occasionally contributed film reviews to the online magazine Talking Shorts.

Julia Bronkhorst

Julia Bronkhorst is a classical soprano. She sings a wide repertoire and has various projects on her CV. She has performed various leading and supporting roles in opera productions, such as with the Dutch Opera, sung in various concerts at home and abroad, released a number of CDs and teaches.

Yuval Gal

Yuval Gal is al lange tijd activist voor solidariteit met de Palestijnen en is ook betrokken geweest bij campagnes voor immigratierechten.

Rond de tijd dat hij afstand deed van zijn Israëlische staatsburgerschap, begon Yuval zich intensiever te verdiepen in zijn joodse identiteit. Wat betekent het om joods en Nederlands te zijn in een multicultureel land als Nederland?

Als onderdeel van deze zoektocht schreef, produceerde, speelde en kookte hij het toneelstuk ‘Eating while Jewish’ en werd hij later lid van de groep die ‘Erev Rav’ oprichtte, een joodse antizionistische gemeenschap in Nederland die deel uitmaakt van een wereldwijde golf van nieuwe en oude joodse groeperingen die het jodendom willen distantiëren van de Israëlische ideologie en talen, tradities en waarden willen doen herleven die progressief, kosmopolitisch en joods zijn.

Niv Fux

Niv Fux is een in Amsterdam gevestigde curator, filmprogrammeur en directeur van het Leiden Shorts film festival. Hij heeft een BA in Filmwetenschappen (2015) en een MA in Arts & Society (2019, Utrecht University). Hij werkte als artistiek directeur van het Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival (2015–2017) en werkte hij als gastcurator voor organisaties waaronder het Nederlands Film Festival en IMPAKT(2021–2023). Zijn manier van cureren en de onderwerpen die hij kiest, richten zich op sociale en politieke kwesties, waarbij hij vooral focust op kritisch denken en (zelf-)reflectie. Niv is tevens medeoprichter van T-Port, een online platform voor korte films, ondersteund door Creative Europe MEDIA. Sinds 2021 schrijft Niv af en toe voor het online kortefilmtijdschrift Talking Shorts.

Niv Fux

Anya Topolski

Anya Topolski is an associate professor in ethics and political philosophy at the Radboud University Nijmegen. She holds a PhD from KU Leuven (2008), awarded the Auschwitz Foundation Prize for her work on Arendt, Levinas, and Jewish thought. In 2009 she worked in the Netherlands on the question of dehumnisation and genocide in relation to Srebrenica. Her research spans European identity, antisemitism, Islamophobia, genocide, Zionism and the race-religion constellation in Europe. She coordinates the Race, Religion, Secularism Network. Since 2023, she also coordiantes the Race in Academic network. Her books include Arendt, Levinas and a Politics of Relationality (2015) and Is There a Judeo-Christian Tradition? (2016). She is the founder of Een Andere Joodse Stem (Belgie).

Anya Topolski

Hanine Shehadeh

Hanine Shehadeh is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Humanities at New York University (NYU) in Abu Dhabi. She is a Research Associate at the Maroun Samaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon. She is the cofounder of the “Fighting Erasure: Digitizing Gaza’s genocide” project. The first draft of this blog was written on day 400 of the genocide in Gaza. She has a particular interest in theories of European antisemitism, settler colonialism and religion — including theories of nationalism, race and militarism.

Sylvana Simons

Sylvana Simons was partijleider van BIJ1 en had daarvoor bekendheid als televisie- en radiopresentator. De publicatie van haar boek wordt verwacht in 2026. Sylvana praat tijdens het event over het mechanisme van uitsluiting, hoe dat werkt in de westerse maatschappij en wat racisme en uitsluiting met mensen doen.

Julia Bronkhorst

Julia Bronkhorst is een klassieke sopraan. Zij zingt een breed repertoire en heeft diverse projecten op haar CV staan. Zo vertolkte ze diverse hoofd- en middenrollen bij operaproducties, zoals bij de Nederlandse Opera, zong ze diverse concerten in binnen en buitenland, heeft ze een aantal CD’s uitgebracht en doceert ze.

Julia Bronkhorst

MAKOM – Between Place and Moral Compass

After 77 years of occupation and oppression in Palestine, a growing number of voices within Jewish communities around the world are calling for reflection, solidarity with Palestinians and resistance. These emerging voices express a deep yearning: to make space for pain and remembrance, and also for ethics and connection – beyond physical borders.

As part of the series Imagine Peace: Jewishness between two places, we invite you to join us for a moment of reflection on the meaning of “place” – Makom – in Jewish thought and life.

Makom refers both to a physical location and to one of the names of God – a paradox that confronts us with fundamental choices. Do we choose rules and rituals that seek to justify claims to land? Or do we choose the Makom that is everywhere: a moral compass that centers on life, justice, and humanity?

This contribution will explore the current moral crisis, the transformations within Jewish communities, and the urgent responsibility to choose again – for liberation, for connection, for human dignity.

Programme

13:00 Reception
14:00 Start of programme in the Main Hall
16:30 Start of drinks reception in the Restaurant
17:00 End of drinks reception *

* Everything may start half an hour earlier due to Shabbat.

.enviso-tickets.enviso-tickets-mobile { display: block !important; }

Met je bijdrage ondersteun je ons educatief aanbod, tentoonstellingen en publieksprogramma's, maar ook onderzoek en restauratie. Jouw donatie, klein of groot, is ontzettend waardevol.

In a split: Being Jewish between two places