J.J. Goldberg

UNC Asheville's Center for Jewish Studies will host a talk by J.J. Goldberg, editorial director of national newsweekly The Forward, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, at UNC Asheville's Reuter Center. Goldberg will discuss "Israel, the Lobby and the Media: A Look at the Public Image of Israel and the Challenges to the Jewish Community." The talk, which is free and open to the public, kicks off a series of events celebrating the Center for Jewish Studies' 25th anniversary year.

An award-winning journalist, author and lecturer, Goldberg has covered the politics and culture of the Middle East and the Jewish world for more than 20 years. He has been with The Forward, a national newsweekly published in association with Jewish Daily Forward that defends trade unionism and moderate, democratic socialism, since 2000. Goldberg has served as a syndicated columnist in New York, as a police reporter in Los Angeles and as United States bureau chief of the Israeli newsmagazine Jerusalem Report. His commentaries have appeared in The New York Times and other newspapers.

Goldberg has written several books, including "Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment." The book was featured on the Philadelphia Inquirer's list of 100 most important books of 1996 and received critical acclaim from The New York Times. During the 1970s, Goldberg lived and worked as an education specialist with the World Zionist Organization in Jerusalem and as an official of the kibbutz movement.

For more information, contact UNC Asheville's Center for Jewish Studies at 828/251-6576.