Rumson lecture will focus on Arab Spring

Congregation B’nai Israel of Rumson will present a lecture by Asher Naim, former ambassador of Israel to Ethiopia, Korea and Finland, Feb. 26. Naim will be speaking about the Middle East conflict and the impact of the Arab Spring. Free and open to the public, the lecture will begin at noon.

Naim immigrated to Israel from Libya in 1944. In Israel, he fought in the War of Independence, and received a Master of Jurisprudence degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is a veteran of Israel’s Foreign Service, having served for some 40 years in embassies in Tokyo, Kenya, Uganda, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Finland, Ethiopia and Korea.

After retiring from the Israeli Foreign Service in 1995, Naim has continued to work on behalf of the Ethiopian community, helping them with absorption and integration into Israeli society. He also chairs the Israel-Korea Friendship Association, which works toward closer relations between the two countries in the field of education and the promotion of economic ties, and is a Fellow at the Abba Eban Center for Diplomacy, Truman Institute for Peace, Hebrew University, in Jerusalem. Naim has co-authored two books on Jewish education and a book on Jerusalem. He and his wife, Hilda, have three children and reside in Jerusalem.

Congregation B’nai Israel is located at the corners of Hance and Ridge roads in Rumson. For more information about this lecture or Congregation B’nai Israel, contact Helene Messer, administrator, at helene. messer@cbirumson.org.