Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation’s Distinguished Speaker Series is funded by donations to the Selden and Ruth Kruger Fund for Adult Learning.
If you are interested in sponsoring an individual speaker or the Distinguished Speaker Series for a year or more, please contact ShowClick Here to View Contact Information or call our office at 703-437-7733.
Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation and our Distinguished Speaker Series Committee deeply appreciates your support to help us bring prominent, engaging speakers to NVHC on a regular basis.
The current Speaker Series Committee is comprised of Eric Forman, Ken Gubin, David Heymsfeld, and Stu Patz.
2023
December 20: Speaker Series: Michael Beckley – “The U.S. and China—Competitors or Adversaries”
October 19: Speaker Series: Bob Levey – “The Golden Era at The Washington Post”
June 8: Speaker Series: Defusing the culture wars – Rebuilding democracy project and more in common
May 9: Speaker Series: Natan Sachs
March 1: Speaker Series: Noah Gottschalk, our Senior Director for International Jewish Community Relations at HIAS
January 26: Speaker Series: Andrew Seidel
2022
October 18: Bill Schneider, CNN’s senior political analyst from 1990 to 2009, is the author of Standoff: How America Became Ungovernable published in 2018. Schneider has covered every U.S. presidential and midterm election since 1976. Recipient of the Harvard University’s Centennial Medal for Contributions to Society and the
Julian P. Kanter Award for Excellence, Dr. Schneider is Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
August 30: Marvin Zelkowitz, “Cryptocurrency: A Revolution in Finance or A Ponzi Scheme”
June 21: Richard Nephew is the author of The Art of Sanctions. Nephew most recently served as the Deputy Special Envoy for Iran in the Biden Administration. He previously was Principal Deputy Coordinator for Sanctions Policy at the Department of State and as lead sanctions expert for the U.S. team negotiating with Iran during the Obama Administration. Nephew is a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Center for Global Energy Policy
June 1: Ambassador Dennis Ross, Counselor at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, served as Special Assistant to President Obama, National Security Council Senior Director for the Central Region, and Special Advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
April 12: Theodore Johnson, “Structural Racism & The More Perfect Union”
March 30: Michael Oppenheimer, Professor of Geosciences & International Affairs and Director of the Center for Policy Research on Energy & the Environment at Princeton University; coeditor-in-chief of Climatic Change; former chief scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund.
January 25: Angela Stent, Director Emerita of the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies and Professor Emerita of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University; former National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council.
2021
November 16: Michael Signer, attorney, author, and mayor of Charlottesville, VA during the 2017 Unite the Right rally.
September 23: Ian Millhiser, senior fellow at the Center for America Progress and senior correspondent at Vox focusing on the Supreme Court, Constitution, and decline of liberal democracy in the United States.
August 5: Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, the basis for the Emmy-winning HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon;” visiting instructor at NASA.
June 16: Steve Oney, author of And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank and other works; former Harvard Nieman Fellow; former staff writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Magazine.
May 27: Lauren Bell, author, former Congressional and US Supreme Court Fellow, and Professor of Political Science and Dean of Academic Affairs at Randolph-Macon College.
March 31: Edward Friedman, rocket scientist, NASA consultant, former Boeing Technical Fellow, Visiting Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric research, and author.
March 18: Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University; professor of economics, senior UN advisor, author, and syndicated columnist; twice named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders.
February 11: Mark Oppenheimer, Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University; author of Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America, Knocking on Heaven’s Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture, and the forthcoming Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood.
2020
December 10: Roy Austin, member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution and the Lawyers’ Comittee for Civil Rights Under Law; former Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
November 18: Bill Schneider, Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University; CNN senior political analyst from 1990-2009.
September 10: Dr Charmaine McKissick-Melton, associate professor in the Department of Mass Communications at North Carolina Central University; member of the Board of Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies; daughter of the late Floyd McKissick, Sr.
August 30: Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israeli Religious Action Center, member of the Jerusalem City Council, and Chairwoman of Women of the Wall.
July 15: Dr Devon Johnson, noted expert on the politics of race, crime, and justice policy; associate professor of Criminology, Law, and Society at George Mason University.
May 20: Dr Steven Quick, economist, former Chief Risk Officer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Executive Director and Chief Economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress.
May 14: Dr Steve Nathan, Director of the Advanced Lung Disease and Lung Transplant Program at INOVA Fairfax Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University; INOVA Fairfax’s Director of COVID-19 Research.
April 16: Michael Rugel, Programs and Content Coordinator at the National Museum of American Jewish Military History
February 20: Jennifer Ritterhouse, professor of US History, US Southern History, and African-American History at George Mason University
January 28: Amir Tibon, Washington, DC correspondent for Haaretz Newspaper
2019
November 13: Jeffrey Bennett, astropyhsicist, editor, and former Visiting Senior Scientist at NASA Headquarters
October 24: David Keegan, former Deputy Director of the American Institute in Taiwan & Director of the State Department’s Office of Taiwan Policy
Sherrilyn Ifill, Director-Counsel of the NAACP
Tilar Mazzeo, author of Irena’s Children, the story of Irena Sendler who saved 2500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto
May 16: Sandy Grimes, career CIA officer, involved in bringing Aldrich Ames to trial as a Soviet spy
2018
Doron Ezickson, Anti-Defamation League’s Washington Regional Director.
Noah Bookbinder, Executive Director of the Committee for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington – CREW
Amir Tibon, Washington correspondent for Haaretz newspaper
William Kristol, Founder and editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard
2017
Michael Kazin, author of The Populist Persuasion, Professor of History, Georgetown University
Phil Hirschkop, Lead attorney in the “Lovings vs Commonwealth of Virginia”
Dan Arbell, American University Scholar in Residence, Brookings Institution, DCM Israeli Embassy
Rabbi Bonita Sussman, Vice-President, Kulanu
2016
Allan Lichtman, author of The Keys to the White House, Distinguished Professor of History at American University
Alan Cooperman, Director of Religion Research, Pew Research Center
Paul Rosenzweig, George Washington University Law School; former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, US Department of Homeland Security
David Cole, George Mitchell Professor of Law, Georgetown Lax School
Miles Rapoport, President of Common Cause
General Norton Schwartz, former Air Force Chief of Staff
2015
Rabbi Noah Pesner, Director of Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center
Professor Gal Raz, Professor Ivey Business School
Admiral Michael McConnell, former Director of National Intelligence, former Director of the National Security Agency.
Darrell West, Darrell West is Vice President and Director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution
Allan Lichtman, co-author of FDR and the Jews, Distinguished Professor of History at American University
Juliet Eilperin covered environment issues and politics for The Washington Post. She is now a White House correspondent for the Post
Ambassador Dennis Jett, Special Assistant to President Clinton and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council
Colonel David Wilkerson, Chief of Staff for then Secretary of State Colin Powell, formerly Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
2014
Maureen Fiedler – host of NPR’s Interfaith Voices
Ambassador David Newton – US ambassador to Iraq from 1985 to 1988 and US ambassador to Yemen from 1994 to 1997
Robert Moses – Civil Rights Leader
Marc Leepson journalist, historian and the author of Saving Monticello
Ambassador Kenneth Yalowitz, Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. served twice as a U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Belarus and to Georgia
2013
Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer ¬– U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005; U.S. ambassador to Egypt 1997-2001. Dr. Leonard Saxe ¬– Director, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University
Robert Kaiser ¬– Associate Editor and Senior Correspondent for The Washington Post.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg ¬– Washington correspondent for The New York Times.
2012
Peter Beinart – Former editor of The New Republic author of The Crisis of Zionism. James Carroll – author of Constantine’s Sword; An American Requiem; and House of War.
Michael O’Hanlon ¬– Senior fellow at The Brookings Institution; Program Director for Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group in Washington, D.C., and a former Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton for Arab-Israeli Affairs (1998–2001).
Thomas E. Mann – Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.
Steven Pearlstein ¬– Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the Washington Post
2011
Michael O’Hanlon ¬– Senior fellow And Director of research for the Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution; a member of the External Advisory Board at the Central Intelligence Agency. His most recent book is Healing the Wounded Giant: Maintaining Military Preeminence while Cutting the Defense Budget (BrookingsRon Skolnik ¬– Executive Director of Partners for Progressive Israel.
Ambassador Martin Indyk ¬– U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, and former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs. Jared Bernstein – Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden.
Anat Hoffman – Executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the legal and advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel.
2010
Peter Beinart – Former editor of The New Republic and author of The Crisis of Zionism.
Jeffrey Rosen – Professor of law at George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. and has been the commentator on legal affairs for The New Republic since 1992. Ezra Klein – Blogger and columnist for The Washington Post, a columnist for Bloomberg, and a contributor to MSNBC.
2009
Michael Makovsky – CEO and executive Director of Jewish Institute for National Securty Affair.
Allis Radosh & Ronald Radosh – Authors of A Safe Haven.
David Makovsky ¬– Distinguished Fellow and Director, Project on the Middle East Peace Process at The Washington Institute.
Jonathan Schanzer – Author, scholar in Middle Eastern studies, and vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Daniel Levy – Israeli political scientist, policy advisor and diplomat. He is director of the MENA program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation.
2008
Peter Beinart – Former editor of The New Republic and author of The Crisis of Zionism.
David Frum –A member of the Canada-Israel Committee, and later AIPAC, he became a speechwriter for President George W. Bush.
Aaron David Miller – Public Policy Scholar Woodrow Wilson Center; U.S. State Department advisor.
Robert Satloff – Director Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Naomi Gale – Sociologist and Legal Scholar.
Lawrence Korb – Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Senior Adviser to the Center for Defense Information, formerly Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
2007
Dennis Ross – Advisor on the Middle East to U.S presidents and the U.S. State Department.
Judea Pearl – Computer scientist and philosopher.
Rabbi David Forman – Educator, human rights activist, Jerusalem Post correspondent.
Jeffrey Goldberg – Journalist.
2006
Representative Barney Frank – U.S. Congress member.
Lt. General Moshe Ya’alon – Chief of the Israel Defense Forces; Vice Prime Minister.
E.J. Dionne – Washington Post Political Commentator; Senior Scholar at the Brookings Institute and Georgetown Public Policy Institute.
2005
Ambassador Martin Indyk – U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, and former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton Administration.
William Kristol – Political commentator and writer.
Raphael Jospe – Philosopher Hebrew University.
Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat – Advisor to President Carter; Deputy Secretary of the Treasury; U.S. Ambassador to the European Union.
2004
Ambassador Ivo Daalder – U.S. Permanent Representative on the NATO Council.
Ambassador Elenea Poptodorova – Ambassaor of Bulgaria to the U.S.
Ambassador Dennis Ross – Advisor on the Middle East U.S. State Department.
2003
Allida Black – Research professor and Editor of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers.
Steven J. Rosen – American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Lewis Roth
