Still Neighbors: Holding Relationship in a Fractured World

Thursday, November 20, 7 PM at the University of Tulsa (Lorton Hall)

The Jewish Federation of Tulsa and The University of Tulsa present Still Neighbors: Holding Relationship in a Fractured World on Thursday, November 20 at 7 pm at Lorton Hall on the TU Campus. The program is a public conversation between two people who refuse to walk away from one another—despite everything. Joe Roberts, a Jewish communal leader and Zionist, and Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian human rights advocate, do not agree on many things. But even through two years of devastating war, political rupture, and unimaginable grief, they’ve chosen to stay in relationship. This event is not a debate. It’s not about resolving geopolitics. Together, Joe and Ihab will explore what it means to stay connected across deep difference, to grieve with dignity, and to work—however imperfectly—toward peace. For anyone longing for a different kind of conversation, one rooted in conviction and compassion, this evening offers a rare and necessary glimpse of what it means to remain human even when the world is breaking apart.

Building Something Better

Joe and Ihab come from different stories, different losses, different commitments. But both believe that the work of building something better must begin with the decision not to walk away. Their conversation will explore how they’ve stayed in relationship through the darkest months of the war, how they’ve navigated deep moral disagreements, and how they’ve found shared purpose without shared politics.

For those feeling exhausted by slogans, worn down by outrage, or quietly unsure of what to say next, this evening is for you. For those longing to see what it looks like to disagree with decency, to speak with clarity and care, to stay present when it’s easier to disappear, this conversation is an invitation.

It will not solve the conflict. But it may remind us what is still possible. That we can remain neighbors. That we can stay human. That even now, there is another way to be in the world.

Peace does not begin with treaties. It begins with two people sitting down, refusing to give up on each other.

Event Information:

• What: Still Neighbors: Holding Relationship in a Fractured World
• When: Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 7 pm
• Where: Lorton Hall, The University of Tulsa, 2820 E 6th St, Tulsa, OK 74104
• Cost: Free but please register at: JewishTulsa.org/neighbors
• More info: JewishTulsa.org or 918-495-1100

Founded in 1938, the mission of the Jewish Federation of Tulsa is to preserve and enhance Jewish life and well-being in Eastern Oklahoma, Israel, and the entire world. This mission is being addressed by pursuing charitable, humanitarian, cultural, educational, health, and social service needs of the Jewish community as well as engaging in community relations and outreach and providing a variety of services to the broader Tulsa community.