William Beach, director of the Center for Data Analysis at the conservative Heritage Foundation, says an ethical budget calls for effective spending. Contact James Weidman.

The Rev. Richard Cizik is president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good. He seeks to bring evangelical Christians, researchers and policymakers together to work on issues such as climate change, economic justice and national security.

Omer Bartov, Brown University professor of European history, is the author of The “Jew” in Cinema: From the Golem to Don’t Touch My Holocaust (Indiana University Press, 2005). The book looks at how stereotypical portrayals of the “Jew” have informed European, American and Israeli cinema since the 1920s. In fall 2005, 200 students took his class, Modern Genocide […]

John Michalczyk, documentary filmmaker and co-director of film studies at Boston College, is interested in the intersection of politics and religions during conflict. He has filmed documentaries on conflict resolution in Bosnia and Croatia, South Africa, Jerusalem and Northern Ireland; Jews, Christians and the Holocaust; Nazi medicine; Boston’s Jews and Irish; and the dilemma of […]

Read a Jan. 31, 2013, article from the Jerusalem Post about attitudes about Israel among young Americans.

Read an August 2010 study by the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University about how American Jews feel about Israel.

Read a Feb. 7, 2013, article about Obama’s planned trip to Israel to revive the peace process and continue to build his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Read a Feb. 1, 2013, article in the Jerusalem Post about Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid advocating for resuming peace talks with Palestine.

Rabbi James L. Mirel is chair of the Washington Coalition of Rabbis. He co-authored, with local Muslim and Christian leaders, a Seattle Times column urging moderate Jews, Christians and Muslims to persuade the American government to engage actively in pursuing peace between Israelis and Palestinians. He is rabbi of Temple B’nai Torah (Reform) in Bellevue, Wash.