Jordan Peterson, the controversial Canadian right-wing media personality and author of 12 Rules for Life, will be coming to Israel on October 6th for a one-time lecture at Jerusalem's International Convention Center. This will be Peterson's first time in the Jewish state.
"The fact that the event is taking place in Jerusalem carries a deep personal meaning for Peterson and Shapiro, and it also carries a symbolic message,"
Amiad Cohen, co-publisher of the Shibolet Library, and CEO of the Tikva Fund
In addition to his work as a media personality and author, Peterson is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. According to the March 5, 2018 edition of The New Yorker, Peterson rose to fame in 2016 during the debate of the Canadian bill known as C-16, which expands human rights law by adding "gender identity and gender expression" to the list of grounds upon which a person could potentially experience discrimination.
Peterson posted a series of lectures online arguing that such a bill would infringe on the free speech of those who do not care to use a transgender person's desired pronouns for any reason.
Peterson is particularly vocal about his views on the "crisis of masculinity" and is very outspoken against political correctness. He also claims there is no scientific basis for climate change.
Ben Shapiro coming back to Israel
Peterson recently joined DailyWire, a conservative news outlet owned by right-wing Jewish American pundit Ben Shapiro.
Shapiro will be interviewing Peterson at the event hosted by the Tikva Fund and the Shibolet Library, a subscription service designed to distribute "the very best of contemporary English-language conservative thought to Hebrew," according to the Tikva Fund website. Both Peterson and Shapiro are published in the Shibolet Library.
"We see our subscribers as the spearhead of an ideological movement that is changing the Israeli conversation, and it is important to us that they have the opportunity to have a meaningful meeting with the authors of the publishing house as well as with each other," says Rotem M. Sela, co-publisher at the Shibolet Library and CEO of Meir Sela Publishing. "The fact that Peterson and Shapiro are coming to the event in Israel, and the great interest that this meeting arouses, testify to the intellectual awakening of the Israeli public that is thirsty for new ideas."
Shapiro's visit to Israel earlier this summer was based in Tel Aviv; this event's location in Jerusalem was at Peterson's request specifically.
"The fact that the event is taking place in Jerusalem carries a deep personal meaning for Peterson and Shapiro, and it also carries a symbolic message," said Amiad Cohen, co-publisher of the Shibolet Library, and CEO of the Tikva Fund. "The topics the conversation will deal with relate to the sources of human freedom, to the ways Through them we can guarantee it in the problematic ideological climate of today, and in the future of the West."Tickets for the event can be purchased through a Shibolet subscription here.