Activist Hedy Epstein speaks on experiences in the West Bank

Hedy Epstein, a well-known critic of Israel’s policies towards the West Bank and Gaza, will be speaking at Brandeis on Thursday, October 21 in the Levine-Ross of Upper Sherman at 6 p.m.

Epstein, who is a Holocaust survivor, will talk about her life-long involvement in social justice causes and will advocate for an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. 

Epstein was born to a Jewish family in Germany, and escaped the Holocaust when her parents sent her on the Kindertransport, a rescue mission that brought approximately 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Germany and the territories it occupied to Britain. All but two of her relatives were killed in the Holocaust.

After immigrating to the United States in 1948, she became an advocate for many different social justice causes, including civil rights, reproductive rights, and immigration reform, of which her views on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories have proven the most controversial.

Epstein has made five trips to the West Bank since 2003, and came close to boarding the Gaza Freedom flotilla which attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the tiny enclave.

This event is open to the public.