Thu Apr 22 2021, 7–8 pm
In this talk, power couple Abraham D. Sofaer and Marian Scheuer Sofaer will discuss the Jews of India, diplomacy, and contemporary developments in Israel, Iran, and the Middle East as a whole. During this session, local philanthropists and business leaders Vin and Laurel Gupta will meet their long-time friends the Sofaers, which is co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Omaha and the JFO Foundation.
In 1994, Stanford University’s Hoover Institution named Abraham D. Sofaer the inaugural George P. Shultz Distinguished Scholar and Senior Fellow. The post, which is named after former US Secretary of State George P. Shultz, is given to a senior scholar whose broad vision, knowledge, and talent will be applied to the challenges posed by a dramatically transformed global environment. Sofaer’s research focuses on the US government’s control over conflict, as well as issues of international law, terrorism, diplomacy, and national security. From 1985 to 1990, he was the Legal Adviser to the United States Department of State, and he is widely recognized as a foreign policy expert.
His background is similarly fascinating: he was born into the Baghdadi Jewish community in Bombay (now Mumbai), went to boarding school in England, and later joined the United States Air Force after moving to the United States as a young man. Numismatics (coin collecting), music (he has a Sinatra-like voice), and sharing his experience as a Jew from the Middle East with others are among his hobbies.
