As Israelis prepare to head to the polls for the first time since Oct. 7, 2023, the D.C. area’s Jewish community is tuned in through educational programming.

The multipart series aim to break down Israel’s complex political system and examine how the outcome of the upcoming election could shape Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Ilai Saltzman, an associate research professor and the director of the University of Maryland’s Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies, is the keynote speaker for a Sept. 9 webinar on the 2026 Israeli elections hosted by the nonprofit Chai Mitzvah.

“There’s a lot of interest in the Israeli general elections [in the United States], and rightly so,” Saltzman told Washington Jewish Week. “We thought it would be remiss on our side if we didn’t address that event.”

Then, Saltzman will moderate an Oct. 29 conversation through the Gildenhorn Institute on the aftermath of Israel’s general election.

Saltzman said this year’s election is particularly consequential because it will determine the trajectory of Israeli politics and society following nearly three years of war.

“One thing is for us to try to have conversations that unpack, that provide both knowledge and nuance to the audience,” Saltzman said. “Oftentimes, people have a very limited knowledge of what is happening in Israel, the political landscape in Israel. It is oftentimes the case that people don’t understand what a parliamentary system is … and what that means in terms of how governments are formed and how they function over time.”

Unlike the U.S. two-party system, Israel’s last election in 2022 had 39 political parties on the ballot. Ten of them crossed the electoral threshold to enter the Knesset, according to AIPAC.

“[The webinar series] tries to differentiate between the issues and the different people who are involved in that conversation,” Saltzman said.

Though the Israeli election is taking place thousands of miles away, it’s still of interest to many local American Jews, according to Adam Odesser, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s Dr. Stuart Lessans Israel Action Center.

Israel is part of the U.S. civic environment, especially in D.C., according to Odesser.

“Our area is really unique in that we engage a lot with many different groups, whether elected officials, journalists, think tanks and interfaith partners,” said Odesser, who spoke on the subject in an Aug. 25 webinar.

Conversations around Israel, he said, happen “all the time” at work, between friends and within the Jewish community.

“For us, Israel is an important part of our identity, of our community, and we are connected to it and need to know how to have these conversations all the time,” Odesser said.

Odesser, who was born and raised in Jerusalem, will educate the community on the ins and outs of Israeli elections in a webinar series hosted by JCRC and the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. The Aug. 25 event was an introduction to Israel’s electoral system, followed by a Sept. 15 session on the issues, parties and leaders shaping Israel’s vote, and lastly, an Oct. 18 look at what comes next for Israel post-election.

He was joined by Hila, the local Federation’s educational engagement shlicha, and Dean Bagdadi, the Pozez JCC of Northern Virginia’s former shaliach. Bagdadi joined from Be’ersheva, Israel.

“We need to learn and listen from Israelis and know what’s happening there,” Odesser said.

“If you ask Israelis on the streets what they feel about the upcoming election, [they’ll answer] something like hope and exhaustion,” Hila said during the webinar. “This election could be a fresh start and after everything we’ve been through, some Israelis feel [that this is] a sense of moving forward even if they have very different ideas of how to get there.”

Odesser said the panel isn’t solely “three Israelis,” but three Israelis who have different experiences and perspectives on what’s currently happening in Israel.

“We were all in one way, at one point in time, emissaries of the State of Israel here [in the D.C. area], but we all have different experiences growing up and personal experiences,” Odesser said. “I currently work and live here in the U.S., Hila currently works and lives here in the U.S., Dean used to work here and is living back in Israel. We each bring a different perspective to this conversation.”

Similarly, American Jews are all different.

“There isn’t going to be one American Jewish reaction to the outcome of the election,” Odesser said.

Hila said she hopes the Oct. 27 election will bring about positive change, particularly providing mental and physical health support to Israelis who need it.

“There’s new hope for change,” Bagdadi said during the webinar.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com