Israel on Trial in the Court of Public Opinion
An All-Ivy athlete, award-winning prosecutor, and federal judge, Roy Altman has built a career that defies expectations.
Thursday, December 10, 7 PM
What happens when a federal judge applies the standards of the courtroom to the claims, headlines, and narratives surrounding Israel?
Through the lens of his book Israel on Trial, Roy Altman examines one of today's most debated subjects through evidence, history, and law, offering audiences a framework for navigating difficult conversations with greater clarity and confidence.
Judge Roy Altman's path to the federal bench is anything but ordinary. Appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 2019, he became the youngest federal district court judge in America and the youngest federal judge ever appointed in South Florida. A graduate of Columbia University (where he played both football and baseball and earned All-Ivy honors), and Yale Law School, Altman served as an award-winning federal prosecutor before entering private practice, earning a reputation for intellectual rigor, sharp analysis, and an ability to make complex issues accessible and engaging.
"Judge Roy Altman has done something rare and urgently needed. He applies the discipline of evidence, methodology, and truth-seeking that governs a courtroom to the most misunderstood conflict in the world. Israel on Trial cuts through slogans, propaganda, and moral inversion with the clarity of a legal mind and the precision of a fact-finder. Altman lays out the history, the law, and the record in a way that allows any reader, regardless of background, to understand what is real and what is fiction. In an age where disinformation fuels hatred and violence, this book is a guide back to facts, reason, and moral clarity.”
— John Spencer, former Israel Today speaker and Chair of Urban Warfare Studies, Modern War Institute at West Point
Presented by the Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival in partnership with the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, Simon Family JCC, all area synagogues, and Community Partners' 16th Annual Israel Today Series.
Free & Open to the Community
ABOUT JUDGE ALTMAN
In 2019, Judge Altman became the youngest federal district court judge in the country and the youngest federal judge ever appointed in the Southern District of Florida. Altman received a BA from Columbia, where he played quarterback and pitcher, earning All-Ivy honors. Altman received his JD from Yale Law School, where he was projects editor of the Yale Law Journal. Altman clerked for a federal judge and became a federal prosecutor in Miami, where he twice received the DOJ’s highest national award for a federal prosecutor. In 2013, Judge Altman was named “Federal Prosecutor of the Year” and, in 2014, became a partner at Podhurst Orseck, where he represented the victims of the Malaysian airplane that disappeared over the Indian Ocean.
ABOUT ISRAEL ON TRIAL:
Since October 7, Roy Altman has given hundreds of speeches about Israel at churches, synagogues, colleges, law schools, and community centers around the country. These hundreds of conversations have shown him that the contemporary debate in America today centers around six claims Israel’s adversaries have advanced about the Jewish state: genocide, occupation, apartheid, and others. What’s most interesting about these claims is that they’re all actually legal in nature.
In Israel on Trial, Altman removes emotion, vitriol, and rhetoric from these discussions and applies the same judicial methodology he uses in his courtroom, a time-tested methodology judges and lawyers have been applying to legal claims in courtrooms across the country for 250 years, to each of these six claims. Each claim gets its own chapter and ends with a verdict that will show readers, using reason and common sense, not only that each claim is false as a matter of law, but also the extent to which the claims have been manipulated to minimize Jewish suffering and to prey on deeply held prejudices about Jews.
PRAISE FOR ISRAEL ON TRIAL:
🏆 New York Times Bestseller
🏆 USA Today Bestseller
"Roy Altman has written the essential guide to clear thinking about Israel. With style and care, he draws on his legal and judicial experience to systematically separate fact from fiction, and equips readers to become discerning consumers of news and arguments about the Middle East."
— Yuval Levin, Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies, American Enterprise Institute
"As a Federal Judge, Roy Altman’s 'day job' is to determine what is true and what is not. He performs that task by rigorously applying rules of evidence and common sense—principles that have reliably guided fact finders over many centuries. Now, Judge Altman applies that analysis to Israel’s recent war with Hamas in Gaza—free of emotion, wishful thinking, or bias, just as a judge should do. And his product is the definitive word on who is right and who is wrong, what is true and what is false. This is a must-read for anyone who wishes for an accurate understanding of this historic conflict."
— David Friedman, former United States Ambassador to Israel, 2017-2021
"Israel on Trial is brilliant, meticulously researched, and absolutely mind-opening. It’s also beautifully written. This extraordinary work should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the Middle East today."
— Amy Chua, professor of Law, Yale Law School; Author, Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
ACCOMODATIONS
The following accessibility accommodations are available for UJFT's programs (depending on the program location). Accommodations must be requested at least a week prior to the event. Requests can be submitted during registration.
- Interpreting services for Deaf or non-English speakers
- Assisted listening services to amplify sounds
- Preferential seating near a presenter to aid in comprehension
- Sensory fidget tools
- Noise-reducing headphones
- Stand-assist devices
- Audio recording of written materials for the visually impaired
The Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival is funded in part by the citizens of Virginia Beach through a grant from the City of Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission and is held in coordination with the Jewish Book Council, the longest-running organization devoted exclusively to the support and celebration of Jewish literature.