Elhanan Miller has been following Hamas for years as a journalist, interviewing senior movement officials as well as families of Hamas assailants. What insights has he gleaned from these interactions? Where did he get it wrong before the massacre of October 7th? This talk will vacillate between an historical and ideological overview and anecdotes from his reporting.

Rabbi Elhanan Miller is the founding editor of People of the Book, an online initiative that teaches Jewish faith and culture to Muslim audiences through educational videos shared on social media. An Arabic specialist, Miller is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and a faculty member at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. He previously served as the Arab Affairs Reporter for The Times of Israel and as rabbi of the Jewish community in Canberra, Australia. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Miller began studying Arabic at 13, serving as a linguist in the IDF’s Intelligence Unit 8200. He completed his BA (cum laude) and MA degrees in Middle East History and Islamic Studies at Hebrew University. While studying for Orthodox rabbinic ordination at Beit Midrash Harel, he founded People of the Book in July 2017. The initiative’s YouTube and Facebook pages now boasts over 340,000 subscribers and millions of annual video views across the Arab world. As a student, Miller was an avid debater, winning the title of Second-Best Speaker at the World University Debating Championships in Vancouver, Canada. He participated in multiple dialogue groups with Palestinians, and interned in the office of Knesset Member Colette Avital (Labour) as a Legacy Heritage fellow. Miller completed research on the Palestinian refugee issue as an Atkin Fellow at Kings College, London, and was the Richard Beeston scholar at the foreign desk of the London Times. Miller regularly comments on Israeli politics in Arabic news channels including AlJazeera, BBC Arabic, Sky News Arabia and Israel’s public broadcaster Kan. His opinion articles have appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He is fluent in English, Hebrew, Arabic, French and Yiddish.