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On Sept. 12, the East Brunswick Jewish Center will host a screening of the documentary "The Case For Israel" followed by a talk by Dexter Van Zile, a senior researcher for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) and a specialist in Christian anti-Zionism.

The event will be held in the memory of Gideon Lidor, a member of the congregation who recently passed away.

"Israel played a special place in his heart. This is a wonderful way for his memory to be carried on in the congregation," East Brunswick Jewish Center Rabbi Aaron Benson said.

The film is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, in which he systematically, in an almost prosecutorial manner, refutes arguments made against Israel's legitimacy, human rights record, and role in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In addition to honoring the life of Gideon Lidor, the screening also compliments the synagogue's programming focus this year, which will culminate next summer when the congregation visits Israel for the first time in several years.

"This synagogue is well known and prides itself for its Israel advocacy," said Benson.

The film prominently features Dershowitz himself as he makes the case for Israel.

"Yes there is apartheid in the Middle East," Dershowitz explains to a packed auditorium in one scene. "It exists in Saudi Arabia where there is gender apartheid, religious apartheid, all kinds of apartheid, but Israel -- Israel, a country in which equality is extended to Arabs, to Christians, to Muslims, to blacks, to whites, where Arabs serve in the Knesset, where they serve on the Supreme Court, where they serve with equal status at universities, where affirmative action is part of Israel's policy. To call Israel apartheid?"

As a film, it is able to go beyond the confines of a single narrator and includes interviews with Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni on the threat of Iran to the region, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the worldwide impact of Iran's fundamentalist ideology, and Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky on the effectiveness of Israel's security barrier in preventing terrorist attacks.

In one scene, Dennis Ross, the lead American negotiator at the Camp David Summit in 2000 and currently one of Obama's top advisors on the Middle East and South Asia, challenges boycotts that single out Israel to the exclusion of other countries with far worse human rights records.

"It is interesting that Israel always seems to be the one singled out. I gave a speech a year ago in London and I asked a question and I said: I must have missed something, I must have missed the boycott resolutions they had on Syria because after all the Syrians are responsible for assassinating a Lebanese prime minister. I must have missed the boycott resolution against the Arab League, for after all, one of their members is responsible for a genocide in Darfur. I must have missed the boycott of the Chinese who have protected the Sudanese government as one tries to stop a genocide in Darfur. So I must have missed all those resolutions, didn't I? Well if I didn't, then I have to ask the question: What's different here? Why is Israel singled out?"

The film was produced and directed by Michael Yohay, who has directed and produced 16 award-winning films and was in charge of the Film and News Production Branch in the Spokespersons' Division of the Israel Defense Forces between 1993-2005.

Following the screening, Van Zile will deliver a talk on his role at CAMERA in monitoring the "anti-Israel animus" found in many Mainline Protestant Churches in America. "They basically condemn Israel and speak of Israel as the worse human rights abuser in the world," Van Zile said about the positions of these denominations. "This is, of course, patently untrue."

Van Zile, who himself is Christian, said that those who attack Israel in this manner "are attacking the Jewish people as a whole."

The film is useful, Van Zile explained, because it helps to repudiate the accusations made against Israel. "One of the reasons I'm so happy with this movie is that is puts Israel in context. It provides information about why Israel does what it does and why it's worthy of our support."

The East Brunswick Jewish Center is located at 511 Ryders Lane, East Brunswick and will screen "The Case for Israel" on Saturday, Sept. 12 at 8:30 p.m.