On the evening of January 26th, the Program in Jewish Culture & Society and Illini Hillel welcomed Dan Shapiro to campus as part of the Israel Studies Program, with additional support from the Jewish United Fund. Shapiro, a graduate of Uni High School in Urbana and son of Michael Shapiro, one of the founding directors of the program in Jewish Studies, is a former top Middle East policy official at the Pentagon, deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, and ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration. He gave a talk entitled "U.S.–Israel Relations under the Obama, Trump, & Biden Administrations," where he discussed his successes and failures during his tenure as ambassador, as well as the events of October 7th and its aftermath. Shapiro then reflected on the present situation, namely the destruction of Gaza, the release of the hostages, the tenuous ceasefire, and increasing settler violence in the West Bank. He concluded by looking ahead to the future, stressing the importance of maintaining a diplomatic relationship with Israel. Following his talk, Shapiro fielded questions from the audience and conversation continued at a dinner reception.