Tel Aviv Review

Prof. Hanna Yablonka, a historian at Ben-Gurion University, discusses her book  Children By The Book: Biography of a Generation , painting a collective portrait of a unique generation of Israelis who were born together with the state. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social dis...

Stephanie Halpern and Leo Greenbaum of the YIVO archives take us on a stroll through decades of Jewish history via historical documents and paraphernalia that have made the institute the primary guardian of Jewish macro and micro history. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by YIVO , dedicated to fostering knowledge of the ongoing story of Jewish life, with a focus on the history...

Israel claims it owns his papers, but so does a German archive and an old lady on Spinoza Street in Tel Aviv. Nothing is more Kafka-esque than the story of his papers, chronicled in Benjamin Balint's Kafka's Last Trial: The Case of a Literary Legacy . This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values...

Michael Walzer, political philosopher of international renown and Professor Emeritus of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, joins the Tel Aviv Review on the premises of YIVO for a discussion on his latest book, A Foreign Policy for the Left. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by YIVO , dedicated to fostering knowledge of the ongoing story of Jewish li...

Mustafa Akyol believes that it is high time for Islam to undergo liberalizing reforms and he knows just the person to do it: Mustafa Akyol. In two books, Islam Without Extremes , and The Islamic Jesus , along with regular New York Times columns, Akyol articulates an emerging school of liberal Islamic thought and practice. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by  The Van Leer Jerusal...

Mark Lilla, Professor of Humanities at Columbia University, recently participated in the Global Forum of the National Library of Israel. He discusses his book The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics and offered insights into the past failures of progressive politics and how the liberal left can reinvent itself in a few easy steps. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by...

Who lost Russia? In The Future is History , acclaimed author Masha Gessen dove into the heart of the Soviet Union and came up with the root causes of Russia's trajectory in the decades after communism. In a twist of political fate, these insights positioned her to become one of the foremost cultural critics of the Trump era, and of populist, authoritarian regimes around the world. This episode of...

Dr Shay Rabineau, Assistant Professor of Israel Studies at Binghamton University, discusses his forthcoming book Marking and Mapping the Nation: A history of Israel's hiking trail network , analyzing Israel's unique culture of yediat ha'aretz, educational outdoor activities. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democra...

Dr Jonathan Karp, Associate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at Binghamton University, discusses the crossover between Jewish-American and African-American cultural, economic and intellectual histories. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Dr Nir Arielli, Associate Professor of International History at the University of Leeds, discusses his book From Byron To Bin Laden: A History of Foreign War Volunteers . This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

In Israel, people vote for a party rather than a candidate. But over the years, there has been a shift towards the personalization of politics. Why have our elections become a competition among single personalities rather than a confrontation among different parties and ideas? Prof. Gideon Rahat, faculty member of the Political Sciences Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and director...

Gilad Malach of the Israel Democracy Institute gives the latest electoral trends among Israel's insular ultra-orthodox Jewish community. Why is a small community so divided, and why are growing numbers of ultra-Orthodox voters leaving the Haredi parties altogether? This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute , an independent center of research and actio...

In this special panel discussion recorded in Washington DC, Gilad Halpern and Americans for Peace Now's PeaceCast host Ori Nir speak to Amir Tibon, the Haaretz correspondent in Washington, and to Said Arikat, his counterpart for the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds, about covering consecutive US administrations, journalism in the age of social media, and the role of diaspora groups in setting the dyn...

Iran has apparently hacked the cellphone of Benny Gantz, Prime Minister Netanyahu's main challenger in the April 9 elections. But despite serving as a tool in Likud's campaign, it has not derailed the democratic process in any significant way. In this conversation, produced as part of the Tel Aviv Review's special election series in partnership with the Israel Democracy Institute, we speak to Eli...

Prof. Oren Harman, a historian of science and the Chair of the Graduate Program in Science, Technology and Society at Bar-Ilan University, discusses his book Evolutions: Fifteen Myths that Explain Our World and Talking about Science in the 21st Century , a lecture series he directs at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem In...

Will Israel's democratic institutions prove resilient? How is the party system changing and is Israel headed for a tyranny of the majority? Yohanan Plesner, President of the Israel Democracy Institute, examines the ramifications of the unprecedented indictment of an incumbent Prime Minister in Israel. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute , an ind...

Dr. Cecile Kuznitz, director of Jewish Studies at Bard College and author of YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture: Scholarship for the Yiddish Nation retraces with host Gilad Halpern the history of the 90-year-old Yiddish Scientific Institute from Interwar Poland to Postwar America. Song: Tuna ft. Shlomi Saranga - Lama Lo Achshav This episode originally aired on Oct. 16, 2015

Yossi Dahan, a law and philosophy professor at the Ramat Gan College of Law and Business and at the Open University, and the chairman of the Adva Center for equality and social justice, discusses his new book "Justice, Privatization and the Objectives of the Education System," published by the Van Leer Institute press. How has education in Israel been influenced by the encroachment of capitalism,...

When do people to commit mass violence against an ethnic, religious or racial group in their midst? Does the demand for minority rights inevitably spark existential fears and violent reactions from the majority group? In his book Intimate Violence , co-author Jeffrey Kopstein of University of California, Irvine looks at pogroms against the Jews of Poland to explain when and why ethnic violence occ...

Nurit Novis-Deutsch, a psychologist of religion, values, morality and identity, believes that people who perceive themselves as having a complex identity might be more tolerant of the "other" in society. Her research advances much-needed anecdotes to angry tribalism in the world today. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanist...

Before human rights was a universally accepted concept, and before there was Israel, there were prominent Jews who supported both. Some would contribute to the evolution of modern human rights concepts and conventions in place today. James Loeffler's Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century , tells the story of human rights pioneers and how their commitment grew out of...

Prof. Yoav Alon, a historian of the Middle East, discusses his award-winning book The Shaykh of Shaykhs: Mithgal al Fayiz and Tribal Leadership in Modern Jordan . This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

From Hungary to Brazil, to Italy, the UK and US a special style of nationalist politics seems to be taking over. But is the current wave of national-populism new, or rooted in older historic trends? Can its supporters be de-demonized, humanized or at the very least understood? Co-authors Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin analyze the causes of the trend in their book National Populism: The Revolt A...

Neil McGregor, the former director of the British Museum, analyzes the enduring validity of museums in the age of technological upheavals and fake news. He recently visited Israel to deliver the inaugural lecture of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute's Tom de Swaan Series on the Role of Ideas and the Responsibility of Intellectuals in Contemporary Society. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made...

Transparency International is among the most prominent global organizations fighting corruption through exposure, documentation and measurement. Delia Ferreira Rubio, Chair of the organization, discusses the challenges, pitfalls and goals of their work, while Alona Vinograd of the Israel Democracy Institute brings the question of corruption home to Israel against the backdrop of a heated political...