Tel Aviv Review

Michal Ben Naftali's novel  The Teacher  examines memories of those who can never forget. People die, but their collective trauma lives on. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel's relationship with the EU and European countries. This season is made possible by  The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and libe...

Prof. Amir Teicher, a historian at Tel Aviv University , discusses his book  Social Mendelism: Genetics and the Politics of Race in Germany, 1900-1948 , exploring the cooptation of a seminal, 19th-century genetic theory by a climate of racial categorization several decades on. This episode is supported by The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism. This season...

Prof. Amos Morris-Reich, the incoming director of the  Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism , discusses his book  Race and Photography: Racial Photography as Scientific Evidence 1876-1980 , exploring the meeting point between culture and science against the backdrop of racism. This season is made possible by  The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes...

As part of our special series sponsored by the German government, the Tel Aviv Review hosts Germany's Ambassador to Israel, Dr. Susanne Wasum-Rainer. The Ambassador discusses Germany's vision at the start of its Presidency of the Council of the EU, challenges to the post-war global order, German-Israel relations, and her long professional connection to Israel. This episode is part of a series made...

If healthy democracies depend on a well-informed citizen body, does disinformation destroy them? Can the average person know when to trust science, or spot bad information causing political and social mayhem? In  Calling Bullshit: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World , co-authors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin D. West argue that people have the power to judge data critically and independently –...

Menny Mautner, Professor Emeritus of Law at Tel Aviv University, discusses his book  Liberalism in Israel: History, Problems and Contingencies , analyzing the onset of the liberal agenda in Israel's political history, up to its precarious state at present. This season is made possible by  The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social dis...

Prof. Ruth HaCohen-Pinczower, co-author of  Singing Freedom: The Interplay between Music and Politics in the West , discusses the power of music as well as power and music. This season is made possible by  The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

After decades of diplomacy, Oded Eran, former Ambassador to the EU and Jordan, now at the Institute for National Security Studies, provides a comprehensive checkup of Israeli foreign policy. He examines Israel's relations with the Middle East, India and China, the EU, the Palestinians and the US, and we consider what impact annexation – or COVID – will have on Israel's standing in the world. This...

The Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 was among the seminal events of modern Jewish history. The violence was memorialized in ways that shaped Jewish identity, from the early Zionist national narrative to Jewish American social activism. Prof. Steven Zipperstein examines the history, memory and myth of the violence in  Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History . This episode is made possible by the Israel of...

A politician you don't like might be running child prostitutes from a pizzeria. Election results you don't like were rigged. In their new book  A Lot of People are Saying , Professors Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead argue that new conspiracists in Donald Trump's America have no evidence and no argument – in essence, no theory at all. Rosenberg explains how they harm democracy. This episode is...

In his authoritative book on the subject,  Prof. Jan Werner Muller  asked  What is Populism ; in other works, he considers "militant democracy," when constitutions protect countries from populist injury, Christian democracy, conservatives and populism, and how communities of democratic countries can deal with members who stray. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of  Konrad-Adenauer...

Dr Gili Hammer, an anthropologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses her book  Blindness through the Looking Glass: The Performance of Blindness, Gender, and the Sensory Body , exploring how visually impaired Israeli women grasp and perform the interface between blindness and gender. This season is made possible by  The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democr...

In his new biography,  Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent , Paul Mendes-Flohr explores the journey of the Jewish philosopher, from his early years as a polyglot cosmopolitan intellectual under the waning Habsburg empire, to a voice of political dissent in the new state of Israel. This season is made possible by  The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and l...

How can the EU cope with recent or ongoing ruinous wars in Syria, Yemen and Libya, in a field full of foreign powers, and still tow a clear line on the Israeli Palestinian conflict? Muriel Asseburg of the German foreign policy think tank SWP makes sense of the quagmire and offers policy ideas for a mission that can look impossible. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Gover...

Rashid Khalidi, a leading historian of the Palestinian national movement, weaves his family history into a century of the Palestinian national struggle against Israel and international forces seeking to thwart self-determination in his new book,  The 100 Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 .   This episode is made possible by the Israel office of  Ko...

There's no time like the COVID-19 pandemic to learn about the interconnectedness of countries in the Middle East – even across conflict lines. Gidon Bromberg, director of EcoPeace Middle East, shows the urgency – and feasibility – of coordinating environmental policies and sharing vital resources between Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Because water, energy and climate change won't wait. This episod...

Nancy Sinkoff, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History and the academic director of the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers University, discusses her new book  From Left to Right: Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The New York Intellectuals and the Politics of Jewish Life , recounting her life on the cusp between Europe and America, and between liberal socialism and Reagan-era conse...

Prof. Dani Filc of Ben Gurion University continues our populism and democracy series by shining the spotlight on Israel. With comparative global context, he asks how Israeli political populism differs from all others, or does it differ? What other countries share similar qualities in their own populist movements? And he has surprising answers. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible b...

Dr Zohar Maor, lecturer in history at Bar Ilan University and co-editor of the new volume  Nationalism and Secularization , discusses new views on the crux of political modernity, and old views revisited. This season is made possible by  The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

The European Union treats Israel like the closest of cousins. However, the EU remains vexed by the atrophied peace process, and seeks measures to push the sides to end their conflict. But can EU's current response be effective? Hugh Lovatt of the European Council on Foreign Relations explains the EU dilemmas regarding Israel, Palestine and an elusive peace. This episode is part of a series made po...

Israel and the European Union were both founded following World War II – Israel would protect the Jews and the EU would inoculate the continent from another war. Yet their relationship with each other has been uneven: robust economic ties are beset by political tension. Dr. Maya Sion of Hebrew University explains why. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which ex...

Dr Rachel Mesch, professor of French and English at Yeshiva University, discusses her new book  Before Trans: Three Gender Stories from Nineteenth-Century France . 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. This episode was made possible by Yeshiva University...

Ronnie Perelis, Associate Professor of Sephardic Studies and the director of the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs, discusses his book Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic , a collective biography of three Iberian crypto Jews in the late 16th and 17th centuries. This season is made possible by  The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and li...

Why are young Israeli Jews, three generations after the Holocaust, moving to Germany in droves? Who are they, how do they explain their choices, and what are the reactions back home? What does the trend say about both Israel and Germany? Political scientist Hadas Cohen asked them. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute , which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal...

Yeshiva University professors Jess Olson, Ronnie Perelis and Steven Fine, contributors to the edited book  Jewish Religious Architecture: From Biblical Israel to Modern Judaism , come together to discuss the role of aesthetics and functionality for a predominantly text-based faith, focusing on different instances in the long history of the Jews. This episode was made possible by Yeshiva University...