Historian Dr Nimrod Lin, Managing Editor of the Journal of Israeli History, discusses his forthcoming book People Who Count: Zionism, Demography and Democracy in Mandate Palestine. This interview is part of the "Democracy and Its Alternatives: The Origins of Israel's Current Crisis" conference, held at Brandeis University and organized in partnership with the Center for Jewish History in New York.

Roni Stauber, Professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, discusses his book Diplomacy in the Shadow of Memory: Israel and West Germany, 1953-1965. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Matthias Becker, research fellow at Reichman University and the University of Cambridge, discusses his Decoding Antisemitism project, using novel scholarly and technological tools to monitor and analyze online hate speech. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Eran Halperin, professor of psychology at the Hebrew University and the founding director of aChord, a leading research center dedicated to promoting social change in Israel through the tools of social psychology, discusses his new book, Warning: Hate Ahead. Why is hate such a powerful emotion, and what can be done to contain it? The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Dr Yoav Fromer, a senior lecturer at the Department of English and American Studies and the head of the Center of US Studies at Tel Aviv University, discusses his new book (co-edited with Ilan Peleg), The Americanization of the Israeli Right.

Joshua Leifer, an American journalist (Dissent, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian) and PhD candidate in history at Yale University, discusses his new book Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Eviatar Zerubavel, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Rutgers University, discusses his new book “Don't Take It Personally: Personalness and Impersonality in Social Life.”

Prof. Orit Rozin, a historian at Tel Aviv University, discusses her new book Emotions of Conflict: Israel 1949-1967, analyzing the efforts of the Israeli establishment in the 1950s and 60s to control the people's emotional response to the impending sense of insecurity.

Liora Halperin, Professor of International Studies and History and Distinguished Endowed Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, discusses her book The Oldest Guard: Forging the Zionist Settler Past.

Yael Zerubavel, Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and History at Rutgers University, discusses her new book Desert, Island, Wall: Symbolic Landscapes and the Politics of Space in Israeli Culture, which has just been published in Hebrew and is an updated version of her 2019 book Desert in the Promised Land.

Dr. Jonathan Grossman explores Israel’s evolving attitude and discourse toward Israeli emigrants, shifting from viewing them as selfish deserters to embracing them as loyal partners, fostering a legitimate and valuable diaspora community abroad. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Anne Rethmann examines post-1945 human rights discourses, highlighting the concept of justice by the Austrian-Jewish lawyer Franz Bienenfeld. Comparing it with T. W. Adorno's notion of maturity, she emphasizes the significance of dignity within the framework of human rights. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Prof. Rotem Giladi discusses his book “Jews, Sovereignty, and International Law: Ideology and Ambivalence in Early Israeli Legal Diplomacy” (Oxford 2021), which explores the role of ideology in shaping Israel’s early attitudes towards international law. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Dr. Timo Aava examines Estonia's establishment of non-territorial autonomies during the interwar period, with a particular focus on the Jewish self-government case, thereby providing intriguing insights into Estonia's treatment of minorities. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Dr. Eran Shlomi discusses Zionist diplomacy and representation at the League of Nations, the UN predecessor, during the interwar period. He analyzes the League’s role in the Zionist path to statehood. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Dr. Iris Nachum introduces the jurist Jacob Robinson (1889-1977), emphasizing his activism for minority rights and compensation for expulsion. A research institute in his name has recently been established at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Prof. Jeffrey Herf, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Maryland, College Park, discusses his book, The Three Faces of Antisemitism: Right, Left and Islamist. What common ground do these three markedly different worldviews hold when it comes to the Jews?

Dr Roni Mikel-Arieli, a postdoctoral and teaching fellow at Ben Gurion University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology and until recently the academic director of the Oral History Division at the Hebrew University’s Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry, discusses her book Remembering the Holocaust in a Racial State: Holocaust Memory in South Africa from Apartheid to Democracy (1948-1994).

Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission's Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, talks about the EU's response to anti-Jewish hate crimes and speech. Despite the alarming increase in cases, she says that the Union has taken many measures (some of them long before October 2023) that have begun to bear fruit. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Andrew Port, a historian at Wayne State University, discusses his new book Never Again: Germans and Genocide after the Holocaust, analyzing German responses to cases of genocide from the 1970s to the 1990s.

A special collaboration with the Jerusalem Unplugged podcast, where host Robert Mazza and the Tel Aviv Review's Gilad Halpern discuss the current moment for Israel domestically and internationally.

Dr Lihi Ben Shitrit, the director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies at NYU and editor of the forthcoming The Gates of Gaza: Critical Voices from Israel on October 7 and the War with Hamas, and Dr Dahlia Scheindlin, author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled assess what lies ahead for Israel: A sea change, or more of the same? Dr Ben Shitrit and Dr Scheindlin (and Dr Agbaria, in the older ep) are fellows at the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University's Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. The interview was recorded on the sidelines of the "Democracy and Its Alternatives: The Origins of Israel's Current Crisis" conference, held at Brandeis University and organized in partnership with the Center for Jewish History in New York.

The already volatile situation of the Palestinian citizens of Israel has been exacerbated by the October 7th massacre and the war with Hamas that ensued. Dr Ahmad Agbaria of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas, Austin, talks about how their status and democratic rights have been affected, and what role they might play in its aftermath.

Adam Shatz, author and writer, US Editor for the London Review of Books and a visiting professor at Bard College, discusses his book The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon.

The October 7th attack undermined some of the basic assumptions Israelis have had about the tenets of their sovereignty. Will the crisis send the country into a post-nation-state phase? Dr. Julie Cooper, Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Tel Aviv University, and a fellow of the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University’s Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, shares her thoughts at the “Democracy and Its Alternatives: The Origins of Israel’s Current Crisis” conference.

Dr Dafna Hirsch, senior lecturer at the Open University of Israel’s Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, discusses her edited book, Entangled Histories in Palestine/Israel: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives.

Dr David Barak-Gorodetsky, Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Haifa and the Director of the Ruderman Program for American-Jewish Studies, discusses his book Judah Magnes: The Prophetic Politics of a Religious Binationalist, a biography of one of the more unusual characters in the history of Zionism.

Dr Avi-Ram Tzoreff, a Polonsky Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, discusses his new book R. Binyamin, Binationalism and Counter-Zionism, dedicated to one of the most unusual Jewish and Zionist intellectuals of the 20th century. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, discusses his new book Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence. What parallels can be drawn between Ukraine’s war with Russia and Israel’s with Hamas?

Dr Geoffrey Levin, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Jewish Studies at Emory University, discusses his book Our Palestine Problem: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978. The book looks at a network of early anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian thought leaders, active in the immediate aftermath of the establishment of the State of Israel. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Yael Sternhell, Professor of History and American Studies at Tel Aviv University, discusses her book, War on Record: The Archive and the Afterlife of the Civil War, a historians’ history which looks at Washington’s Civil War archive, rather than through it.

Yosef Halper, a legendary Tel Aviv bookdealer, discusses his book The Bibliomaniacs: Tales from a Tel Aviv Bookseller.

Dan Rabinowitz, Professor of Sociology at Tel Aviv University, discusses his book The Power of Deserts: Climate Change, the Middle East and the Promise of a Post-Oil Era, analyzing the role of the Middle East as both a major generator and a primary victim of climate change, the dashed and renewed hopes for a coherent climate policy, and the role of social science in policy-making.

Jonathan Huppert, Professor of Psychology and the director of the Laboratory for the Treatment and Study of Mental Health and Well Being at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses mental health response in the wake of the October 7th attack. Is Israel, a society riddled with trauma, facing unprecedented challenges? This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Benjamin Balint, an award-winning American-Israeli writer based at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, discusses his book Bruno Schulz: An Artist, A Murder, and the Hijacking of History. The literary legacy of Schulz, the  so-called Polish Kafka, has been the subject of an international legal, cultural and diplomatic debate.

Hilary Falb-Kalisman, Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder, discusses her book, Teachers as State Builders: Education and the Making of the Modern Middle East.

Dr Limor Yehuda, lecturer in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses her book Collective Equality: Human Rights and Democracy in Ethno-National Conflicts. Taking national identity seriously, she charts a new way of thinking about statehood and partition.

Amir Tibon, diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz newspaper and a resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, survived the October 7th massacre with his wife and young daughters. He talks about his harrowing story, about Israel’s systemic failure to protect its citizens, what it will take for them to return to live less than a mile from Gaza City, and why he doesn’t regret having done it in the first place. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr. Dotan Halevy, environmental and social historian of the late Ottoman Empire and the Modern Middle East at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, discusses the history of Gaza from the mid-19th century until today. How did Gaza come to encapsulate 1948, and the essence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Michael Milstein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and the former Head of the Palestinian Department for the IDF intelligence, analyzes what Israeli military leaders and political decision-makers got – and are still getting – wrong about Hamas. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Oded Adomi Leshem (rethink-hope.com), political psychologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses his new book Hope Amid Conflict: Philosophical and Psychological Explorations. The book was published in eerie proximity to Hamas’ Oct. 7th attack, which many see as having delivered a tremendous blow to the hope of a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr Leshem’s facts and figures paint a more complex picture. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90

Prof. Hillel Cohen, historian of the Middle East at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses his new book Enemies, a love story: Mizrahi Jews, Palestinian Arabs and Ashkenazi Jews from the Rise of Zionism to the Present, an attempt to define Mizrahi politics in historical and contemporary contexts. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Haggai Ram, professor of Middle East History at Ben Gurion University, discusses his book Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel.

Dr. Nora Derbal, an Islamic Studies scholar and a Martin Buber Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses her book Charity in Saudi Arabia: Civil Society Under Authoritarianism.

Mikhael Manekin, a prominent Israeli activist (former director of Breaking the Silence and Molad) discusses his new book, A Dawn of Redemption, an attempt to address the ostensible contradiction between his progressive politics and his Modern Orthodox devotion. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Marik Shtern, political geographer and a research fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy research, discusses his co-authored paper “Shared Spaces in Contested Cities: A Model for Analysis and Action.” Jerusalem is, at the same time, the most segregated and most integrated urban area in Israel/Palestine – what lessons can be drawn from the city’s experience? This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Professor Oren Yiftachel discusses more than a decade of his scholarship on colonial regimes, identities and futures in Israel and Palestine through the lens of geography and urban planning.

Daniel Bar-Tal, professor (emeritus) of social psychology at Tel Aviv University, discusses his new book, Sinking into the Honey Trap: The Case of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. How can social psychology contribute to our understanding of a conflict that never ends? The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Abbot Nikodemus Schnabel, the head of Jerusalem’s Dormition Abbey, in conversation about Christian life in Israel (including of thousands of migrant workers), the nature of interfaith dialogue amid mounting extremism, the role of religion in diplomacy and conflict resolution, and more. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Karma Ben-Johanan, religion scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in modern Christianity and Jewish-Christian relations, discusses her new book Jacob's Younger Brother: Christian-Jewish relations after Vatican II. What were the implications of the Vatican's new approach to Judaism, announced in the 1960s, across the Catholic world and among Jewish theologians? This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Nechumi Yaffe of Tel Aviv University’s School of Social and Policy Studies, the first ultra-Orthodox woman to serve as a faculty member in an Israeli university, discusses her research on ultra-Orthodox “capabilities” – a tool used by social scientists to measure the well-being and opportunities afforded to people – as well as the relationship between a Haredi lifestyle and higher education. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Irus Braverman, Professor of Law, Geography and Environmental Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, discusses her book Settling Nature: The Conservation Regime in Palestine/Israel. How does Israel's management of nature fit into its broader settler logic?    Get a 40% percent discount with coupon code MN90160 (visit z.umn.edu/settlingnature)

Tamir Sorek, professor of history at Penn State University specializing in Palestinian politics and culture in the State of Israel, discusses his book The Optimist: A social biography of Tawfiq Zayyad, the story of one of the foremost Palestinian politicians and intellectuals in Israel of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s

Dr Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer at Durham University’s School of Government and International Affairs, discusses his book Understanding Territorial Withdrawals: Israeli Occupations and Exits, offering a cross-section examination of several cases of territorial expansion and realignment throughout Israel’s history.

Joseph Berger, formerly a New York Times journalist, discusses his book Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence, the first English-language biography of the iconic Jewish intellectual and Holocaust author.

Isabel Kershner, Israel reporter for the New York Times, discusses her new book The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for its Inner Soul. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

The Arab community in Israel is at a crossroads: the most right-wing government in the country’s history, and its plan for a judicial overhaul, casts doubt on the fragile relations between the state and its largest minority, as well as their perception of their citizenship and what it stands for. Dr. Arik Rudnitzky, the head of the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, unveils data of a new comprehensive survey. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Lerna Ekmekcioglu, Professor of History and Gender Studies at MIT, specializing in Turkish and Armenian history, discusses Armenian demands for a “national home” in the newly founded Turkish Republic, in the 1920s.

Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Professor (Emerita) of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses her book Figuring Jerusalem: Politics and Poetics in the Sacred Center, a reading of five constitutive Jewish texts that paints a comprehensive and thought-provoking portrait of Jerusalem as a physical and symbolic place.

Kimmy Caplan, Professor of Jewish History at Bar Ilan University, discusses his co-edited book Contemporary Israeli Haredi Society: Profiles, Trends and Challenges, building on an analysis combining sociological observations with a historical long-view. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Hagar Kotef, Professor of Political Theory at SOAS, University of London, discusses her book The Colonizing Self: Or, Home and Homelessness in Israel/Palestine, analyzing the concept of “home” as both a physical endeavor and an object of attachment, against the backdrop of the Zionist settlement and the dispossession of Palestinians that it entailed

Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator for the Financial Times, discusses his new book The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. How have the failings of the late 20th-century economic system affected governance, and vice-versa?

Prof. On Barak of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University discusses his book, Powering Empire: How Coal Made the Middle East and Sparked Global Carbonization. He takes on a historical journey to think of energy in the historical context of the making of the Middle East as a region, during the long 19th century. Instead of thinking that we are in a transition from coal to oil to cleaner energies, he argues, we need to understand the persistence of coal in the Middle East and how our reliance on it has shaped our politics, economics and culture.

Dr Yossi Harpaz, sociologist at Tel Aviv University, discusses his book Citizenship 2.0 and how the relationship between citizenship and other sociological categories, such as migration and national identity, has evolved.

Jonathan Graubart, professor of political science at San Diego State University, discusses his book Jewish Self-Determination Beyond Zionism: Lessons from Hannah Arendt and Other Pariahs, offering a contemporary re-evaluation of early 20th-century thought on Jewish sovereignty and statehood. This episode is part of a series co-sponsored by UCLA’s Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, and co-hosted by its director, Prof. Dov Waxman

Dr Andreas Hackl, anthropologist at the University of Edinburgh, discusses his new book, The Invisible Palestinians: The Hidden Struggle for Inclusion in Jewish Tel Aviv

Derek Penslar, professor of Jewish History at Harvard University, discusses his forthcoming book Zionism: An Emotional State, an interdisciplinary attempt to study the history of Jewish nationalism through a history of emotions lens. Join us on Patreon and help support the show

Dr Shivi Greenfield, political theorist and Deputy Director General for Strategy and Planning, discusses his book Judaism and Liberalism: A Metaphysical Tale of Two Siblings. In it, he claims that not only can the two coexist, they also stem from the same metaphysical source.

Itamar Mann, Professor of Law at the University of Haifa, specializing, among other things, in international law and legal theory, discusses his book Humanity at Sea: Maritime Migration and the Foundations of International Law.

Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Professor of Jewish History at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, specializing in religious and political thought in early modern and contemporary Judaism, discusses his new book Mishna Consciousness, Bible Consciousness: Safed and Zionist Culture. The book considers Safed (Tzfat), the old Jewish center in the Galilee, as the crux of a religious and political worldview that could – and still might – pose an alternative to the prevalent one. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Yuli Novak, the former director of Breaking the Silence, the IDF veterans’ organization, reflects in her new memoir, Who Do You Think You Are, on her 2012-2017 tenure at the helm of the most reviled human rights group in Israel. This episode is part of a series co-sponsored by UCLA's Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, and co-hosted by its director, Prof. Dov Waxman.

In this first-in-all-of-human-history, cross-over edition of TLV1’s Tel Aviv Review and TLV1’s The Promised Podcast, we discuss the open letter of more than 160 renowned historians of Jews, Judaism and/or Israel (“Israel on the Edge of an Abyss”), which opens, “We, historians of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel, accuse the sixth government of Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering the very existence of the State of Israel and the Israeli nation.” Joining us is the author of the letter, the brilliant historian Orit Rozin.

David de Jong, a Tel Aviv-based journalist for the Dutch Financial Daily, discusses his book Nazi Billionaires: The Dark Histories of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties. The book, a collective biography of Nazi Germany’s top industrialists and their heirs, sheds light on the dark corners of Germany’s postwar Denazification.

Prof. Nir Keidar, legal historian and President of Sapir College, discusses his book David Ben Gurion and the Foundation of Israeli Democracy. How did Israel's founding father conceptualize the Republican idea and adapt it to the unique reality of the State of Israel, and in what ways is the Netanyahu Government's judicial overhaul a contradiction of the original vision?

Oren Kessler, journalist and author, discusses his new book “Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict,” the first general-interest book in English dedicated to one of the key moments in the history of Jewish-Arab relations in Palestine and Israel. This episode is part of a series co-sponsored by UCLA’s Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, and co-hosted by its director, Prof. Dov Waxman.

Shuli Dichter, a veteran activist for a Jewish-Arab shared society in Israel, discusses his political memoir Sharing the Promised Land: In Pursuit of Equality between Jewish and Arab Citizens in Israel. The timing of its publication in English, when Israel seems to be moving in the opposite direction, is not a coincidence.

Dr Tamir Hod, a historian at Tel Hai college, discusses his book Did We Remember to Forget?, a study into the Demjanjuk affair of the 1980s and 1990s – the trial and eventual acquittal of Ukrainian-American John Demjanjuk, who was extradited to Israel on suspicion of being a notorious concentration camp guard. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Tamar Hermann, professor of political science at the Open University and Senior Research Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, discusses the 20th edition of the annual Democracy Index, the most comprehensive annual survey of Israeli public opinion on matters of public importance. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Steven Fine, professor of Jewish History and Director of the Center for Israel Studies at Yeshiva University in New York, discusses The Samaritans: A Biblical People, a documentary film, edited book and museum exhibition dedicated to the Samaritans, a tiny ethnoreligious group native to Israel and Palestine. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr. Gilad Malach, the director of the “Ultra-Orthodox in Israel” program at the Israel Democracy Institute, discusses the latest “Haredi Report”, published annually by the IDI. The ultra-Orthodox parties are back in government with a vengeance, after almost two years in Opposition. How did their stay in the political wilderness affect their constituency, and what trends can already be observed? This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Dr Omer Einav, a historian at Hadassah Academic College, discusses his book Defending the Goal: Football and the relations between Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine, 1917-1948. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Yoram Hazony, President of the Herzl Institute and Chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, discusses his book Conservatism: A Rediscovery, advocating for ending the “marriage of convenience between conservatism and liberalism.” The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Rachel Azaria, CEO of Darkenu, the largest civil society organization in Israel, a veteran public campaigner and former politician (Member of Knesset, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem), discusses her book Guided Revolution: A step-by-step manual towards social change in Israel. Why do some campaigns succeed and others fail? Can activism in Israel be salvaged from its association with the depleted left-wing? This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Prof. Hillel Cohen, historian of the Middle East at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses his new book Enemies, a love story: Mizrahi Jews, Palestinian Arabs and Ashkenazi Jews from the Rise of Zionism to the Present, an attempt to define Mizrahi politics in historical and contemporary contexts. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Jeffrey Herf, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Maryland, discusses his new book Israel's Moment: International Support and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945-1949, analyzing how Israeli independence benefited from the changing international landscape in the "twilight" period between the Second World War and the Cold War. This episode is part of a series co-sponsored by UCLA’s Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, and co-hosted by its director, Prof. Dov Waxman.

Filmmaker Alon Schwarz discusses his new documentary Tantura, which reopens an episode from Israel's War of Independence and a controversy that erupted in the 1990s, seeking to shed new light on the question whether Israeli troops committed a massacre of Palestinian civilians in a village near Haifa.

Avner Wishnitzer, professor of Ottoman history at Tel Aviv University, discusses his book As Night Falls: Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Cities After Dark, a groundbreaking social history of Istanbul and Jerusalem on the cusp of modernity.

Hagar Lahav, professor of communication at Sapir Academic College, discusses her book Women, Secularism and Belief: A Sociology of Belief in the Jewish-Israeli Secular Landscape. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Gideon Rahat, professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses the insights that emanate from The Elections in Israel 2019-2021, a book he co-edited with Prof. Michal Shamir. Is there any reason to believe that Israel’s fifth general election in two and a half years will be any different? This episode is part of a series co-sponsored by UCLA’s Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, and co-hosted by its director, Prof. Dov Waxman.

Mikhael Manekin, a prominent Israeli activist (former director of Breaking the Silence and Molad) discusses his new book, A Dawn of Redemption, an attempt to address the ostensible contradiction between his progressive politics and his Modern Orthodox devotion. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr. Nora Derbal, an Islamic Studies scholar and a Martin Buber Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses her book Charity in Saudi Arabia: Civil Society Under Authoritarianism.

Shlomit Ravitsky-Tur Paz, head of the program on Religion, Nation and State and the director of the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for Shared Society at the Israel Democracy Institute, discusses some recent findings - some unprecedented - from the new biannual statistical report on religion and state, published this week. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Haggai Ram, professor of Middle East History at Ben Gurion University, discusses his book Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel.

Adam Raz, historian at Tel Aviv University and Akevot – the Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, has written several history books. His most recent work is a stage play – his first – The Personal Tragedy of Mr Sami Saada. It focuses on how the life of an Arab family man from Haifa unraveled in April 1948, and his attempts to cope with the new reality. This episode is co-hosted by Prof. David N. Myers and sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA.

Prof. On Barak of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University discusses his book, Powering Empire: How Coal Made the Middle East and Sparked Global Carbonization. He takes on a historical journey to think of energy in the historical context of the making of the Middle East as a region, during the long 19th century. Instead of thinking that we are in a transition from coal to oil to cleaner energies, he argues, we need to understand the persistence of coal in the Middle East and how our reliance on it has shaped our politics, economics and culture.

Dr Andreas Hackl, anthropologist at the University of Edinburgh, discusses his new book, The Invisible Palestinians: The Hidden Struggle for Inclusion in Jewish Tel Aviv.

Dr Louis Fishman, historian of modern Turkey and Israel/Palestine, discusses his book Jews and Palestinians in the Late Ottoman Era, 1908-1914, breaking down conventional wisdoms about politics and identity in Palestine on the eve of the First World War.

Matt Sienkiewicz, Professor of Communication and International Studies at Boston College, discusses his new co-authored book That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them, analyzing the reach and influence of openly right-wing comedians on old and new media in the United States.

Avi Dabush, veteran social activist, Meretz politician and author of the new semi-autobiographical book The Periphery Rebellion: The Guide to a Much-Needed Revolution in Israeli Society, analyzes the origins of social inequalities in Israel and explains why the liberal left – despite everything – is the answer (albeit not always the Israeli left in its current form). This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr. Naomi Shmuel, author and anthropologist, from the department of Folklore at the Hebrew University, discusses her book Generations of Hope: Traditions and Intergenerational Transferal with the Transition from Ethiopia to Israel, analyzing the hybrid identity of Israelis of Ethiopian descent across the generations. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Prof. Norbert Lammert, the chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and former President of the German Bundestag, joins us in Tel Aviv for a conversation about the challenges of the liberal and democratic order in his native Germany and elsewhere, upon the 40th anniversary of the Foundation’s presence in Israel. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Jewish history professor Aron Rodrigue of Stanford University was the keynote speaker at an international conference held this week at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, dedicated to the Jewish history of Salonica. In the late 15th century, the then-Ottoman city (today the Greek city of Thessaloniki) welcomed large numbers of Sephardi Jews who had been expelled from Spain, making it very soon the largest Jewish city in Europe. A series of crises and disasters, culminating in the Nazi occupation in the 1940s, led to its ultimate destruction. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Jan Grabowski, Professor of History at the University of Ottawa, discusses his new book (co-edited with Barbara Engelking) Night Without End: The Fate of Jews in German-Occupied Poland, focusing on the generally overlooked stories of the persecution and liquidation of Jews in rural and provincial areas in Poland, following the Nazi occupation.

Professor Tamar Hermann of the Israel Democracy Institute and the Open University discusses fresh findings from the annual Israel Democracy Index of 2021, including low optimism for the general future of the country, low optimism about democratic governance in Israel, declining trust in public institutions, and ongoing polarization of public attitudes. Israelis also reveal what they really think about the judiciary in light of populist political attacks in recent years. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Nathan Sussman, Professor of Economics and Senior Visiting Research Fellow and leader of the “Israel 2050: Climate Crisis Preparedness” project at the Israel Democracy Institute, explains how carbon tax can lower emissions while having virtually no adverse effects on business activity and growth. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Hungary’s Jewish community is the largest in central and eastern Europe, and its regime the most ‘advanced’ among its neighbors in undoing the tenets of liberal democracy. How does this affect the memory of the Holocaust in the country, as well as Jewish life more broadly? Dr Raphael Vago, retired Senior Lecturer in History and research fellow at the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, joins us in the studio. This episode is made possible by Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism.

Amalia Sa’ar, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Haifa, discusses her co-authored book (together with Dr. Hawazin Younis) Diversity: Palestinian career women in Israel, reviewing the professional and personal experiences of female doctors, lawyers and engineers in the Jewish state.

Sari Bashi’s life was already complicated, as a Jewish Israeli human rights lawyer defending Palestinian freedom of movement. Then she fell in love with a Palestinian man trapped in Ramallah by the occupation. Her book, Maqluba: Upside-Down Love, tells what happened next.

Dr Itay Lotem, Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Westminster, discusses his new book The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France: The Sins of Silence. In both countries, though in different ways, memory is more about issues of the present than about the past.

Dr Radu Ioanid, Romanian Ambassador to Israel and historian of Romanian Jewry, discusses his book The Ransom of the Jews: The Story of the Extraordinary Secret Bargain between Romania and Israel detailing how, over decades, hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were exchanged for money, livestock and goods. This episode is made possible by Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism.

Philosopher and cultural critic Susan Sontag spent a lifetime thinking about the mysterious space between reality and representation, becoming one of the most influential public intellectuals of the 20th century. Benjamin Moser’s acclaimed biography, Sontag: Her Life and Work captures her story with photographic complexity, leaving only a longing for Sontag’s perspective on life today.

Batya Ungar-Sargon believes woke culture has created a smokescreen of racial identity politics that obfuscates the real force tearing American society apart: class inequality. But it took the liberal media to exponentially amplify the problem. Her new book Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy explains why.

Quarantine wasn’t invented for corona. At the start of statehood, Israel encouraged mass immigration while seeking to prevent mass disease by putting immigrants through a quarantine camp called Shaar Ha’aliya. Rhona Seidelman, a historian of medicine and public health, examines the camp’s legacy both remembered and forgotten, in Under Quarantine: Immigrants and Disease at Israel’s Gate.

Dr Laura Wharton, a Jerusalem City Council member for Meretz and an adjunct lecturer at the Hebrew University’s Department of Political Science, discusses her book Is the Party Over? How Israel Lost its Social Agenda, analyzing the ideological and institutional decline of the Labor Party up until the 1970s.

Prof. Daniel Statman, head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Haifa and a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, where he is the director of the Human Rights and Judaism program, discusses his new co-authored book State and Religion is Israel, a joint legal and philosophical attempt to conceptualize the role of religion in democratic regimes. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

In Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America, Eyal Press takes a tough look at the people squeezed in the middle of America’s moral pyramid. Neither dishwashers nor bond traders, these are the prison guards, drone operators and poultry packers doing jobs we would all prefer to forget.

Although he came to prominence in Israel, as the undisputed emblem of the far-right, Rabbi Meir Kahane was a quintessential American Jew, claims Prof. Shaul Magid in a new book, Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish radical.

After reporting on the cruelest wars of the late 20th century, journalist and cultural critic David Rieff concluded that remembering history was no defense against repeating it, and could even be a culprit. His book, In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies, explains why.

Dr Yair Wallach, Senior Lecturer in Israel Studies at SOAS, University of London, discusses his new book A City in Fragments: Urban Texts in Modern Jerusalem, which focuses on the changing nature and meaning of text – from stone inscriptions to street names to business cards – in Jerusalem of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Timothy Brennan, Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, has published a new biography of Edward Said, the feted Palestinian-American scholar and public intellectual, and his former PhD advisor at Columbia University. Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said explores the different aspects of a quintessential 20th-century intellectual.

Dan Rabinowitz, Professor of Sociology at Tel Aviv University, discusses his new book The Power of Deserts: Climate Change, the Middle East and the Promise of a Post-Oil Era, analyzing the role of the Middle East as both a major generator and a primary victim of climate change, the dashed and renewed hopes for a coherent climate policy, and the role of social science in policy-making.

Amichai Cohen, Professor of Law at Ono Academic College and Senior Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute discusses his new book The Constitutional Revolution and Counter-Revolution, and explains the changing role of the High Court of Justice in maintaining the checks and balances of Israeli democracy. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Edna Harel-Fischer, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Religion, Nation and State and the Center for Democratic values, unpacks the recent controversy around governance/governability in Israel: How did it become a partisan issue? And what is the role of the public service in safeguarding the will of the people? This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

The Tel Aviv Review takes a detour to follow the path of American nudists (intellectually). From the late 19th century to the prudish post-war years, through to the let-loose sexual revolution, historian Sarah Schrank of California State University, Long Beach reveals all, in her book Free and Natural: Nudity and the American Cult of the Body.

The putative omnipotence of Vladimir Putin has led many to view Russia as a uniquely autocratic country. In Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia, Columbia University’s Timothy M. Frye argues that Russia is neither completely unique, nor primordially prone to strongman leadership – the explanations are far more complex. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

A historian’s hunch led Nancy MacLean to the archives of James McGill Buchanan, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who also incidentally became the patron saint of the Koch brothers, modern libertarian thinking, and the far-right plan to rig the system beyond recognizable democracy. Her book Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, sparked a controversy as deep as her subjects. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Prof. Jan Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian historian, discusses Jewish-Polish relations during the Nazi occupation, as well as the politics of memory in contemporary Poland and how he has been personally affected by it. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

David N Myers and Benjamin Ravid, professors of Jewish history at UCLA and Brandeis University, respectively, discuss the life and work of Simon Rawidowicz, a seminal, albeit somewhat forgotten, 20th-century Jewish intellectual, upon the publication of an edited volume of his selected writings.

Why would citizens vote freely for political leaders plotting or even promising to attack their democracy? Why do certain policies, parties or people take priority over democratic norms at the ballot box? And can democracy count on voters to save it? Professor Milan Svolik of Yale University addresses these questions through rigorous research, but no easy solutions. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Since when do xenophobic nationalist political actors in Europe devote themselves to gender equality, protection of women and human rights? Véronique Mottier of Jesus College, University of Cambridge, shows how populist parties in Switzerland, France, Italy and the Netherlands join the struggle to protect women’s rights – when it advances their aim of excluding non-white migrants from the nation. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Facebook may not be the source of all evils – but at least many of them. In his book Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy, Siva Vaidhyanathan argues that while Facebook has some charms, it holds special responsibility for major social and political ills today. Alongside Will Hitchcock, Siva hosts the podcast Democracy in Danger, where together, they, along with leading thinkers from around the world, put illiberal trends in context and explore ways to turn them around. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Prof. Daniella Talmon-Heller of the Department of Middle East Studies at Ben Gurion University, discusses her new book Sacred Place and Sacred Time in the Medieval Islamic Middle East: A Historical Perspective. How and why did practices of pilgrimage and temporal rituals evolve in the first few centuries of Islam’s existence?

How did America’s political culture move from civil disagreement to visceral rage? In American Affective Polarization in Comparative Perspective, Noam Gidron, James Adams and Will Horne argue that intense, emotional partisanship is distinct from routine ideological differences, and possibly more dangerous. And America isn’t the only country torn apart by politics. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Is love of country a blessing or a menace? Can a citizen of the world embrace universal values but also love one’s country, and does it matter if old fashioned patriotism fades into the past? In Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes, Professor Steven B. Smith defends – and rebuilds – American patriotism as an antidote to America’s upheavals. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Michael Sfard, one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers, chronicles the evolution of the legal pillars of Israel’s military occupation of Palestinians, including deportation, settlements, torture policies and more. But in his book “The Wall and the Gate,” Sfard also tells of the lives and legal struggles of people who fight the policy with its very own tools: in Israeli courts. For each emerging body of law assisting occupation, there is a relentless human rights lawyer campaigning against it, undaunted by lengthy, thankless legal battles, hostile public reactions and scarce victories. This episode 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.

Why is Israel hacking away at its own democratic institutions and values? The assault on the judiciary, primacy of the majority at the expense of minorities, loyalty as a litmus test, corruption and illiberalism – are these Israel’s destiny? Hebrew University political scientist Gayil Talshir, editor of the book “Governability or Democracy” examines the roots, causes and manifestations of democratic erosion in Israel today. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

The nationalist-populist wave of the 21st century has affected Western liberal democracies, as well as countries from a very different political background. Julius Rogenhofer of the University of Cambridge studies manifestations of populism and democratic erosion in deeply divided societies. Rogenhofer identifies the causes and consequences of populist-driven democratic erosion in Turkey, India and Israel, shaped by each state’s social, ethnic and religious divisions. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Rabbi Dr Tal Sessler, the incoming Dean of the Rabbinical School at the Academy of Jewish Religion in California, discusses his forthcoming book, Leibowitz and Levinas: Between Judaism and Universalism, juxtaposing the political and theological thought of two of the most prominent Jewish philosophers in the 20th century.

Dr Arik Rudnitzky, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, analyzes the changing voting patterns in the Arab community ahead of Israel's fourth general election in two years. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Navigating queerness in the West Bank, Gaza or Israel, in refugee camps or as a Palestinian in the West Bank? It's complicated. Why is the LGBTQ global movement intensely invested in the Palestinian cause, and when does a social movement grow or plateau? Sa'ed Atshan asks and answers these questions in Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique.

When Robert Berman, an American Jewish immigrant to Israel began studying Arabic, he didn't stop until he had written a book full of idioms. Together with language expert Christy Bandak as editor, the linguistic duo wrote Min Taq Taq: A Collection of Arabic Idioms, in which they explain what “his face is good on me” conveys in Arabic, and why they included a whole chapter on fingers.

Ahead of a fourth general election in under two years, Yohanan Plesner, President of the Israel Democracy Institute, joins us to discuss what needs to be done to come out of the ongoing political crisis that has left Israel without a stable government, a state budget for three years on end, and an effective response to the Covid pandemic. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

In their documentary film King Bibi: The Life and Performances of Benjamin Netanyahu, Dan Shadur and Liran Atzmor get to the bottom of Benjamin Netanyahu’s magic, which has made him the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israel’s history and a prominent fixture in Israeli politics for the past four decades, and counting.

It took the world’s most advanced digital pioneers, when the computer as we know it was barely born, to stave off Nazi conquest of the Middle East. And it took Gershom Gorenberg to write the true history of the “War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East” – as if it was a novel. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries.

At times reminiscent of European Jewry in the 19th century, at others of American Jewry in the 20th, the modern history of Iran’s Jews varies radically from contemporary Jewish histories in the Middle East. The new book Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran by Lior Sternfeld, assistant professor of history and Jewish Studies at Pennsylvania State University, focuses on the unique case of Iranian Jewry.

Musa Hadid is an all-around nice guy; he’s determined to fix up the old town, re-brand his city, and have a Christmas celebration for everyone. But being the Mayor of Ramallah is no ordinary job and a new documentary, Mayor, is no ordinary film about Palestine. David Osit, the director, explains why. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries.

If a former White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf, who served as special assistant to President Obama concludes that you shouldn’t undertake regime change in the Middle East, you probably shouldn’t. But nothing is ever quite that simple. In Losing the Long Game, The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East, Philip Gordon examines what went wrong. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries.

Prof. Karnit Flug, Vice President of the Israel Democracy Institute and former Chancellor of the Bank of Israel, assesses the effects of the COVID pandemic on the Israeli economy. Does the fact that Israel is a small and centralized economy work in its benefit? To what extent was the relative robustness of the Israeli economy squandered by the mishandling of the pandemic response by decision makers? How quickly will it bounce back? This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

In her bestselling Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism, acclaimed journalist and historian Anne Applebaum examines how a wave of nationalist populism swept through the western world – and tore apart her own circle of friends. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

German-Jewish poet, political scientist and sometimes-provocateur Max Czollek examines the complex dance between modern Germany and German Jews, Holocaust memory, minority identity, radical diversity, art and politics. His book “De-integrate Yourselves” has launched a thousand conversations. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries.

Dr. Gilad Malach, Director of the Ultra-Orthodox in Israel Program at the Israel Democracy Institute, discusses how the Covid pandemic has affected internal dynamics within the Haredi community in Israel, as well as their relationship with their political leadership and the state. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Yuval Feldman, professor of law at Bar-Ilan University and a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, utilizes behavioral analysis of regulation, enforcement and compliance to discuss how trust in the state has affected the response to the Covid pandemic, in Israel and beyond. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Social media has corrupted the truth, spawned fake news and contributed to the collapse of polite political norms – right or wrong? A systematic, in-depth study of American news media before and after Trump takes a deeper plunge into the right-wing ecosystem at large, with surprising findings. Yochai Benkler of Harvard University, co-author of Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics explains. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr. Moran Zaga was studying the Persian Gulf countries long before it became fashionable for Israel to make peace with them. She explains the historic and political background to a series of unlikely diplomatic deals between Israel and certain Arab states, what’s in it for them, and why the United Arab Emirates seeks to position itself as the moderate actor between competing extremist forces throughout the Middle East. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries.

Ksenia Svetlova’s story is gripping: she moved to Israel as a teen, grew up to become a journalist, and eventually served as a Member of Knesset. In her book: “Reporting the Middle East on High Heels,” Ksenia brings her story to her beat, giving readers an over-her-shoulder view of the Middle East from Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, to the Palestinians areas much closer to home. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries.

In The Management of Hate: Nation, Affect, and the Governance of Right-Wing Extremism in Germany, Dr. Nitzan Shoshan travels with the marginalized, outcasts and left-behind members of German society today to find out what drives some to the far-right – and how the state tries to contain them. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education

Prof. Havi Dreifuss of the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University and the International Institute of Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, discusses her book Relations Between Jews and Poles during the Holocaust: The Jewish Perspective, laying out the myriad views and feelings Polish Jews harbored for their country and their non-Jewish compatriots. This episode is made possible by Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism.

Dr. Scott Ury, the outgoing director of Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, and Guy Meron, Prof. of Jewish History at the Open University of Israel, discuss their collected issue entitled Antisemitism: Historical Concept, Public Discourse. This episode is made possible by Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism.

Prof. Bashir Bashir of the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication at the Open University of Israel, and Prof. Amos Goldberg of the Department of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discuss their edited volume The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

The Israeli Palestinian conflict is among the most prominent and complex foreign policy challenges for the European Union. Anders Persson looks at the evolution of EU policy towards the conflict through the EU’s own documentation, from 1967 to the present. 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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

In The Sword is Not Enough: Arabs, Israelis, and the Limits of Military Force Jeremy Pressman challenges the notion that violence is the best way to win concessions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or in the Israeli-Arab context more broadly. His research shows that diplomacy, negotiations, and shared interests are no less important for making genuine progress towards peace – and often more. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 – and they teach us how. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 discourse in Israel.

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 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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 conservatism. This episode is sponsored by Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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’s Center for Israel Studies and the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs, and was recorded on the YU premises in New York City in front of a live audience.

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 liberal values in the social discourse in Israel. This episode was made possible by Yeshiva University’s Center for Israel Studies and the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs, and was recorded on the YU premises in New York City in front of a live audience.

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 values in the social discourse in Israel. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel's relationship with the EU and European countries.

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’s Center for Israel Studies and the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs, and was recorded on the YU premises in New York City in front of a live audience.

Orthodox journalists Sivan Rahav-Meir and Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt discuss the media, religion and gender in a panel discussion held at Yeshiva University in New York. This episode was made possible by Yeshiva University's Center for Israel Studies and the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs, and was recorded on the YU premises in New York City in front of a live audience.

Jess Olson, Associate Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University, discusses his book Jewish Culture: A Quick Immersion. Is the title not a contradiction in terms? This episode was made possible by Yeshiva University's Center for Israel Studies and the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs, and was recorded on the YU premises in New York City in front of a live audience.

Adeena Sussman's new Israeli cookbook Sababa took the food world by storm, and everyone else. With prose as effortless as her recipes look, she tells the story of her life in Israel through the best edibles on offer, filtered through Israel's kaleidoscope of cultures. 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.

Acclaimed novelist Colum McCann's newest novel confronts pain so deep, it can only be dismantled and reassembled as images. His new novel, Apeirogon, uses a unique literary form to make meaning out of trauma in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 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.

Between 1950-1972, dozens of former Jewish kapos stood trial in Israel, yet their story is almost entirely unknown. Prof. Dan Porat, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses his book Bitter Reckoning: Israel Tries Holocaust Survivors as Nazi Collaborators, a 2019 National Jewish Book Award finalist. An excerpt appeared in Time magazine, read it here. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Dr. Kfir Cohen Lustig, Academic Director of the Globalization and Sovereignty Cluster at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, discusses his book Makers of Worlds, Readers of Signs: Israeli and Palestinian Literature of the Global Contemporary. Exploring the relevance of the Marxist tradition in literary criticism, he offers a new understanding of globalization. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Rabbi Hara Person, the Chief Executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, is the publisher of the new book Deepening the Dialogue: American Jews and Israelis Envision the Jewish Democratic State. She offers insights into how Reform Rabbis, whose finger is on the Jewish-American pulse virtually more than anyone else, can communicate Israel to their communities and vice-versa. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Dr Yoav Di Capua, professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Arab intellectual history, discusses his new book No Exit: Arab Existentialism, Jean Paul Sartre and Decolonization. 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.

Behind the political bogeyman of modern Iran lie centuries of Persian poetry and literature. Orly Noy, journalist and political activist, translates Farsi literature into Hebrew, from the novels of Mahmoud Dowlatabadi to the poems of Forough Farrokhzad. Her work brings the soul of Iran to Israel - and her readings bring the music. 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.

Khaled Elgindy, formerly at the Brookings Institute and currently Senior Fellow and Director of the Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs at the Middle East Institute, writes that America's fundamental ambiguity over the Palestinian national cause has been an underlying and unappreciated factor in the failure of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over the years, in his new book, Blind Spot – America & the Palestinians, From Balfour to Trump. 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.

Scholars and co-authors Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser and Cas Mudde provide a comprehensive look at the elusive phenomenon of populism for the general reader. Their treatment of populism spans left to right, south to north, people to leaders, and explains why democracies are the most vulnerable to populist trends. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Prof. Karnit Flug, former Governor of the Bank of Israel and currently Vice President for Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the Israeli economy. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Yossi Klein Halevy, American-Israeli writer and public intellectual, senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, discusses his best-selling book Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, an attempt to engage in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue while transcending the temptation to try to converge the conflicting narratives. This episode is made possible by the Z3 Project, an initiative of the Oshman Family JCC, committed to creating an ongoing, dynamic forum for opinions and ideas about Diaspora Jewry and Israel. The Oshman Family JCC is a premier source in the Silicon Valley of exciting and innovative programming; focused on architecting the Jewish future.

Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger, a Reform rabbi at the West London Synagogue and a member of the House of Lords, as well as a member of several philanthropic organizations, including the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, of which she is chair, discusses her book Antisemitism: What it is. What it isn’t. Why it Matters. 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 Tomer Persico, a religions scholar, currently Shalom Hartman Institute Bay Area Scholar in Residence and the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley, discusses his forthcoming book, The Image of God: The Idea that Changed the World and Judaism. This episode is made possible by the Z3 Project, an initiative of the Oshman Family JCC, committed to creating an ongoing, dynamic forum for opinions and ideas about Diaspora Jewry and Israel. The Oshman Family JCC is a premier source in the Silicon Valley of exciting and innovative programming; focused on architecting the Jewish future.

Israeli law scholar Dr. Yaniv Roznai analyzes the multiple layers of damage populist leaders wreak on democracy, often attacking the foundation of political life: the constitution. But he also argues that this is not a losing battle, and analyzes legal mechanisms for limiting the injury, and preserving liberal democracy values in the long game. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Rabbi Prof. Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, one of the most prominent Jewish thinkers and community leaders in Postwar America, discusses the place of Israel in his theological worldview, and the shifting characteristics of the Jewish-American experience in the 21st century. This episode is made possible by the Z3 Project, an initiative of the Oshman Family JCC, committed to creating an ongoing, dynamic forum for opinions and ideas about Diaspora Jewry and Israel. The Oshman Family JCC is a premier source in the Silicon Valley of exciting and innovative programming; focused on architecting the Jewish future.

Two of the most prominent figures in America's efforts to advance a two-state solution, Ambassador Dennis Ross and David Makovsky, take a deep look at four Israeli leaders and their pivotal decisions. Their book, Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel's Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny, shows how the strength of these leaders lay in their vision of knowing when to make historic compromise. 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.

The prominent New York Times columnist joins the Tel Aviv Review at the Z3 conference to discuss politics in the US and across the pond. This episode is made possible by the Z3 Project, an initiative of the Oshman Family JCC, committed to creating an ongoing, dynamic forum for opinions and ideas about Diaspora Jewry and Israel. The Oshman Family JCC is a premier source in the Silicon Valley of exciting and innovative programming; focused on architecting the Jewish future.

Edna Harel-Fisher, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former legal adviser to several government bodies, discusses her position paper on the government's role in financing culture as part of ensuring the freedom of expression - before, during and after Miri Regev. This episode is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Sara Haetzni-Cohen, the director of My Israel, a grassroots organization dedicated to promote Zionism online and a columnist in the weekly Makor Rishon newspaper, explains the role of the hard right in challenging Likud centrists and center-left moderates alike. This episode is made possible by the Z3 Project, an initiative of the Oshman Family JCC, committed to creating an ongoing, dynamic forum for opinions and ideas about Diaspora Jewry and Israel. The Oshman Family JCC is a premier source in the Silicon Valley of exciting and innovative programming; focused on architecting the Jewish future.

Israeli television's veteran foreign affairs reporter Nadav Eyal has hung out with miners in Pennsylvania, Molotov-cocktail wielding anarchists in Greece, neo-Nazis in Germany, Marine LePen and other good company. In his book The Revolt Against Globalization, he argues that globalization provides the unifying context for some of the most powerful, and worrying, political movements of our age. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Rabbi Sigalit Ur, a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, discusses her study encompassing hundreds of dialogues between Jews and Gentiles in Rabbinic literature. This episode is made possible by the Z3 Project, an initiative of the Oshman Family JCC, committed to creating an ongoing, dynamic forum for opinions and ideas about Diaspora Jewry and Israel. The Oshman Family JCC is a premier source in the Silicon Valley of exciting and innovative programming; focused on architecting the Jewish future.

Avishai Margalit, Prof. Emeritus of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton, as well as a senior research fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, discusses his 2017 book On Betrayal, a philosophical exploration of the similarities and differences between adultery, treason and apostasy as well as other forms of breach of trust. 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 Ben Kasstan, medical anthropologist at the University of Sussex and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses his new book Making Bodies Kosher: The Politics of Reproduction Among Haredi Jews in England with Gilad Halpern and guest co-host Dina Kraft.

Shmuel Rosner, journalist, editor and senior research fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute discusses his new book (co-authored with Prof. Camil Fuchs), Israeli Judaism, an attempt at a snapshot of current Israeli attitudes towards Judaism as a religion, as peoplehood and as tradition. 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.

Liza Rozovsky, culture reporter for Haaretz newspaper, writes about contemporary Russian culture under ongoing forms of political oppression, alongside artistic expressions of the experiences former Soviet immigrants to Israel. Her subjects touch on alienation, marginalization, subversion and defiance in literature, drama, art and politics. 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.

How did Ben Gurion and first post-war German chancellor Konrad Adenauer become sincere political allies just a few years after the end of the war? David Witzthum, historian and longtime journalist, explores how Germany and Israel built a critical and controversial political alliance, in his book, The Beginning of a Wondrous Friendship? The story of Israeli-German reconciliation 1948-1960. Z3 Conference Tickets to The Promised Podcast Live Show (use promo code TLV1xZ3) This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Historian and journalist Dr Tom Segev discusses his new book, A State at all Costs: The Life of David Ben-Gurion, a new biography of Israel's founding father that draws heavily on his newly declassified personal papers. Tel Aviv Review is supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Jerusalem Post reporter Sam Sokol traveled the Ukraine numerous times from 2013 to cover Jewish communities as the country spiraled into conflict with Russia. He found that each side wanted to exploit the Jews for competing political purposes, documented in his book, Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews: Antisemitism, Propaganda and the Displacement of Ukrainian Jewry. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Elizabeth Tsurkov is among the few Israelis to have visited Syria since the war began. She might be the only one to have reached a sweeping range of people from Kurdish fighters to ISIS supporters to Alawites, for in-depth interviews about the future of the tortured country. 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.

Alejandro Paz, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, discusses his book Latinos in Israel: Language and Unexpected Citizenship, an ethnographic study into the formation of an unusual migrant community. Tel Aviv Review is supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

In Zionism and Melancholy, The Short Life of Israel Zarchi, Nitzan Lebovic inhabits the mind and soul of a lesser-known early Zionist poet. The result is a literary, academic, psychoanalytic - and slightly melancholy - journey through a political movement, via the short life of a poet. The Tel Aviv Review is supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

In A Rich Brew: How Cafés Created Modern Jewish Culture, Shachar Pinsker shows how coffee houses then and now, there and here, helped give rise to modernity itself. The Tel Aviv Review is supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Joseph Zeira, Professor of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses his new book The Israeli Economy, an introduction to all matters Israeli and economic. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

What does it mean to live in the divided and unified city of Jerusalem? What are the different memories and narratives that inhabit its streets? Dana Hercbergs, a scholar of folklore and anthropologist, discusses the role of social history and anthropology in telling a different story of the city. Episode Discussion Forum Tel Aviv Review is supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr Eitan Regev, an economist and Research Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, is a co-author of The Handbook on Vocational Training. Regev analyzes the downsides of Israel's excessive reliance on academic higher education which has hurt its economic prospects and social integration, and offers policy recommendations to rectify that situation. Episode Discussion Forum This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

The Tel Aviv Review of Books is a new online English-language publication that seeks, by way of book reviews, essays, literary criticism, original fiction and poetry, to give the international reader a glimpse into the Israeli world of letters. The Tel Aviv Review's Gilad Halpern is joined by co-editors Akin Ajayi, Olga Kirschbaum and Alex Stein to discuss the whys and wherefores of a new magazine. Check it out on tarb.co.il

One of the most controversial questions about the Holocaust is whether it should be seen as a universal human problem, or a unique horror perpetrated by Germans on Jews. At the heart of this question lies the work of Christopher Browning, author of numerous books on the history of the Holocaust, survivors, the Final Solution, and the story of a German auxiliary police battalion - Ordinary Men - who became killers. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

The rage against communism led some countries to diminish the historic fight against fascism under leaders they now loathe. Could this help justify neo-fascist revivals in the post-communist world? In "Red Star, Yellow Star," Dr. Jelena Subotic examines Holocaust memory in the former Yugoslavia and other post-communist countries, showing why memory is never just memory, and it is always political. Join the discussion on Patreon This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Israel's judiciary is under assault, according to some, or experiencing a necessary corrective to rampant judicial activism, according to others. Dr. Amir Fuchs, legal expert and the head of the Defending Democratic Values project at the Israel Democracy Institute, walks through the Knesset's attempt to change the judiciary and the balance of powers in Israel, what's behind it, and what it means for the country. Episode Discussion Forum This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Dr. Peter Lintl, a researcher at the German think tank Stiftung Wissenschaft Und Politik (SWP), has the complex job of analyzing Israeli political trends to the German policy community. In this interview, he discusses how Germany views issues such as the Nation-State Law and the status of Israeli democracy, in the context of the sensitive Israel-German relations, and Israel-EU relations more broadly. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Why does a Palestinian professor believe it is so important for his students to learn about the Holocaust? Mohammed Dajani talks about what he has learned from taking Palestinian students to Auschwitz, and why he believes his movement Wasatia - moderation - is the right path for Islam. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

“Liberal” and “nationalist” sound like mutually exclusive forces that cannot coexist. Yet Yuli Tamir, scholar, peace activist and a former government minister, makes the liberal case for nationalism, and argues for a nationalism that is liberal, in her book Why Nationalism. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Moshe Sakal's novel The Diamond Setter brings old Middle Eastern themes into contemporary Israel, and weaves them into a story comprising of a rediscovered Jewish-Arab heritage, reinvented Israeliness, cross-border relations and homosexuality. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Shane Baker, a theater director and creator, recounts his unusual entry into Yiddish theater and his efforts to revive a once-glorious artistic tradition in the city. 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 and culture of East European Jewry.

All societies are divided, and constitutions are supposed to set the rules for a peaceful life. Hanna Lerner is the expert on how constitutions around the world seek to express complex national identities, contain and prevent conflict. In her 2017 book co-authored with Asli Bali, Constitution Writing, Religion and Democracy, it turns out Israel isn't the only country with a thorny constitutional complex. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. 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.

Ken Krimstein, an illustrator and graphic novelist, discusses his new book The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth. 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 and culture of East European Jewry.

Michael A. Cohen (no, not that one) and Micah Zenko have a radical proposal: The world is getting better, not worse. Their book Clear and Present Safety looks beyond sensational and short-term political trends and finds that all global indicators have improved - as a result, Americans need not live in perpetual fear. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Having experienced virtually the most devastating crisis in its history, what can the media do to safeguard democracy, in an increasingly hostile environment? Susan Glasser, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, analyzes the challenges of the American media in the age of Trump. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

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 discourse in Israel. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

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 and culture of East European Jewry.

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 in the social discourse in Israel. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

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 life, with a focus on the history and culture of East European Jewry.

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 Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

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, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 of the political reform program at the Israel Democracy Institute, offers his take. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

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 action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

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 dynamic of the Israeli-Palestinian-American love-hate triangle over the years. 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.

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 Bahar, former legal adviser to Shin Bet and IDI fellow, and Ron Shamir, the former head of the technology division at Shin Bet and a fellow at the Hebrew University's Federman Cybersecurity Center, about the danger posed by potential cyber attacks on the anyway vulnerable Israeli democracy. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

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 Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

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, on the one hand, and the growing awareness of multiculturalism in society, on the other? What is educational justice, and how should policymakers address it? 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.

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 occurs. 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.

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 humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 the Jewish diaspora experience. 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.

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 Against Liberal Democracy. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

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 possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

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 stage. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Shibley Telhami is the master of survey research in the Middle East. His book The World Through Arab Eyes walks through the complexities of characterizing the Arab world through survey data. His research tracks and explains changes over time on the most sensitive public issues, from the Arab Spring, America, Israel, al Jazeera, and democracy. 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. Yonatan Mendel, the director of the Center for Jewish-Arab relations at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, is author of the recently published "The Creation of Israeli Arabic: Security and Politics in Arabic Studies in Israel."  Dr. Mendel explains to host Gilad Halpern why generations of Israeli high school students who specialized in Arabic are unable to string a sentence together. Song: Guy Mazig - Levad Bamidbar This episode originally aired 9-10-15.

Dr Gilad Malach, head of the ultra-Orthodox research program at the Israel Democracy Institute, discusses the findings of the 2018 statistical report on the ultra-Orthodox society in Israel, which he directed. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Dr Hagai Boas, head of the Science, Technology and Civilization Program at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, discusses his co-edited volume Bioethics and Biopolitics in Israel: Socio-Legal, Political and Empirical Analysis. 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.

Israeli film scholar Dan Chyutin observes that Israeli film once reflected secular Israeli society, and religion appeared mainly as stage dressing. But in recent decades, a steady stream of films have put religion, especially ultra-orthodox Judaism, in the foreground. Is this a mirror of Israeli society? Or just an excuse to discuss our favorite films? 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.

Israel's 2018 Democracy Index, an annual survey of the health of Israeli democracy, shows off the deepest contradictions in Israeli life. Tamar Hermann of the Israeli Democracy Institute explains why half the country thinks democracy is endangered but half do not, why the left-right divide is now seen as the most threatening division in Israeli society, but the number of Israeli Jews who think things are going well has been rising for over a decade. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Derek Penslar, Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University, discusses his forthcoming book, Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader, an addition to more than 200 biographies of the founder of Zionism. Sometimes, there's a very fine line between an eccentric and a visionary. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Jeffrey S. Gurock, professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University, delves into the realm of counterfactual history in his recently published The Holocaust Averted: An Alternate History of American Jews, 1938-1967. Talking with host Gilad Halpern, he imagines a very different existence for the community had the Second World War taken a different course. Music: Noa Shemer - Noa

Dr. Seth Anziska, a lecturer in Jewish-Muslim relations at University College, London and a visiting fellow at the US/Middle East Project, discusses his book Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Former Member of Knesset Einat Wilf discusses her book War of Return, arguing that the conflict will never end until the world recognizes that Palestinian refugees, as they are usually defined, do not have the right to return to their pre-1948 homes. Sparks fly. 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 Jonathan Rokem, a geographer and architecture scholar at University College, London, discusses his book Urban Geopolitics: Rethinking Planning in Contested Cities, which encompasses 15 comparative studies of the meeting point between urban planning and politics. 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.

Prof. Meir Zamir, Middle East scholar at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is the author of the newly published The Secret Anglo-French War in the Middle East: Intelligence and Decolonization, 1940-1948. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about the efforts of British intelligence officials, sometimes unbeknown to their government, to “advance” British interests in the Middle East at the expense of the new order that was shaping the region in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. For further reading click here and here. Song: Eatliz – Sunshine

Idan Barir, a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking and a translator for the Van Leer Institute's Maktoob series of Arabic literature in Hebrew, tells the story of the Yazidis, an ethnic and religious minority in Iraqi Kurdistan who, in 2014, fell victim to an Islamic State rampage. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr Shira Klein, professor of modern history at Chapman University, discusses her book Italy's Jews from Emancipation to Fascism, analyzing the contested legacy of the modern Jewish experience in Italy. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Arie Dubnov, professor of History and Israel Studies at the George Washington University, discusses his new book Partitions: A Transnational of Twentieth-Century Territorial Separation. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr Eddy Portnoy, Senior Researcher and Director of Exhibitions at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, discusses his book Bad Rabbi and Other Strange But True Stories from the Yiddish Press, a compendium of stories that is at once a quirky and piercing window into the pre-WWII Jewish culture of New York and Warsaw. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Adam Rovner, an Associate Professor of English and Jewish Literature at the University of Denver in the United States, recently had his book In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands before Israel published by New York University Press. Dr. Rovner speaks to host Gilad Halpern about the step-siblings of Zionism – six different attempts to establish a Jewish political entity in the 19th and 20th centuries – and why they all failed. This episode originally aired September 4, 2015.

Adi Gordon, professor of Jewish and European intellectual histories at Amherst College, discusses his new book Towards Nationalism's End, an intellectual biography of 20th-century nationalism scholar and lapsed Zionist official Hans Kohn. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, author of numerous books including, very recently, Lincoln and the Jews: A history, which he co-edited with Benjamin Shapell. The book, which was published by St Martin’s Press, recounts the relationship of the 16th president of the United States with a then still small and relatively uninfluential ethnic group, based on hundreds of archival items, some of them newly unveiled. This episode originally aired August 2, 2015.

Ron Hassner, professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses his book Religion on the Battlefield, which explores the place occupied by religious faith and practices in modern warfare. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Prof. Alon Confino discusses the Nazi desire to remove the Jews not only from the present and the future, but also from the past.

Eran Kaplan, Israel Studies professor at San Francisco State University, discusses his book Beyond Post-Zionism, a critical analysis of an intellectual fad that took the Israeli political and intellectual debate by storm in 1990s, and seems to have disappeared, since then, into thin air. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Lee Perlman, a research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research discusses his new book, “But Abu Ibrahim, We're Family!”, exploring several theater productions, all with a joint Jewish-Arab component, as a potential backdrop for peace building. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Rachel Harris, professor of Israeli literature and culture at the University of Urbana Champaign, discusses her new book Warrior, Witches, Whores: Women in Israeli Cinema. How do the evolving representations of women relate to broader changes in Israeli society and culture? 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Stefan Ihrig, a historian and post-doctoral fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, recently had his book Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination published in English by Harvard University Press. He tells host Gilad Halpern how rising Turkish nationalism in the wake of WWI served as valuable inspiration for the Nazis in the early Weimar years and beyond. This episode originally aired July 17, 2015.

Gregory Wallance, a New York-based attorney and writer, discusses his new book The Woman Who Fought an Empire: Sarah Aaronsohn and her Nili Spy Ring, telling the story of an Israeli icon - a young Jewish woman who during the First World War operated, together with a few neighbors and family members, a pro-British spy ring under the nose of the Ottoman authorities in Palestine. Her tumultuous life, tragic death, and considerable contribution to the Allied war effort are revisited in this book. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Eviatar Zerubavel, professor of sociology at Rutgers University, discusses his new book Taken for Granted: The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable. How do our linguistic priorities characterize the way we perceive the world, and how do they reinforce cultural norms? 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Professor Erica Chenoweth, a scholar of international relations says that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of non-violent protests in the world. She knows because she counts them, rigorously; she also counts when they work and why. Her 2011 book Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict shows the data of violent and non-violent political action and analyzes when civil resistance succeeds in dozens of different countries. This is not a how-to book for revolutionaries, but it won't hurt them to read it. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Dror Yinon of the Program for Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies at Bar-Ilan University reviews a series of lectures on Existentialism that recently took place at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He lays out the fundamentals of this philosophical tradition and analyzes its ongoing relevance in the age of populism and post-truth. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Keith Kahn-Harris, a British sociologist and commentator, discusses his new book Denial: The Unspeakable Truth. It attempts to analyze the emergence and growing prevalence of denialism - a quasi-nihilist reflex that subsumed healthy skepticism and fact-based debate. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

How do societies recover from major violence and terrible injustice? How do they cope with collective trauma, perpetrators, guilt, and is there a road to forgiveness? Professor Ruti Teitel was among the pioneering scholars to probe the complex mechanisms societies use to exorcise the demons of conflict. Transitional justice is now central to understanding conflict and integral to resolution, largely due to her work. Teitel discusses her latest book, and the role of transitional justice in her native Argentina and numerous other countries. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions, the head of the Media Reform Program and the Open Government Program at the Israel Democracy Institute. She joins hosts Dahlia Scheindlin and Gilad Halpern to discuss media policy in Israel and the way government interference may infringe on the country's relatively robust freedom of the press. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Yedidia Stern is worried about disturbing the balance of a Jewish and democratic state, as the nation-state law threatens to do. He believes that Israel must be a Jewish state, but without a legal anchor for equality, society is in trouble. Religious life is being dominated by the ultra-orthodox; diaspora Jews, especially Americans, should have a say in public life but not too much. Legal scholar and Vice President of the Israel Democracy Institute speaks to us about the fundamental nature of Israeli society - and how it is changing. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Can we reconcile between business development and safeguarding human rights? David Bilchitz, professor of law at the University of Johannesburg, proposes a legal framework to do just that in his new book, “Building a Treaty on Business and Human Rights: Contexts and Contours” (Cambridge University Press). 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

On this plenary session at the 2018 annual conference of the Association for Israel Studies, recorded at the University of California at Berkeley, Tel Aviv Review host Gilad Halpern, Prof. Chana Kronfeld and Dr Yael Segalovitz discuss the attempts to "de-ghettoize" Hebrew literature and study it in a broader and richer context, as well as the intercultural exchanges with other types of literature, Jewish and non-Jewish. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Prof. Eva Jablonka, a philosopher of science at Tel Aviv University, discusses her forthcoming book The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul. Can we establish the development of conscience within the evolution process? And if so, how? 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.

The role of the IDF in Israeli life cannot be overstated, past and present. But the country, and the army, are changing. So are the missions Israel undertakes and the nature of warfare. Why is the famous people's army seeing fewer and fewer Israelis turn up for the draft? What are the demographic characteristics of those who do serve, is the army a melting pot or a social hierarchy and what about the "P" word - a professional army? Yuval Shany & Amichai Cohen of the Israel Democracy Institute discuss their research. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Dr. Liora Halperin, assistant professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, author of Babel in Zion: Jews, Nationalism and Language Diversity in Palestine 1920-1948, tells host Gilad Halpern about the ideological as well as the practical aspects of the inculcation of the Hebrew language in pre-state Israel. This episode originally aired June 26, 2015.

Benjamin Netanyahu's endurance as Prime Minister is matched only by his mystique: what lies behind his grip on Israeli society? How did he climb to the top, and what is the price of his long stay at the summit? Anshel Pfeffer, of Haaretz and the Economist, has a new biography of Netanyahu following his strange brew of intellect and populism, poor taste and fine legal lines, fierce family loyalty and shameless political-self-promotion. 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.

Jeffrey Herf, a distinguished professor of history at the University of Maryland, talks to host Gilad Halpern about the attitude of East Germany and the West German radical left towards Israel between 1967-1989, against the backdrop of the memory of the Holocaust as well as the Cold War. This episode originally aired on June 23, 2015.

Michael Sfard, one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers, chronicles the evolution of the legal pillars of Israel’s military occupation of Palestinians, including deportation, settlements, torture policies and more. But his brand-new book The Wall and the Gate, Sfard also tells of the lives and legal struggles of people who fight the policy with its very own tools: in Israeli courts. For each emerging body of law assisting occupation, there is a relentless human rights lawyer campaigning against it, undaunted by lengthy, thankless legal battles, hostile public reactions and scarce victories. 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. Tel Aviv Review's Patreon Campaign

For South African Jews, support for Israel has ceased to be the one thing they can all agree upon. Three distinguished panelists debate the meaning, old and new, of engaging with Israel as South African Jews. Panelists: Michael Bagraim, an attorney and member of parliament for the Democratic Alliance, the opposition party, as well as a member and formerly the president of the South African Board of Jewish Deputies Dr Sally Frankental, a retired lecturer in anthropology at the University of Cape Town, and the founding director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research Doron Isaacs, a social activist and the former head of Habonim, the biggest Jewish Youth Movement in South Africa 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.

How did a country with the world's most advanced surveillance technology and minimal restrictions on using it end up with a citizenry that hardly minds? Israelis have displayed almost none of the data-squeamishness of their American and European counterparts, as long as it adds to national security. But the nature of data is changing. Professor Yuval Shany of the Israel Democracy Institute explains why it may be time to rein in the authorities, for the sake of the citizens. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Isn’t art always political, and when it is not, is it just bad art? And what is the role of art in shaping our political outlook, when the Israeli reality offers little escape from politics? Joshua Simon, a writer, editor and curator, will moderate a round-table discussion dedicated to those issues and more, with leading artists, thinkers and cultural critics. He offers hosts Gilad Halpern and Dahlia Scheindlin a glimpse. 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 Adam Mendelson, a historian and the director of the Kaplan Center for Jewish Studies and Research at the University of Cape Town, discusses his recently completed and trailblazing study that seeks to map out the attitudes and perceptions of Black South Africans towards Jewish people in three major urban areas in the country. 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.

How do you fight a war by becoming the enemy and still keep your identity? Who are the good guys who are the bad guys? What's the best action series on television today, why is it a psychological drama as much as a shoot 'em up, and is it real, fake, fair? As Season 2 hits Netflix, Avi Issacharoff, the co-creator of hit TV series “Fauda,” tells all. 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.

“I never thought I'd go back to live in South Africa,” says Lorna Levy, a trade unionist and anti-Apartheid activist who spent decades in exile after being banned from her native South Africa. In her memoir, Radical Engagements: A Life in Exile, she reflects on her almost accidental activism, starting in her student days in 1950s Johannesburg. 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.

What does economic history have to do with a country's national identity? In Israel's case, a great deal. The myth of a socialist ideal morphing into a neo-liberal global powerhouse is captivating but contains far more complex processes, and many run contrary to the national self-image. Follow the gestation and birth of Israel's economy under the shadow of war, peace and privatization in a discussion with Dr Arie Krampf about his book “The Israeli Path to Neo-Liberalism: The State, Continuity and Change.” 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.

Prof. Deborah Posel, a sociologist at the Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town, analyzes how racial tensions have played out in South Africa since the end of Apartheid in 1994. 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.

Yair Ettinger, a journalist and researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute's "Ultra-Orthodox in Israel" program as well as a fellow at the Hartman Institute in New York, is the co-author, together with Nissim Leon, of the recently published book A Flock With No Shepherd: Shas Leadership The Day After Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. It analyzes the causes of the movement's identity, leadership and popularity woes, some resulting from and others coinciding with the death of its towering founder and spiritual father in 2013. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Milton Shain, emeritus professor of history at the University of Cape Town, specializing in the history of Jews and anti-Semitism in South Africa, tells the very different story of a Jewish settlement in the New World. 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.

What does radical Islam have in common with right wing extremism? Much, it turns out. From the perception of existential, apocalyptic threat to the sense of historic mission as saviors of their people, the two sides have more in common than either want to admit. Julia Ebner's book “The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far Right Extremism” shows why each side exists in a world of obsession with the other; and proposes how to mitigate the pull of extremism that preys on the young. 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 our minds, Saudi Arabia, to this day, has been an ultraconservative, almost medieval society, with a clear hierarchy and a coercive leadership. But it turns out that is not exactly the case. Nachum Shiloh discusses his research that focuses on the history of Saudi elites in the first half of the 20th century. This episode originally aired June 6, 2015.

When Malka Marom, a Canadian-Israeli musician and broadcaster, walked into a destitute Toronto night club in 1966, she was swept off her feet. The music, played by Joni Mitchell, mousy-looking and still unknown, was unlike anything she had heard before. Soon thereafter, they became lifelong friends; Marom's book Joni Mitchell in Her Own Words is a compilation of conversations they had over a 40-year period. She is now working on another book, featuring conversations with another great Canadian singer-songwriter: Leonard Cohen. 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.

Prof. Roberta Ronsethal Kwall, a legal scholar and the founding director of the DePaul University College of Law, has just authored a new book entitled The Myth of the Cultural Jew – Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition. She explains to host Gilad Halpern why even the most secular Jews have imbibed the halakha, whether they like it or not. This episode originally aired June 5, 2015.

If another war breaks out between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, it could "turn Lebanon into a car park," and take down wholesale targets in Tel Aviv, says longtime journalist and author, the Lebanon expert Nicholas Blanford. He argues that one of the only hopes for avoiding war is that each side is fully aware that a new round could mean mutually assured destruction, or at least severe devastation. Yet it might only take some damned foolish thing in the desert to spark that war. 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. Caroline Light of the Program in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Harvard University talks with host Gilad Halpern about her recent book, That Pride of Race and Character: The Roots of Jewish Benevolence in the Jim Crow South. It analyses the circumstances that led to the establishment of a sizable Jewish charity network in the American South in the post-Reconstruction period. This episode originally aired April 18, 2015.

Yohanan Plesner, the president of the Israel Democracy Institute, joins us to discuss the past accomplishments and future challenges of democracy in Israel. Ahead of the 70th Independence Day celebrations, the IDI will launch the Democracy Pavilion along the Independence Trail in Tel Aviv, with a view to celebrating its many achievements and educating local and international visitors about its importance. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by the Israel Democracy Institute, which works to bolster the values and institutions of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Prof. Carole Fink, a scholar specializing in international European history at Ohio State University in the US, tells host Gilad Halpern about how Europe's Jews fit into the numerous minority protection schemes that emerged on the continent in the interwar period, and about the road to their catastrophic breakdown. This episode originally aired March 27, 2015.

Daniel Boyarin, Professor of Talmudic Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses his forthcoming book “Judaism: The Genealogy of a Modern Notions”, in which he argues that Judaism, as a full-blown concept, is a modern creation. 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.  

Prof. Sander Gilman, who teaches history at Emory University in the United States, is an extremely prolific academic with a vast spectrum of fields of expertise. He discusses his cleverly entitled study, “Aliens vs Predators: Cosmopolitan Jews vs Jewish Nomads.” This episode originally aired March 20, 2015.

Why do we believe? After writing books about the god of Islam and Jesus of Nazareth, religion scholar Reza Aslan takes on the biggest question of all: What does “God” mean, anyway? Aslan comes to the surprising answer that God looks a lot like humans. Does this make him a deep believer or an atheist? Is God everywhere or nowhere? Find out in this interview about his latest book, “God: A Human History.” 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. Find the extra segment for this episode at: patreon.com/telavivreview

Dr. Erica Weiss, Tel Aviv University anthropologist and author of “Conscientious Objectors in Israel: Citizenship, Sacrifice, Trials of Fealty”, tackles the concept of conscientious objection in Israel – a democratic society that honors the freedom of conscience while fighting for its survival. This episode originally aired March 15, 2015.

Dr Martina Weisz, a research fellow at the Hebrew University's Vidal Sassoon Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, discusses the place of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese colonial project, which started immediately after the momentous expulsion of the Jews from these countries, in the late 15th century.   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. Eran Shalev of the Department of General History at the University of Haifa, author of American Zion: The Old Testament as Political Text from the Revolution to the Civil War, traces the theological and ideological origins of the special relationship between Israel and America. This episode originally aired March 7th, 2015.

Prof. Uriya Shavit, the head of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and of the Religious Studies Program at Tel Aviv University, discusses his new book Scientific and Political Freedom in Islam: A Critical Reading of the Modernist-Apologetic School, which explores Islamic theologians' efforts to harmonize religion, science and modern systems of government. 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.

Prof. Laura Schor, a historian at Hunter College in New York and author of The Best School in Jerusalem: Annie Landau’s School for Girls 1900-1960, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the extraordinary character of Annie Landau, a British ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who was a high-profile public figure in Jerusalem during one of its most tumultuous periods. This episode originally aired March 6, 2015.

Prof. Daphna Hacker, an associate professor of law and gender studies at Tel Aviv University, discusses her new book Legalized Families in the Era of Bordered Globalization, which explores a phenomenon that is as understudied as it is widespread. 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. Sarab Abu Rabia-Queder, a researcher at the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University, specializes in the impact of higher education on Bedouin women. Herself of Bedouin origin and an activist for Bedouin rights, she talks to host Gilad Halpern about the nomadic people who live mainly in the south of Israel, and how they straddle the line between tradition and modernity, and between their Arab identity and the State of Israel. This episode originally aired Feb. 27, 2015.

Dr Michal Kravel Tovi, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Tel Aviv University, discusses her new book When the State Winks: The Performance of Jewish Conversions in Israel, an ethnographic account of the arduous conversion process female migrants from the former USSR choose to undergo in the hope that it would accelerate their integration into Israeli society. 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. Danna Piroyansky, author of Ramle Remade: The Israelization of an Arab Town 1948-1967, discusses the very Israeli concept of ‘mixed cities’ – the result of government-sanctioned mixing of Jewish and Arab populations. How did it come about in Ramle, a town in the south-eastern coastal plain that was 100 percent Arab Palestinian up until the 1948 War of Independence, and was subsequently populated with Jewish immigrants? This episode originally aired Feb. 21, 2015.

Dr. Leon Wiener Dow, a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, discusses his new book, The Going: A Meditation on Jewish Law, an autobiographical and theological exploration of the relationship between God, law prayer, practice and community in Jewish law. Check out the extra segment for this episode on patreon.com/telavivreview 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 originally aired on Feb. 20, 2015. Dr. Jonathan Rubin, a historian of the Medieval Levant at Tel Aviv University, specializes in the production of knowledge in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th and 13th centuries. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about how the Crusaders' encounters with local societies - beyond the initial indignation - led to theological, economic, and scientific developments.

With a severe humanitarian and economic crisis, another Gaza war could well be on its way. But Gaza is not only the packed, imprisoned and impoverished strip of misery. It is a place where high school students learn Shakespeare, whose residents have been to hell and kept their pride. Why isn't it a Singapore by the sea, and is there any hope or route to improvement? Veteran journalist Donald Macintyre brings years of firsthand reporting to his deeply informative and equally colorful book Gaza: Preparing for Dawn. 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 originally aired Feb. 13, 2015 Dr. Ephraim Chamiel, a lecturer and scholar of Jewish thought in the modern era, explains who were the Jewish philosophers who sought to harmonize modernity and tradition. His book, "The Middle Way: The Emergence of Modern Religious Trends in Nineteenth-Century Judaism," is available in English.

Michael Broyde, professor of law at Emory University and former rabbinical judge, discusses the constitutional, legal and societal implications of track two arbitration in the contemporary United States, which are the topic of his new book Sharia Tribunals, Rabbinical Courts and Christian Panels: Religious Arbitration in America and the West. This episode comes with bonus material for patrons only: www.patreon.com/telavivreview 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 originally aired Feb. 6, 2015 Prof. Anita Shapira, one of Israel's most eminent historians of Zionism, discusses her biography of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding prime minister.

Rise and Kill First reveals Israel's deadliest secrets. The history of targeted assassinations precedes the establishment of the state and continues to the present. Israel has killed terrorists, political figures, nuclear scientists, former Nazis and a UN negotiator; questions still swirl around the death of Arafat. When does Israel strike, and when does it abort a mission? Ronen Bergman's exposé obtains material never before released, and he talks with people who never talk. Here he discusses why and how Israel imposes the death penalty outside of any courtroom, based entirely on its own rules. 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 originally aired on Jan 31, 2015. Dr. Oren Meyers of the Department of Communications at the University of Haifa, co-author, together with Eyal Zandberg and Motti Neiger, of Communicating Awe: Media Memory and Holocaust Commemoration, analyzes with host Gilad Halpern the disproportionate role Holocaust-related imagery plays in the Israeli media debate. 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.

Liat Maggid-Alon, a historian of the modern Middle East at Kibbutzim College and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, discusses a paper she recently presented at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, focusing on the newly emerged stratum of upper-middle-class Jews in early-to-mid 20th century Egypt. The Egyptian-Jewish bourgeoisie serves as an ideal case study to explore how modernity, religion, nationalism and minority politics intermingled. Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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 originally aired on Dec. 5th, 2014. Bismarck famously said that "politics is not an exact science" - but what if exact sciences were determined by politics? Prof. Ute Deichmann, a historian of science at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, tells host Gilad Halpern about the exchanges between Israeli and German scientists in the early years. The two countries have marked more than 50 years since the full normalization of diplomatic relations between them, and we enquire to what extent scientists paved the way. Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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.

Mika Almog, journalist, screenwriter and author, discusses her new collection of short stories, Anticipation (ציפייה), compiling poignantly unremarkable characters and vignettes, rooted in the Israeli here and now. Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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.  

Sasha Polakow-Suransky, deputy editor of Foreign Policy magazine, discusses his new book Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy. The book explores the confluence of circumstances that led to the rise of authoritarian populism in countries that were until recently believed to be robust liberal democracies.   Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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.

Little to nothing has changed since the 19th century in the way ancient Jewish scriptures are analyzed and understood. Prof. Hindy Najman, professor of scriptural interpretation of the Bible at Oriel College, University of Oxford, is on a mission to eradicate outdated "Protestant" and "parochial" approaches to Bible criticism, and introduce contemporary approaches to the field. Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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.

No one can forget the horrifying terror attack of 2001 when a suicide bomber killed 21 people, mostly teenage girls, at a Tel Aviv nightclub. But few remember the Palestinian pharmacist murdered in East Jerusalem shortly afterward in a possible revenge attack - whose family donated his heart to save a Jewish Israeli man's life. Rowan Somerville explores the parallel stories in Beat: The True Story of a Bomb and a Heart Transplant. 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.

Defining corruption may be complicated, but people know it when they see it. Is there such a thing as a culture of corruption, or do people in some countries need bribes to survive? Ina Kubbe discusses "Corruption and Norms: Why Informal Rules Matter", co-edited with Annika Engelbert, to find out why corruption happens and what can be done about it. Any resemblance to actual persons, events or Israeli politicians is purely coincidental. 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.

Sir Geoffrey Nice prosecuted one of the world's most notorious war criminals - Slobodan Milosevic, who escaped justice by dying before his verdict. In his book Justice for All and How to Achieve It , Nice provides a critical exploration of international justice and the courts designed to address the world's worst crimes. Can this system advance peace and deter atrocities, or is it mainly victor's justice? 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.

And from that moment on, Linda Grant sets her cast of unlikely characters free - as much as possible in a TB clinic in 1950s London. The Dark Circle is her seventh novel. The protagonists are twin teens bursting with life, though they live in the space between collective death of the recent past and the shadow of death in the future, as patients. Yet Grant makes the period and the people come alive - and tells us how. 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.

Ian Black, former Middle East editor of The Guardian newspaper, joins us live to discuss his new book Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel 1917-2017, a comprehensive overview of an ongoing clash between two irreconcilable narratives. 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 Kinneret Lahad, a senior lecturer in the Women and Gender Studies program at Tel Aviv University, discusses her book A Table for One: Re-Scheduling Singlehood and Time, proposing a welcome addition to the established feminist scholarship on family structures. 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.

Gilead Sher, attorney and former Israel's chief negotiator, the head of the Center for Applied Negotiations at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, discusses his new co-edited book Negotiating in Times of Conflict, which offers a panorama of perspectives on how to overcome obstacles in peace negotiations. 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 Nicholas John, assistant professor of communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses his book The Age of Sharing, which traces the origins and analyzes the meanings of one of the principal markers of our contemporary digital culture. 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.

Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez, associate fellows at the Hebrew University's Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, discuss their book The Soviet-Israeli War 1967-1973: The USSR’s Military Intervention in the Egyptian-Israeli Conflict, which lays out a hitherto little known Soviet foreign policy in the Middle East following the humiliating defeat of Moscow's client states in the Six Day War. 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.  

Steven Nadler, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discusses the new graphic book Heretics! The Wonderous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy, which he co-authored with his son. He explains why the 17th century is a major turning point in the history of Western philosophy, and delves into the merits of graphic books. 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.

Jonathan Israel, professor emeritus of modern European history at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, discusses his book Expanding Blaze: How the American Revolution Ignited the World, 1775-1848. 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. David Hirsh, a sociologist at Goldsmith's, University of London, discusses his new book Contemporary Left Antisemitism, analyzing the "mainstreaming" of anti-Jewish bigotry among socialist and so-called progressive circles.

Israeli-American novelist Dalia Rosenfeld discusses her new and critically-acclaimed book The Worlds We Think We Know, a collection of short stories, in many of which Tel Aviv is a silent protagonist. Rosenfeld's stories explore human beings' internal struggles, laying bare the contradictions that lie within us all. 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. Adel Manna, a historian of modern Palestine and senior fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, discusses his new book, Nakba and Survival: The Story of the Palestinians who Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948-1956. Dr. Manna talks about the circumstances that led Palestinians in parts of the Galilee to remain to a greater degree than elsewhere, why he decided to study and write about a seldom-discussed chapter of history, the story of the Palestinian Arab Communists, and how Palestinians in Israel survived as a marginalized people. 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.

Prof. Susan Pedersen, a historian of Britain and Europe at Columbia University, discusses her most recent book The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire. On the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, it is crucial to explore the British Mandate of Palestine in a broader context. 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. Raz Zimmt is the encyclopedia of policy analysis of Iran. From poring over social media conversations in Persian to analyzing statements, policy, and action of political leaders, his many papers and articles touch every topic. Today’s episode interviews him about Iran’s regional goals and foreign policy, the new and changing alliances of the Middle East, sectarian divides, and domestic politics. Find out what the Iranian public is saying about their leaders, why Hamas threw Iran for a loop, and what Iran thinks about Israel, the deal, and the bomb. 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. Nurit Hashimshony-Yaffe, a political scientist at the Tel Aviv-Yaffo Academic College, tells us about her most recent study, which focuses on how Israel managed to clamp down on a prosperous women trafficking industry. This episode originally aired on Oct 24, 2014.

Professor Alon Tal, the Chair of the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University and the founder of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, discusses his new and acclaimed book, “The Land is Full: Addressing Overpopulation in Israel,” a myth-busting plea for a sustainable future for Israel. 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. Rachel Pear, a teaching assistant at the School of Education at Bar-Ilan University and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Haifa, gives us a breakdown of the great variety of Jewish Orthodox attitudes to Darwin's theory of evolution over the years. (Previously aired on 4/10/2014)

Dr. Guy Laron, a senior lecturer in international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses his new book, “The Six Day War: The Breaking of the Middle East,” in which he analyzes the momentous 1967 Arab-Israeli war from a Cold War perspective. 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.

Jonathan Spyer, a Middle East analyst, journalist, and author, discusses his new book, “Days of the Fall: A Reporter’s Journey in the Syria and Iraq Wars,” a first-person account from behind the scenes of the top news story of this decade. 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. Yifat Gutman, a senior lecturer in sociology and anthrolopology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, discusses her book, “Memory Activism: Reimagining the Past for the Future in Israel-Palestine,” which analyzes new modes of engaging in conflict resolution and political change in Israel and Palestine. 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. Fahima Abbas, a postdoctoral fellow in geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses the migration patterns of young and professional Arabs from Arab communities to predominantly Jewish urban areas and what impact it has on them, their communities of origin, and Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. 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. Eli Cook, lecturer in American history at the University of Haifa, discusses his new book, “The Pricing of Progress: Economic Indicators and the Capitalization of of American Life,” a critical history of the emergence and establishment of economic metrics as the gold standard (no pun intended) of progress. 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.

Gwen Ackerman, a veteran American-Israeli journalist, discusses her debut novel, “Goddess of Battle,” a story of an unlikely friendship between two women, a Jewish-American immigrant to Israel and a Palestinian. 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.

Israeli novelist Assaf Gavron discusses his book, “The Hilltop: A Novel,” and explains why a secular Tel Avivian chose to set the plot in a remote Jewish outpost in the West Bank. More broadly, where do the personal and the political overlap, and what is the role of literature in articulating the two? 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. Rafael Medoff, the Founding Director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington, D.C., discusses his co-edited book, “Cartoonists Against the Holocaust,” which offers a comprehensive panorama of how editorial cartoons in newspapers across the United States perceived the rise of Hitler and the world’s reaction to it. 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.

Jupp, Salomon (Sally) Perel’s Nazi alter ego, which he had to play to survive in the Second World War, hasn’t left him more than 70 years on. Perel’s hair-raising story, and the baggage that he carries to this day, have been the center of “4 x Sally,” a thought-provoking art installation co-created by Shimon Lev, an Israeli, and Friedmann Derschmidt, an Austrian, and put on display at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. 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.

Growing up is the pits in the best of times. Growing up Muslim in America has special complexities. Being Muslim in America, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, coming of age during and after September 11, and becoming a public speaker on the religion and culture of Islam could be a formula for collision. Haroon Moghul, Fellow in Jewish-Muslim relations at the Shalom Hartman Institute, has many: with the world, with God, with himself. His book weaves together stories of personal, political, and religious development, and answers questions about Islam for the perplexed of any faith. 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. Brian Dolbert, an assistant professor of communication at California State University, San Marcos, discusses his book, "Media and Culture in the US Jewish Labor Movement: Sweating for Democracy in the Interwar Period." 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Lewis Glinert, a professor of Hebrew Studies at Dartmouth College, discusses his new book, “The Story of Hebrew,” a detailed biography of 3,500 years of life, presumed death, and resurrection. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

David Benkof, a columnist at the Daily Caller, writes from a conservative Republican gay Orthodox Jewish perspective about why he voted for Hillary Clinton and moved to Israel as a Trump refugee, what counts as Presidential racism or anti-Semitism, and why religious pluralism in Israel is bad, but a peace with the Palestinians is good. Not your typical conversation, but one of healthy disagreement and topical relevance. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.  

Omer Bartov, a professor of European history at Brown University, discusses his forthcoming book, "Anatomy of Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz," which offers an intricate analysis of the catastrophic fate of a centuries-old Jewish community, incorporating archival material as well as personal testimonies. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

After fighting apartheid for forty years and surviving a bomb attack in the process, in the early 1990s, Albie Sachs found himself helping to draft the constitution that would become the foundation of the democratic South Africa. After the first free elections, Nelson Mandela appointed him as a justice on the first Constitutional Court in the new South Africa. Albie Sachs offers incomparable insights about law and justice, society and humanity, and South Africa's historic transition in his book, "We, the People: Insights of an Activist Judge." 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a lecturer in Israel Studies at Oxford University, discusses her book City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement, which attempts to explain why American-born Jews are disproportionately represented among immigrants who settled in the West Bank. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Yaakov Katz, the editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post newspaper, discusses his book Weapons Wizards: How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Ethan Katz, an associate professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, discusses his book, "The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France," which recounts the tumultuous relationship between two of France's most significant migrant groups throughout the 20th century. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Cathie Carmichael, a professor of European History at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, discusses the political unrest that plagued the Balkans on the eve of the First World War. Professor Carmichael took part in an international workshop organized by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, entitled, "Nationalism in the History of the Holocaust, Genocide and Mass Violence." 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat, an American-Israeli journalist, discusses her book Unchosen: The Lives of Israel’s New Others, which is the result of a decade of research into the lives and legal hardships of Israel’s migrant workers and asylum seekers. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Bjorn Brenner, a Middle East scholar at the Swedish Defense University, discusses his book Gaza Under Hamas: From Islamic Democracy to Islamic Governance. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Professor Frances Raday, President of the Concord Research Center for Integration of International Law in Israel at the College of Management and a Special Rapporteur at the UN Human Rights Council’s Expert Group on Discrimination against Women, discusses the instances where international law can offer redress to the victims of patriarchy. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Peter Krause, a political scientist at Boston College, discusses his new book Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win, which offers a comparative look on the Algerian, Palestinian, Israeli, and Irish national struggles. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Eileen Barker, professor emerita at the London School of Economics, is one of the world's leading sociologists of religion. Upon her visit to Israel, she speaks to the Tel Aviv Review about the role of religion in the human condition, what a sociological study of religions entails, new versus old religious movements, and more. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Ben Herzog, a lecturer in Israel Studies at Ben Gurion University, discusses his book Revoking Citizenship: Expatriation in America from the Colonial Era to the War on Terror, and offers a better-rounded understanding of the evolution of citizenship. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Professor Hasia Diner, a world-renowned historian of Jewish-American history, discusses her latest book, Roads Taken: The Great Jewish Migration to the New World and the Peddlers Who Forged the Way.   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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Mark Raider, professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, discusses Hayim Greenberg, a legendary yet all but forgotten mid-20th century Jewish-American essayist and thinker. Dr. Raider edited Greenberg’s work into the newly published The Essential Hayim Greenberg: Essays and Addresses on Jewish Culture, Socialism, and Zionism. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Felicia Waldman, a professor at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters and the author of "Tales and Traces of Sephardic Bucharest," discusses the history of Romanian Jewry on the cusp between East and West. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Steven Fine, a Jewish history professor at Yeshiva University and the author of "The Menorah: From the Bible to Modern Israel," analyzes the twists and turns in the millennia-long history of the "Jewish holy grail." 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Sonja Wentling, a professor of history at Concordia College in the US, is the co-author of Herbert Hoover and the Jews: The Origins of the ‘Jewish Vote’ and Bipartisan Support for Israel. Her book analyzes the attitude of the 31st president towards European Jews and Zionism during his administration and, more importantly, in the decades after he left office. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dr. Joseph Ringel, a Jewish studies scholar at Northwestern University, discusses the links between halakha, politics, and culture among Sephardi religious leaders in Israel. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Orly Benjamin, a professor of sociology at Bar-Ilan University, discusses her new book Gendering Israel’s Outsourcing: The Erasure of Employees’ Caring Skills, which offers a feminist critique of socioeconomic and political processes that have affected the most precarious sectors of the Israeli labor market in recent decades. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.  

Listen to a recording of Tel Aviv Review host Gilad Halpern interviewing Yale University's Professor Timothy Snyder about his New York Times number one bestselling book, "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century." History doesn't repeat itself, but what can contemporary Americans learn from 20th-century Europe? 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

When throngs of refugees poured into Europe in 2015, people wanted to help, but didn't know how. Holger Michel, a young German, decided to drop by a shelter and volunteer for a few hours. Immediately captivated, he came back. In short order, he found himself organizing a makeshift shelter for over 1000 refugees in an abandoned municipal building in Berlin for nearly two years. He became an organizer and spokesperson, learning remarkable things about the refugees -- and about Germany. Of her migration policy, Chancellor Angel Merkel said, "We can do it"; Michel's book about his experience is called, "We Are Doing It."   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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

It is difficult to think of anything that has failed as often as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Nathan Thrall of the International Crisis Group argues in his book, “The Only Language they Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine,” that nice negotiations and incentives will never be enough for the stiff-necked people on either side of the Green Line. He claims that only force – either tough diplomatic pressure or actual physical violence – has ever generated real concessions. Thrall discusses why he has reached that conclusion and its implications for reaching a peace accord someday. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

Dorit Rabinyan's third novel about a stormy love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man became a bestseller when Israel's Education Minister banned it from high school required reading lists. What was so threatening about it to the Minister, or to Israel in general? Was she advocating assimilation, humanizing and individualizing the other, or just writing about two young people in love? One of Israel's top novelists discusses her controversial book "All The Rivers," and the autobiographical experiences behind it. 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. Tel Aviv Review is also supported by the Public Discourse Grant from the Israel Institute, which is dedicated to strengthening the field of Israel Studies in order to promote knowledge and enhance understanding of modern Israel.

At the close of the 50th year since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza and applied military rule over the people residing there, Gershon Shafir publishes a new book that not only documents the occupation in all its facets, but also how Israelis and Palestinians experience it. The former group lives as subjects of a colonial system, in Shafir's view, while the latter, he argues, lives in their own state - one he terms "denialism." 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.

The giddy hopes of the Arab uprisings in 2011 have given way to resurgent authoritarian leadership in some states, while others are bleeding to death. These are not auspicious prospects for liberal democracy. But within each country lies a complex set of forces at work that differ from Tunisia to Morocco, or Egypt to Syria. In their collection "Arab Politics beyond the Uprisings: Experiments in an Era of Resurgent Authoritarianism," co-editors Thanassis Cambanis and Michael Wahid Hanna curate 20 articles considering constitutions and corporations, as well as cartoons, youth, women, football, and more. Michael Hanna explains what they learned. 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.

Shulem Deen was raised in an ultra-orthodox sect, the Skverers, considered too extreme even for other Hasidic Jews. He grew up speaking Yiddish in the middle of New York, married in his teens and had five children. Then everything began to change. His book All Who Go Do Not Return is a tell-all of both of the extreme insularity of Hasidic life, and the journey of his soul from the Skverers to the secular world he lives in today. It is a path of great discovery, and tremendous sacrifice. 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. Omar Dajani, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Global Center for Business and Development at the University of the Pacific in California, analyzes Israel's ongoing seizure of the West Bank from a legal perspective: Has the occupation morphed into a de facto annexation? 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. Shlomo Fischer, a sociologist of religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's School of Education, discusses the evolution of justifications presented by right-wing fringe groups who have lobbied to lift the ban on entering the Temple Mount, from the 1970s until today. 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.

Why did the Nazis admire America? Yale University law professor James Q. Whitman started out asking why Hitler in Mein Kampf, and other Nazis in the 1930s, referred to American legal precedents on numerous occasions. What he discovered in the archives surprised him, and may shock readers of his book - or any American. Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law, raises existentially uncomfortable questions about the sources of racial laws in Nazi Germany and the US. 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.

Jewish history professor Aron Rodrigue of Stanford University was the keynote speaker at an international conference held this week at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, dedicated to the Jewish history of Salonica. In the late 15th century, the then-Ottoman city (today the Greek city of Thessaloniki) welcomed large numbers of Sephardi Jews who had been expelled from Spain, making it very soon the largest Jewish city in Europe. A series of crises and disasters, culminating in the Nazi occupation in the 1940s, led to its ultimate destruction. 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.

Larry Derfner, a veteran American-Israeli journalist, discusses his new memoir No Country For Jewish Liberals, chronicling the twin ideological journey that he, as well as Israel, have made since his aliyah in 1985. 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. Amir Engel, a lecturer in German language and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the author of the newly published Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography, analyzes the unique legacy of a leading scholar of Jewish mysticism and one of Israel's first public intellectuals. 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.

America has long been viewed as the quintessential broker of Israeli-Palestinian peace. In his book Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi argues that it's no accident peace has not yet materialized. He shows how the US undermines, rather than advancing an agreement, by playing the role of "Israel's lawyer," or perhaps its siamese twin. 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.

Bernard Avishai, an essayist and lecturer at Dartmouth College and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem discusses his book Promiscuous: 'Portnoy's Complaint and Our Doomed Pursuit of Happiness, outlining how Philip Roth's celebrated novel changed his life, as well as that of so many Americans of his generation. 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. Deborah Golden and Dr. Lauren Erdreich, anthropologists at the University of Haifa and the Levinsky College of Education, discuss their new book (co-authored with Dr. Sveta Roberman) Mothering, Education and Culture: Russian, Palestinian, and Jewish Middle-Class Mothers in Israeli Society. 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. 

Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, a series editor at the SY Agnon Library at Toby Press, discusses the soon-to-be completed 15-volume collection of stories by the famed Israeli author - some appearing in English for the first time. 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. Yael Ziegler, an assistant professor of Bible at Herzog College and the Matan Institute, discusses her book Ruth: From Alienation to Monarchy, which explores one of the Bible's most complex female characters. 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. Dana Mills, a political and cultural theorist, discusses her groundbreaking book Dance and Politics: Moving Beyond Boundaries, which seeks to analyze dance as primarily a political expression. 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. Talia Sagiv, a sociologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem discusses her book On the Fault Line: Israelis of Mixed Ethnicity that focuses on Israelis of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi descent. On paper, they are the realization of the Zionist dream of the gathering of the diaspora, but in reality, their situation is no less troublesome. This episode originally aired on May 2, 2014.  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. Eitan Bar-Yosef of the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics at Ben Gurion University of the Negev and author of A Villa in the Jungle: Africa in Israeli culture, talks about Israelis' fascination with Africa in the early decades of statehood. This episode was originally aired on April 4, 2014.  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

Noemi Schlosser, playwright and director, discusses her forthcoming documentary film The Youth of 1948, which seeks to document and tell the personal stories of the last remaining survivors of Israel's War of Independence. 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. Elad Segev of Tel Aviv University's Department of Communication discusses his recent studies, which have sought to establish whether Israel is really unfairly singled out in the Western media. The results, not surprisingly, are more ambiguous than you might think. This episode was originally aired on March 16, 2014.  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.

Professor Aeyal Gross of Tel Aviv University's law school discusses his new book The Writing on the Wall: Rethinking the International Law of Occupation, and explains how classic categories in international law need to be adapted to a changing political, diplomatic and technological reality.  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.

Adam LeBor, a journalist and author, discusses his new spy thriller novels featuring UN secret agent and former Israeli spy Yael Azoulay, the so-called "Israeli female James Bond." 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. Olga Kirschbaum, a historian (PhD NYU) discusses the intellectual networks of Hannah Arendt, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, during her professional coming of age in the Weimar Republic and in later years. She explores the individual and atmospheric influences on her thinking on politics, human nature, social democracy and Zionism. 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.

Professor Meron Medzini, a Japanologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses his new book Under the Shadow of the Rising Sun: Japan and the Jews during the Holocaust Era. 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. 

Yonathan Mizrachi, director of Emek Shaveh, a Jerusalem-based organization that undertakes to “prevent the politicization of archaeology in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to protect ancient sites belonging to members of all communities, faiths and peoples,” talks politics and archaeology ahead of an event at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute on March 28 entitled "Heritage, Politics and Everything In-between: UNESCO in Israel and Jerusalem." 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. Heather McRobie, a post-doctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University's law school, specializes in Egypt's constitutional law, which went into overdrive in the wake of President Hosni Mubarak's ouster in 2011 and the chaos that ensued.  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. 

Sarah Kreimer, a veteran Israeli-American activist, has just published her memoir Vision and Division in Israel: My Journey Along the Seam, which offers valuable insight into the feats and defeats of Jewish-Arab dialogue in Israel over the years. 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.

Nir Stav, the director of the Israel Meteorological Service, lays out the challenges imposed on the Middle East , and discusses how different countries should be - and already are - coping with them despite the political turmoil the region is embroiled in. The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute's event Cross-border Climate on March 16th will include a lecture by Nir Stav. 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.

Professor Itamar Rabinovich, the president of the Israel Institute, former president of Tel Aviv University and Yitzhak Rabin's ambassador to the United States and chief negotiator with Syria, discusses his newly published biography of the prime minister under whom he served, whose life and tragic death left an indelible mark on Israel's history. 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. Brian Klug, a senior research fellow in Philosophy at St. Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford, discusses his new book Words of Fire: Ahad Ha'am and the Jewish Future, a collection of essays by the maverick early 20th-century Zionist theorist, and analyzes his relevance to today's Israel. 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.

Professor Daniel Monterescu, a professor of anthropology at the Central European University in Budapest and a visiting professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion in Haifa, discusses his new book "Jaffa Shared and Shattered: Contrived Coexistence in Israel/Palestine," an ethnographic study of his native town. 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. Daniel Lee, a historian of the Second World War at the University of Sheffield, discusses the unusual case of Jews in metropolitan France and its North African colonies after the 1940 defeat by Nazi Germany. 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. Yael Berda, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, discusses her forthcoming book Permit, which analyzes Israeli practices of surveillance of the Palestinian population in the West Bank. 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. 

Professor Benny Morris, one of the foremost historians of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has ventured into a new territory. He discusses his forthcoming book that analyzes the Ottoman Empire's policy towards its minorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the 1915 Armenian Genocide as its brutal culmination.  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. Yael Sternhell, lecturer in American history at Tel Aviv University, discusses her book Routes of War: The World of Movement in the Confederate South, and analyzes the interplay between physical movement of populations and the redrawing of the social and political order. 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. Simon Parizhsky, a Jewish literature scholar and program director at Moscow's Eshkolot Center, busts a few myths about the "Dark Ages" of the Soviet Union and the "enlightenment" of the post-Communist era.  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. Karin Loevy, a legal scholar at New York University and the author of the recently published Emergencies in Public Law: The Legal Politics of Containment, and Dr. Yoav Mehozay, a sociologist at the University of Haifa and the author of the recently published Between the Rule of Law and States of Emergency: The Fluid Jurisprudence of the Israeli Regime explain how states of emergency are far more prevalent than we'd like to admit, and the repercussions for democracy that this situation entails. 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. 

Yehuda Shenhav, professor of sociology at Tel Aviv University and editor-in-chief of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute's Maktoob Book Series for Translations from Arabic, discusses how literary translations can outperform scholarship in bringing about positive social change. The first book in the series, Salman Natur's Walking on the Wind, will be launched at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute on Wednesday, February 15. 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.

Robert Goldenberg, Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies at Stony Brook University in New York, discusses the Jewish rituals of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and why a practicing Jew today will unlikely recognize any of them. 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. Abigail Jacobson, a Middle East historian and Academic Director of the Mediterranean Neighbors unit at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, and Dr. Moshe Naor of the department of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa, discuss their co-authored book Oriental Neighbors: Middle Eastern Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine, which explores the interaction - at times cooperative and at others confrontational - between Arabs and Jews of Middle Eastern descent in British-ruled Palestine. 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.

Orthodox rabbi, Jewish educator and philosopher Dr. Sam Lebens who specializes in, among other things, Bertrand Russell's thought, talks about his eclectic borrowing from the two traditions in his own work and the inability to separate between the two. 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.

Prof. Dov Waxman, author of Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel, joins hosts Gilad Halpern and Dahlia Scheindlin to discuss how the divisiveness of President Trump is going to affect the already divided Jewish American community.   Prof. Waxman was also our guest last year, when Hillary Clinton was still the next president. Listen here.   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. Nadia Valman, a literary historian teaching at Queen Mary, University of London, talks about her newly developed walking tour app exploring the history of Jewish east London through the works of Israel Zangwill, a 19th-century Jewish novelist. 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.

Aaron Henne, the artistic director of Theatre Dybbuk in Los Angeles, discusses the creative process of adapting Jewish texts for the stage and making this art palatable to a wide audience. 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.

Maggie Anton, a Talmud scholar and historical fiction writer discusses her new book Fifty Shades of Talmud: What the First Rabbis Had to Say about You-Know-What. 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.

Zev Farber, a rabbi and Hebrew Bible scholar, discusses his latest book Halakhic Realities: Collected Essays on Brain Death and the forthcoming sequel Halakhic Realities: Collected Essays on Organ Donation, showcasing a textbook example of how Jewish law had to adapt to modern realities. 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.

Daisy Abboudi, a historian of the Jewish community of Sudan, recounts the little known history of a small and short-lived Jewish presence in northeast Africa. 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.

Rabbi Professor Art Green, the founder and current rector of the Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Boston, discusses the Hasidic sect that in the space of just several decades has become a major draw for many Jews around the world.  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. 

Ariela Migdal, a women's rights lawyer formerly with the American Civil Liberties Union, analyzes the status of women in the United States and within the Jewish community through some of the cases and campaigns that she led.  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. Amir Locker-Biletzky, a post-doctoral fellow at Concordia University's Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, discusses how the Israeli Communist Party looked back on the participation of its members in the iconic battle against Fascism, and the cult-like culture that it instigated. Song: Rotem Cohen - El Ha'Olam Shelach 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. Ruvi Ziegler, a lecturer in law at the University of Reading, discusses Israel's half-hearted treatment of tens of thousands of African asylum seekers who entered its territory over the last decade, and the mark that they left on Israel's migration law.   Song: Berry Saharof 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.

Professor Martin Kramer, a Middle East scholar and founding president of Jerusalem's Shalem College, discusses his new book "The War on Error: Israel, Islam and the Middle East," a collection of essays seeking to debunk myths and biases within scholarship and commentary on Israel and the Middle East.   Song: Idan Raichel - Ma'agalim 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. Ronen Mendelkern, a political economist at Tel Aviv University, discusses the 1962 New Economic Policy - a plan that sought to liberalize the highly interventionist Israeli economy of the time, that ended up almost entirely in the bin.    Song: Yonatan Raz'El - Katonti 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.

Professor Chaim Gans, a legal and political philosopher at Tel Aviv University, discusses his new book A Political Theory for the Jewish People, which seeks to pave a liberal third way between Zionism (in its current, illiberal version) and post-Zionism. Song: Shai Zabari - HaMelech 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.

Prof. Jeffrey S. Gurock, a historian of American Judaism at Yeshiva University in New York, discusses his latest book The Jews of Harlem: The Rise, Decline and Revival of a Jewish Community, which explores the history of what was at some point the third-largest Jewish community in the US.    Joining the discussion is the Tel Aviv Review's new co-host, international political expert and consultant Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin.     Song: Sivan Shavit - Bein Ha'Etz Lasafsal 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.

Daniel Goldman, the chairman of Gesher, an Israeli civil society organization dedicated to building bridges and mending rifts in Israeli society, and a student of diaspora communities' relationship with the State of Israel, offers a comparative view on the changing patterns of affinity for Israel among American and British Jews.     Song: Shlomi Bracha - Ahava 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.

Gabriel Motzkin, professor of philosophy and the outgoing director of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, discusses the link between religion and scientific production, one of his main areas of expertise, ahead of an event at the Van Leer Institute dedicated to this question. Song: Eran Zur - Lev Al Ma'ake 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.

Professor Itai Sened, the founding chair of the School of Social and Policy Studies at Tel Aviv University whose research, in collaboration with the Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative, focuses on policies pertaining to the use of renewable energy. He explains why Israel should be a leader in the field, and how structural and bureaucratic obstacles get in the way. Song: אריק איינשטיין - קשה לכתוב דמעות   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.

Professor Esther Schor of the Department of English at Princeton University discusses her new book "Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language," which tells the story of one of the most ambitious social experiments in modern history. Song: שלמה גרוניך - נואיבה 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.

Rabbi Burton Visotzky, Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at the Jewish Theological Center in New York, discusses his new book "Aphrodite and the Rabbi: How Jews Adapted Roman Culture to Create Judaism as We Know It," tracing the many imprints Greco-Roman culture has left on Judaism's evolution throughout the centuries. Song: Sivan Talmor - Circles   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.

Professor Naomi Chazan, a political scientist and the co-director of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute's Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere (WIPS), discusses the center's latest Gender Index report, Israel's most comprehensive database of gender inequality in the country. Song: Hats ft. Gal De Paz - No Love Song 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. Boaz Cohen, lecturer in history and chair of the Holocaust Studies Program at the Western Galilee College, discusses his new book Was Their Voice Heard? Early Holocaust Testimonies of Child Survivors and analyzes the treatment of underage survivors and how it could inform refugee relief agencies working today. Song: Rafi Perski - Berlin   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. Erella Grassiani, an anthropologist at the University of Amsterdam, discusses her new book Soldiering the Occupation: Processes of Numbing among Israeli Soldiers in the Al Aqsa Intifada, where she analyzes the link between the spatial aspects of Israel's control of the West Bank and its moral consequences. Song: Boy of the world - Tipkas 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.

History Professor Wm. Roger Louis of the University of Texas at Austin, a world-renowned expert in British imperial history, discusses the repercussions of two WWI British foreign policy decisions - the Sykes-Picot agreement and the Balfour Declaration - that are still felt across the Middle East to this day. Prof. Louis participated in an international symposium at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute upon the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot agreement. Song: Yael Dekelbaum - Tfilat HaImahot   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. Orit Rozin, professor of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University, is the author of the newly published A Home for All Jews: Citizenship, Rights and National Identity in the New Israeli State. In her research, she analyzes the day-to-day practices with which the establishment and immigrants themselves have shaped the famous Israeli melting pot. Song: The Idan Raichel Project - Im Hayit Ro'a 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.

Prof. Uri Ram, a sociologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and author of the recently published The Return of Martin Buber: National and Social Thought in Israel from Buber to the Neo-Buberians, sheds light on an oft-forgotten chapter in the life of the celebrated Jewish theologian and political thinker. Appointed in 1947, Buber was the first chair in sociology in Israel, and introduced ideas that were quickly sidelined but have taken center stage in recent years.  Song: Meir Ariel - Neshel Hanachash 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

Professor Carlo Ginzburg, one of the greatest historians of our time, is in Israel this week participating in an event at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute marking the 100th birthday of his mother, renowned novelist Natalia Ginzburg. He joins Gilad Halpern to discuss the historian's role in the digital age, the tenets of "micro-history" (the school his work "The Cheese and the Worms" was instrumental in founding), and the fine line between historical narrative and fiction. Song: Aviva Dese - Shorashim 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.

Prof. William Kolbrener, professor of English literature at Bar-Ilan University, discusses with host Gilad Halpern his recently published book The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and the Talmudic Tradition. It presents a critical evaluation of the work of one of the greatest Jewish theologians of the 20th century, who can be credited almost single-handedly with laying the foundations of Modern Orthodoxy. Song: Ivri Lider - Ha'ahava Hazot Shelanu 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. Dahlia Scheindlin, policy fellow at Mitvim - The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, discusses parallels between the ongoing Cyprus and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts and reflects on the benefit of comparing the two.   Song: Shlomo Artzi - Vehaemet 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

Oded Gilad, the director of the newly founded One World - The Movement for Global Democracy, explains to host Gilad Halpern how shortcomings of the present international system could be addressed with a different, thoroughly democratic approach to dealing with global challenges such as climate change and poverty. Song: Ovadia Hamame & Gad Elbaz - Mode Ani  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.

Prof. Lev Grinberg is a sociologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a visiting lecturer at Dartmouth College in the United States. He discusses with host Gilad Halpern his book Politics and Violence in Israel/Palestine: Democracy vs. Military Rule and tries to establish why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, compared to other seemingly intractable conflicts of the 20th century, has proven so resilient. Song: Dori Ben Ze'ev - Sof Shavua Bakfar 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.

Gad Yair is a professor of sociology and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He discusses with host Gilad Halpern his forthcoming book The Unruly Mind, which analyzes how - and why - Israeli scientists go about their business in such a different way to their international peers. Song: Marina Maximilian - Tango 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. Yarden Enav, an anthropologist at Israel's Open University, discusses with host Gilad Halpern his book Israeliness in No Man's Land: Citizenship in the West Bank of Israel/Palestine. He analyzes the ongoing attempt to establish normative Israeliness amid legal and political uncertainty. Song: HaClick - Incubator 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. D Gershon Lewental, an Israel Studies professor at the University of Oklahoma, gives host Gilad Halpern an overview of the Baha'i religion - an offshoot of Shi'a Islam that set up shop in the Holy Land (albeit not in Jerusalem, thankfully). They discuss its relationship with the local ethnic groups under the different regimes. Song: Ethnix - Tutim 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

Prof. Zvi Ziegler is Professor Emeritus of mathematics at the Technion and Chairman of the Israeli inter-university forum to combat academic boycotts. He assesses with host Gilad Halpern the threat posed to Israeli academia by international calls for a boycott, and explains how Israel tries - and in most cases succeeds - to thwart them. Song: Geva Alon - Days of Hunger   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

Nimrod Lin, a doctoral fellow in history at the University of Toronto, tracks back the emergence of the demographic discourse in Zionism. He discusses with host Gilad Halpern how, at different stages in Zionist history, the leadership tried to cope with this ongoing challenge. Song: Liron Amram & HaPanterim - Hashahar 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.

Meital Regev, a doctoral fellow at the archaeology and land of Israel studies department at Bar-Ilan University, discusses with host Gilad Halpern Israel's sometimes ambivalent attitude towards the prospective immigration of Ethiopia's centuries-old Jewish community, since the enactment of the Law of Return in 1950. Song: Hanan Ben Ari - Ima Im Haiti 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.

Prof. Michael Levin is a historian of architecture at Shenkar College for Engineering, Art and Design, and co-editor of Richard Kaufmann and the Zionist Project. He discusses with host Gilad Halpern the life and works of the Jewish-German architect, who was hired in 1920 as the chief planner of the Zionist community and who single-handedly shaped the landscape of modern Israel. A launch event, complete with a tour of Jerusalem guided by Prof. Levin, is organized by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute on Monday, September 26. Song: Ester Rada - Ata Pele 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. Ori Goldberg, a scholar of political Islam and lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, analyzes with host Gilad Halpern the novelty of the Islamic State group. Dr. Goldberg explains why IS poses new threats and offers new opportunities to the West. Song: Shlomi Bracha - Tsav 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.

Gabriel Mitchell, a doctoral fellow in government and international affairs at the University of Virginia Tech, discusses with host Gilad Halpern how Israel balances security interests and economic opportunity, in light of the recent discovery of huge offshore gas fields. Song: Hadag Nahash & Yehudit Ravitz - Ad Hasof 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.

After the fall of Communism, photographer Yuri Dojc returned to his native Slovakia to document the country's Jewish community, which remained intact in every respect except one: Its people. Dojc's new exhibition, "Last Folio," opens this week at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. It features photos of dilapidated books, abandoned synagogues and decrepit old people, symbolizing a once buzzing Jewish life. He and curator Katya Krausova join host Gilad Halpern. Song: Shalom Hanoch - An'Lo Yodea Eich Lomar Lach 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.

Colin Shindler, professor emeritus of Israel Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, discusses with host Gilad Halpern his book The Rise of the Israeli Right: From Odessa to Hebron, a comprehensive review of the evolution of the conservative and nationalist sections in Zionism. Song: HaBiluim - Ani Afrika'i 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. Sara Shadmi-Wortman, chair of the community research and action programs at Oranim Academic College, discusses with host Gilad Halpern how the community - an ostensibly invisible social structure - can be engineered and constructed for the benefit of social cohesion and quality of life. Song: Ayala Ingedashet - Basar Vadam 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.

Prof. Mohammed Wattad, a legal scholar at the University of California at Irvine and Zefat Academic College in Israel, explores with host Gilad Halpern the cultural and professional orientation of Israel's highest legal instance, past and present. Song: Danny Sanderson - Khoshev Alayich 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. Merav Ben-Nun, a lecturer at Oranim Academic College of Education and the founding principal of Haifa's first Jewish-Arab school, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the hopes and frustrations that the enterprise provides on a daily basis. Song: Hadag Nahash - Af Ehad 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.

Ilan Peleg, a professor of government, law and Israel Studies at Lafayette College, analyzes with host Gilad Halpern the recent shift in Israel's hegemonic discourse from confident self-reliance to radical victimhood. Song: The Apples ft. Jessie Evans - Purified 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. Rachel Back, a poet, translator and lecturer in English literature at Oranim Academic College for Education, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the overlap between poetry, education and progressive social change. Song: Sivan Talmor - Circles 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.

Zachary Smith, a doctoral fellow in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, analyzes with host Gilad Halpern the critique leveled at the two pillars of classic Zionism - rootedness and a Western orientation - by contemporary Mizrahi radicals in Israel. Song: Teapacks - Ma Iti 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.

Prof. William Miles, a political scientist at Northeastern University in Boston, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the challenges 21st-century Israel poses to the Druze - a largely integrationist indigenous group - against the backdrop of the tensions between Jews and Arabs, the turmoil in the Middle East, and life in a modern economy. Song: Yoni Rechter - Be'etsem At Po Leyadi 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.

Adina Hoffman, an Israeli-American writer, critic and essayist, discusses with host Gilad Halpern her new book Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architects of a New City, which tells the story of three architects - a Jew, an Englishman and an Arab - who were instrumental in designing the skyline of modern Jerusalem in the first half of the 20th century. Song: Meni Beger - Ze Haya Beiti 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. Azriel Bermant, a historian and international relations professor at Tel Aviv University, discusses with host Gilad Halpern his book Margaret Thatcher and the Middle East, exploring the relationship of Great Britain's legendary prime minister with Israel and the Arab World. Song: Tuna - Gam Ze Ya'avor 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.

Prof. Rebeca Raijman, a sociologist at the University of Haifa, discusses with host Gilad Halpern her book South African Jews in Israel: Assimilation in Multigenerational Perspective, highlighting the distinctive characteristics of one of the English speaking world's largest Jewish communities, before and after their mass aliya. Song: Chava Albershtein - Karega Ze Nir'e Lo Tov 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. Leah Gilula, a theater studies scholar, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the limits of satirical plays during the British Mandate period, and their contribution to the creation of a homegrown Israeli culture. Song: Funset - Wake up 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. Guy Ziv, an assistant professor of international relations at the American University in Washington, DC, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the evolution of peacemaking policies among Israel's political and military circles, which are sometimes at odds with each other. Song: Danny Sanderson - Galshan 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.

Geoffrey Levin, a doctoral student in the Departments of History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, discusses with host Gilad Halpern how Jewish Americans viewed Israel's treatment of its largest ethnic minority in the 1950s and 60s, when they were subjected to military rule. Song: The Paz Band - Without A Sight 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.

Kathryn David, a fellow at New York University's Jordan Center for Advanced Study of Russia, discusses with host Gilad Halpern how Jews and anti-Semitism have been utilized in the media war between Russia and Ukraine, against the backdrop of the Crimean crisis. Song: Kutiman - I Think I Am ft. Karolina 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.

Prof. David Tal, a historian of the Arab-Israeli conflict at the University of Sussex, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the commonly-held belief that Israel could have avoided the devastating Yom Kippur War by accommodating to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's peace overtures. Is this no more than a myth created with the benefit of hindsight? Song: Arik Einstein - Kshe At Bocha At Lo Yafa 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. Rachel Harris, an associate professor of Israeli literature and culture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, sits down with host Gilad Halpern to put the spotlight on a relatively obscure Israeli film genre - the Western. Song: Asaf Avidan - Love It Or Leave It 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. Tony Michels, a historian of American Jewry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the changing attitudes of (predominantly Jewish) American Marxists towards Zionism during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath. Song: Shlomi Shaban - Ikea 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. Shira Klein, a historian at Chapman University in California, discusses with host Gilad Halpern new approaches to teaching the complexities of Israel to American undergraduate students. Song: Sivan Talmor - I'll Be 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. Ariela Keysar, a demographer at Trinity College, Connecticut, talks to host Gilad Halpern about the oft-ignored role of grandparents in shaping college students' political worldview. Song: Roy Dahan - Time To Leave 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. Tamir Libel, a research fellow at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI), explains to host Gilad Halpern what "strategic culture" is and how it affects policy-making in the field of national security, in Israel and beyond. Song: David D'Or And Ehud Banai - Zman Ahava 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. Uta Larkey, professor of German and the Director of the Center for the Study of Modern Languages at Goucher College in the United States, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the migration patterns of Jewish displaced persons from Germany in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Song: Guy Mezig - Mitorer Meuchar 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.

Prof. Csaba Nikolenyi, a political scientist at Concordia University in Canada and the director of the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies there, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the effects of the phenomenon of party swapping on political stability in Israel over the years. Song: Eitan Masuri - Elohim Natan Lecha Bematana 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.

Sam Fleischacker, a professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, discusses with host Gilad Halpern his latest book The Good and the Good Book, which seeks to establish how valid sacred texts are for the modern, rational man. Song: Rona Kenan - Ani Va'atsmi 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.

Prof. Dov Waxman, a political science, international affairs and Israel Studies scholar at Northeastern University, discusses with host Gilad Halpern his new book Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict Over Israel, which explores the evolution of the Israel debate among Jewish Americans over the years. Song: J Views - Into The Light 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.

Aram Abu Saleh, a student at Jerusalem's Israel Arts and Science Academy, is the recipient of the Van Leer award for outstanding essays written by high school students. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about Abul 'Alaa al Ma'ari, a maverick 11th century Islamic theologian and poet, whose unconventional views remain hated and admired in equal measure. Song: Gili Yalo - City Life 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.

Prof. Russell Berman, a literary scholar at Stanford University, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the pedagogic rationale behind his undergraduate seminar "Zionism and the Novel," and how a critical study of literature can enrich the debate about Israel and Zionism. Song: OSOG - Who Who 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.

Prof. Motti Inbari, a religions scholar at the University of North Carolina Pembroke, is the author of the new book Jewish Radical Ultra-Orthodoxy Confronts Modernity, Zionism and Women's Equality. Prof. Inbari discusses with host Gilad Halpern the genealogy of the two most radical examples of Jewish ultra-Orthodoxy: Jerusalem's Neturei Karta and Brooklyn's Satmar Hasidim. Song: Sharon Lifshitz - Machshavot Hakaits 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.

Prof. Chandra Mukerji, a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Communication and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego, is the author of the forthcoming book Reimagining Modernity. She discusses with host Gilad Halpern her thesis that traces the origins of modernity to the Black Death, which instigated a complete overhaul in the way society functioned and perceived itself. Song: Nechi Nech - Lamrot Hakol (Balada LePetach Tikva) 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.

Host Gilad Halpern speaks to Prof. Gili Drori, head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and co-chair of the international conference "Internationalization, Globalization and Governance of Academia," which was recently held at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. They discuss how universities have adapted to market forces and global capitalism with a mixture of accommodation and resistance. Song: Eatliz - Attractive 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.

Prof. Haim Yacobi, a political geographer at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, is the author of the recently published Israel and Africa: A Genealogy of Moral Geography (the Hebrew version was published by the Van Leer Institute). Prof. Yacobi explains to host Gilad Halpern how Israel's political and conceptual relationship with the African continent over the years contributed to the shaping of its own space and identity. Song: Karolina - Tsel Ets Tamar 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. Uriel Abulof, a political scientist at Tel Aviv University, is the author of the new book The Mortality and Morality of Nations. He discusses with host Gilad Halpern the three case studies explored in his book - three national collectives that have been pathologically insecure about the validity of their identity and the viability of their polity: French Canadians, Afrikaners, and Jewish Israelis. Song: Hili Yalon - Habayit Hu Halev 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. Itzick Shai, an archaeologist and lecturer in Israeli heritage at Ariel University, talks to host Gilad Halpern about the excavation of Tel Burna, in the coastal lowlands in southwestern Israel. There, he and his colleagues apply their inclusive "community" approach to archaeology. Song: Arik Einstein - Shavir 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. Aidan Beatty, a post-doctoral fellow in Israel Studies at the Concordia University, Canada, is the author of the forthcoming book Masculinity and Power in Irish Nationalism, 1884-1938. He discusses with host Gilad Halpern the surprisingly many parallels between Zionism and Irish nationalism. Song: Dikla - Sheva BaErev 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.

Prof. Meira Polliack of the Department of Bible Studies at Tel Aviv University discusses with host Gilad Halpern the conceptual and theological exchanges between Islam and Judaism in the 9th and 10th centuries. Song: Adrian Younge feat. Karolina & Letitia Sadier - Hands Of God 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.

Shai Ferraro, a religions scholar at Tel Aviv University, explores with host Gilad Halpern the emergence of pagan rituals in contemporary Israel against the backdrop of Judaism's acrimonious relationship with idolatry. Song: Gazoz - Roni 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. Esther Carmel-Hakim, a historian of Zionism at the University of Haifa, explores with host Gilad Halpern the central role women played in the Jewish national movement from its early stages, and explains why they've been marginalized by the official historiography. Song: Gal de Paz Band - The Change 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. Rachel Werczberger, an anthropologist, religious scholar, and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, explores with host Gilad Halpern the recent evolution of new forms of spirituality in Israeli society, against the backdrop of tradition and the advent of neoliberalism. Song: Shotey Hanevua - Yedia 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.

Joel Migdal, professor of international studies at the University of Washington, is the author of the recently published Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. He offers host Gilad Halpern an analysis of how the Middle East turned out to be a microcosm of American foreign policy. Song: Jango - Yoter Mehakol 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. Shayna Weiss, a Jewish history scholar and post-doctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University, traces with host Gilad Halpern the origin of gender segregation at beaches in Tel Aviv, and the surprising roles that religion, propriety, and Zionism played in it. Song: Hadorbanim - Shuv Hadisco Kan 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. David Hadar, a literary scholar and post-doctoral fellow at the Open University, analyzes with host Gilad Halpern the influence, overt and covert, of the Jewish-American novelist on the much younger Israeli-Arab author, drawing parallels between their troubled literary personas. Song: Matisyahu - Sunshine 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, a lecturer in international history and politics at the University of Leeds, UK, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the tumultuous life of his great aunt, Leah Trachtman-Palchan, a Communist activist who was deported from British-ruled Palestine to the Soviet Union only to reconnect with her Zionism decades later. Her edited memoir, Between Tel Aviv and Moscow: A Life of Dissent and Exile in Mandate Palestine and the Soviet Union, has recently appeared in English. Song: Leah Shabat - Sod Hadvarim Hapshutim 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. Dina Moyal, a historian specializing in the legal history of the Soviet Union, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the trials of Nazi criminals and collaborators in the Soviet Union during and in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, and how it reflects the Soviets' perception of the concept of justice. Song: Maor Cohen - Hachi Yafa Baolam 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.

Host Gilad Halpern and Professor Yaarah Bar-On; the President of Oranim Teachers College and a historian of the kibbutz movement, analyse the crisis that has all but decimated the once illustrious centrepiece of Israel and Zionism and offers first thoughts about its potential rejuvenation.  Song: Yuval Dayan - Tenagen 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 Israe

Dr Daniel Schiffman, an economic historian and a senior lecturer in the department of Economics and Business Administration at Ariel University, is the co-author of the forthcoming book Economic Advisers and Advice: Crises, Reform and Stabilization in Israel. Together host Gilad Halpern and Dr Schiffman explore the contribution of Jewish-American advisers to the Israeli economy over the years. Song: Rita & Eliad - Im Niga 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.

Host Gilad Halpern talks to Brian Horowitz, professor of Jewish Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans, and the co-editor of the recently published Story of My Life, the first of three autobiographies written by Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky, the founding father of Israel's Revisionist right. An unusual figure, Jabotinksy spent most of his public life swimming against the Zionist current, until his untimely death in 1940. Song: Ester Rada - I Wish 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.

Host Gilad Halpern and Vivian Liska, professor of German literature and the director of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, discuss one of the themes featuring in her forthcoming book, German Jewish Thought and its Aftermath: A Precarious Legacy: How can Jewish thought extract itself from a generations-long paradox that sees exile as a blessing and a curse at the same time? Song: Tamuz - Ani Lo Yodea Eich Lomar Lach   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.

Padraig O'Malley, professor of peace and reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts and author of the recently published The Two State Delusion: Israel Palestine - A Tale of Two Narratives, discusses with host Gilad Halpern, why what for decades was the most likely resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has ceased to have any chances of survival. Song: Leah Shabat - Sod Hadvarim Hapshutim 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.

Explore the Hassidic settlement of Kiryas Yoel, in upstate New York, which offers a unique insight into questions of diaspora and sovereignty.

Dr. Tal Elmaliach, a historian of Zionism at the University of Wisconsin, discusses with host Gilad Halpern how Zionist youth movements played an increasingly significant role in redefining American Judaism in the 1960s. Song: Rami Kleinstein - Tapuchim Utmarim 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. Ariel Sheetrit, a lecturer in Arabic language and literature at the Ben-Gurion of the Negev and in Arab film at the Open University, is the coordinator of the research group at the Van Leer Institute dedicated to the study of Arabic narratives of migration and journey. She analyzes with host Gilad Halpern how the East-West encounter was seen and construed in "Eastern" eyes, from as early as the 11th century. Song: Totemo - SeeSaw 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. Sharman Kadish, a historian of British Jewry and founding director of the charity Jewish Heritage UK, takes host Gilad Halpern through the demographic and cultural evolution of the Jewish community of Great Britain. Song: Hakeves HaShisha Asar - Kshe Ehye Gadol 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.

Prof. Uriya Shavit of the Arabic and Islamic Studies department at Tel Aviv University and the author of the recently published Zionism in Arab Discourses, explores the complex attitude of Islamic and liberal intellectuals towards Israel, combining envy, contempt, appreciation and pure hate. Song: Natan Goshen - Ze Shelanu 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.

Prof. Michael J Cohen, a Professor Emeritus of History at Bar-Ilan University, is the author of the recently published Britain's Moment in Palestine: Retrospect and Perspective. Talking to host Gilad Halpern, he takes a comprehensive look at the tumultuous 30-year mandate on Palestine, which started with great promise but ended up as one of the nails in the coffin of the British Empire. Song: Ram Orion - Hashlama 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.

Prof. Amikam Nachmani, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University, is studying Europe's encounter with its Muslim immigrants in the 21st century. He tells host Gilad Hapern how this is not a bilateral relationship, but rather a "love triangle," with the legacy of the Jewish presence being the third pole. Song: Shlikhey HaBlues - Shtaim BaLayla 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.

Prof. Chaim Noy is a professor of communications at the University of South Florida and the author of a new book Thank You For Dying for Our Country: Commemorative Texts and Performances in Jerusalem. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about his meticulous study of the visitor book at Jerusalem's most celebrated former battlefield, and the glimpse it offers into the make-up of Israeli society today. Song: Sivan Talmor - Fire 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. Anat Helman, a professor of Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the author of the new book Becoming Israeli: National Ideals and Everyday Life in the 1950s. She explores with host Gilad Halpern the everyday practices adopted by the early Israelis, which reflected their reception of the cultural project of Zionism. Song: Idan Raichel - Ma'agalim 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.

Prof. Leonard Saxe, a sociologist and professor of contemporary Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, is a world-renowned expert on Birthright Israel, the program that has brought hundreds of thousands of young Diaspora Jews to Israel. He analyzes with host Gilad Halpern its phenomenal success, which has surpassed the expectations of even its most ardent supporters. Song: Tsemed Reot - Boker Tov Amir 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.

Prof. Orit Bashkin, a Middle East scholar at the University of Chicago, talks to host Gilad Halpern about her original perspective on the history of Jews in the Levant and Egypt, which transcends the common perception of the communities as victims of the inevitable clash between Arab nationalism and Zionism. Song: Ester Rada - Nanu Ney 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.

Dor Saar, a historian of Judaism at Tel Aviv University, discusses the curious case of a 17th-century Jewish theologian and mysticist called Abraham Miguel Cardoso, one of the principal backers of Sabbatai Zevi, the most well-known false messiah in the history of Judaism. Song: Yehudit Ravitz - Gaagua 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.

Prof. Moshe Zimmermann, a historian of modern Germany at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, attempts to draw lessons from the fragile and divided German democracy of the early 1930s for today's Israel, in the wake of a panel discussion entitled "The red lines of Israeli democracy" that was held at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Song: Uzi Ramirez - She's So Young 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. Adar Yarum, an art historian at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the life and journals of Cyriac (Ciriaco) of Ancona, a 15th century traveler credited with bringing the long-lost marvels of the Classical world to Renaissance Italy. Song: Micha Shitrit - Masmerim Venotzot 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.

Prof. Arie Sover, the founding chair of the Israeli Society for the Study of Humor, dissects with host Gilad Halpern the ins and outs of his field, in an Israeli and a global context, ahead of the society's annual conference. Song: Matisyahu - One Day 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.

Prof. Raanan Rein, a historian of Spain and Latin America and Vice-President of Tel Aviv University, explores the tumultuous relationship between Israel and Spain before and after diplomatic relations were established, as late as 1986. Song: Gili Yalo - Hailoga 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. Avner Wishnitzer, senior lecturer in Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University, is the author of the recently published Reading Clocks Alla Turca: Time and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire. He analyzes with host Gilad Halpern the tension between tradition and modernity in 19th century Turkey through the introduction of the concepts of standardized time. Song: Si Himan - Bekhol Makom 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.

Ofer Idels, a doctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University's Department of History, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the heated debate that swept the Jewish community in Palestine ahead of the 1936 Olympic Games, held in Nazi Berlin. Song: Eilad - Spirits (Rukhot) 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.

Prof. Benjamin Z. Kedar, Professor Emeritus of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and former Vice-President of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, talks to host Gilad Halpern about his newly published collection of essays about Chaim Weizmann. Prof. Weizmann was Israel's first president and leader of the World Zionist Organization throughout much of the pre-state period, and maintained an active career as a chemist in parallel to his statesmanship. Where do science and state affairs interact? If you ask Weizmann, almost everywhere. Song: Buttering Trio - No Joke 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.

Prof. Jeff Halper, an anthropologist and human rights activist, talks to host Gilad Halpern about his latest book, War Against the People; Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification, in which he analyzes the "securocratic" regime that dominates global politics, with Israel at its forefront. Song: Cohenbeats & KerenDun - What's On Your Mind

Zev Harvey, professor emeritus of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the life and opinions of Prof. Aviezer Ravitzky, one of Israel's foremost Jewish philosophers, ahead of a public event that will take place in his honor at the Van Leer Institute on Thursday, January 14, under the banner "The engaged intellectual and Jewish Philosophy." Song: The Idan Raichel Project - She'eriot Shel Ha'Chaim 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. Guy Ziv, an international relations professor at the American University in Washington, DC, is the author of the recently published Why Hawks Become Doves: Shimon Peres and Foreign Policy Change. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about the leftward shift of Israel's political establishment over the decades, and Shimon Peres' own journey as the standard-bearer of this shift. Song: Teapacks - Zmanim Ktanim 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. Ido Shahar, a lecturer in Middle East history at the University of Haifa, is the author of the recently published Legal Pluralism in the Holy City: Competing Courts, Forum Shopping and Institutional Dynamics in Jerusalem. He lays out for host Gilad Halpern his "organizational ethnography" of Muslim state courts in Jerusalem, how they interact with other legal entities, and how they affect the city's heterogeneous Muslim population. Song: Shai Tsabari - Lavi Oti 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.

Prof. Ghil'ad Zuckermann, a professor of linguistics at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and Dr. Gitit Holzmann, a lecturer in Jewish philosophy at the Levinsky Teachers' College in Tel Aviv, discuss the linguistic, educational, and political implications and limitations of the crown jewel of the Zionist enterprise: The revival of the Hebrew language. Song: Alma Zohar - Egotrip 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. Roni Weinstein, a historian of Judaism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explores with host Gilad Halpern the origins of Jewish mysticism (in 16th and 17th century Palestine), which influenced Jewish orthodoxy for centuries to come. Song: Sivan Talmor - I'll Be 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.

Holocaust survivor Simon Malkes has dedicated his recently published memoirs to the man who saved him, a Nazi officer called Karl Plagge, for whom he lobbied Yad Vashem for recognition as a Righteous Gentile. Malkes tells host Gilad Halpern his story. Song: Ninet - Child

Adi Sherzer, a doctoral fellow at the Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, explores with host Gilad Halpern the construction of the Israeli national narrative in the early years, bridging statehood and millennia of Jewish tradition. Song: Karolina, Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Loren Oden - Feel Alive

Dr. Orli Sela, an environmental and legal historian at New York University, explores the evolution of the perception of water abundance and its place in the state building effort, before and after the establishment of the State of Israel. Song: The Secret Sea - Afterlife

Dr. Rony Klein, professor of political philosophy at Tel Aviv University specializing in French political thought, explores how late 20th century Jewish philosophers posed a challenge to the ideas of Enlightenment that were the predominant themes in their intellectual sphere. Song: Ivri Lider - Makom Leyoter

Dr. Aviva Tal, professor of Yiddish literature at Bar-Ilan University, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the forgotten history of Jewish criminality in the early 20th century, and how central it was to Jewish life during that period. Song: Evyatar Banai- Matanot

Dr. Ran Zwigenberg, professor of history and Asian studies at Pennsylvania State University and author of the recently published Hiroshima: The Origins of Global Memory Culture, explores with host Gilad Halpern the parallel cultures of commemoration that emanated from the two biggest catastrophes of the Second World War: Hiroshima and Auschwitz. Song: Doda - Elef Kaba'im

Dr. Hadas Cohen, a post-doctoral fellow at the Social Science Research Center in Berlin, discusses with host Gilad Halpern her analysis of the construction of Israeli identity through transgressions and aberrations from it, specifically the case of the "traitress" Tali Fahima. Song: Russo and Weinberg - Travel

Dr. Yakir Englander, a Jewish philosophy scholar at Harvard University and expert on interfaith dialogue, both as an activist and a scholar, reviews with host Gilad Halpern the role of religion in perpetuating and assuaging conflict, in the Israeli-Palestinian context and beyond. Song: Omer Netzer - Couldn't Love You Any More

Dr. Ido Yoav, a sociologist and anthropologist at Sapir College, joins host Gilad Halpern to analyze the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on its 20th anniversary, through the perspective of the sociology of emotions. The lesson: It could happen again, and for the reasons you may think. Song: Gan Khayot - Yareakh Kakhol

Dr. Dara Barnat, a poet and culture scholar at Tel Aviv University, talks to host Gilad Halpern about the universal message of the great 19th-century American poet, and how it influenced future generations of Jewish-American poets in their quest to come to terms with their composite identity. Song: Russo & Weinberg - My Man

Dr. Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler, historian of architecture at Sapir Academic College and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, talks to host Gilad Halpern about the post-colonial perspective she espouses when studying the history of architecture in Israel throughout the 20th century. Song: Marina Maximilian - Tango

Dr. Omri Asscher, head of the Translation Diploma Track at Beit Berl College and a post-doctoral fellow at the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies and the State of Israel at the University of Haifa, explains to host Gilad Halpern how Israeli literature was modified by translators and editors to conform with the prevalent worldview of American Jews. Song: Red Band ft. Sarit Hadad - Baby Can I Hold You

Dr. Boaz Lev Tov, academic director of the Time Tunnel at Beit Berl College, talks to host Gilad Halpern about the benefits of oral history in understanding the lives and interactions of ordinary people in Israel throughout the generations. Song: Tsliley Ha'ud - Ani Gedalia

Prof. Hillel Cohen, a Middle East historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the author of the newly published 1929: Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about how the violent Palestinian uprising of August 1929 was a watershed moment for the Jews and Arabs in Palestine, and for the entire world. Song: KerenDun and Echo - I'll Follow You

Assaf Gamzou, curator at the Israeli Cartoon Museum in Holon, gives host Gilad Halpern a review of a new exhibition that tells the Bible stories in caricatures, and ponders the link between cartoons and Judaism. Song: Maor Cohen - Adam Acher

Elliot Jager, journalist, political scientist, and commentator, is the author of the recently published The Pater: My Father, My Judaism, My Childlessness. He takes host Gilad Halpern through a semi-autobiographical exploration of what it means to be a childless Jewish man today, in Israel and beyond. Song: Eatliz - One of Us

Prof. Steven Gimbel, philosopher of science at Gettysburg College in the United States, is the author of the recently published Einstein: His Space and Time. He analyzes with host Gilad Halpern what factors propelled Albert Einstein to be the most celebrated scientist of our time, and what part his Jewishness played in it. Song: Dudu Tassa - Mishtara

Prof. Monty Noam Penkower, Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at the Machon Lander Graduate School of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, is the author of Palestine in Turmoil: The Struggle for Sovereignty 1933-1939. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about the period during which two intractably adversarial national movements were formed in Palestine. Song: Gidi Gov - Bil'adayich

Prof. Warren Brodsky, a music psychologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and author of the recently published Driving With Music: Cognitive-Behavioral Implications, explains to host Gilad Halpern why you should be extra careful before you choose the playlist for your daily commute. Song: Berry Saharof - Od Chozer Hanigoon

Dr. Adi Moreno, a sociologist at the University of Manchester in the UK, studies how the increasing phenomenon of gay couples starting families affects preconceptions about family and continuity in Israel. She sits down with host Gilad Halpern. Song: Keren Ann - Lay Your Head Down

Dr. Ron Schleifer, head of the Center for Defense and Communication at Ariel University and author of Psychological Warfare in the Arab-Israeli Conflict talks to host Gilad Halpern about an invisible, yet extremely effective, element of warfare in the protracted Middle East conflict and beyond. Song: Ester Rada - Monsters

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

Dr. Assaf Nativ, post-doctoral fellow in archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the author of Prioritizing Death and Society: The Archaeology of Chalcolithic and Contemporary Cemeteries in the Southern Levant. He explains to host Gilad Halpern how comparing burial practices that are millennia apart can shed light on each other, and on the human condition. Song: Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad feat. Karolina & Loren Oden - Feel Alive

Dr. Yonatan Mendel, the director of the Center for Jewish-Arab relations at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, is author of the recently published "The Creation of Israeli Arabic: Security and Politics in Arabic Studies in Israel." Dr. Mendel explains to host Gilad Halpern why generations of Israeli high school students who specialized in Arabic are unable to string a sentence together. Song: Guy Mazig - Levad Bamidbar

Jeffrey S. Gurock, professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University, delves into the realm of counterfactual history in his recently published The Holocaust Averted: An Alternate History of American Jews, 1938-1967. Talking with host Gilad Halpern, he imagines a very different existence for the community had the Second World War taken a different course. Song: Noa Shemer - Noa

Dr. Jonathan Rynhold is a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University and the author of a new book The Arab-Israeli Conflict in American Political Culture, which can be bought here. The United States is the only western country where support for Israel has reached an all-time high in the 21st century - Dr. Rynhold explains to Gilad Halpern why this is. Song: Asaf Avidan & The Mojos - Hangwoman

Dr. Asaf Romirowsky, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, has co-authored a new book Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about the involvement of American religious groups in diplomacy and refugee relief during Israel's War of Independence and its immediate aftermath. Song: Ehud Banai - Florentin

Prof. Meir Zamir, Middle East scholar at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is the author of the newly published The Secret Anglo-French War in the Middle East: Intelligence and Decolonization, 1940-1948. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about efforts of British intelligence officials, sometimes unbeknown to their government, to "advance" British interests in the Middle East at the expense of the new order that was shaping the region in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Song: Eatliz - Sunshine

Dr. Moshe Berent, a political scientist at the Open University, is the author of the recently published A Nation Like All Nations: Towards the the Establishment of an Israeli Republic. He reviews with host Gilad Halpern the marginal role that republicanism played in Zionist thought, and highlights its tensions with the idea of a Jewish state.

Dr. Hilla Dayan, a sociologist at Amsterdam University College in the Netherlands, is working to lay the theoretical and institutional foundations for the establishment of a new academic discipline, 'Occupation Studies' - in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of course. She tells host Gilad Halpern what needs this discipline is designed to address, and what analytic void it's intended to fill, inside Israeli academia and beyond. Song: Shlomi Shaban & Chava Alberstein - Targil BeHit'orerut

Dr. Adam Rovner, an Associate Professor of English and Jewish Literature at the University of Denver in the United States, recently had his book In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands before Israel published by New York University Press. Dr. Rovner speaks to host Gilad Halpern about the step-siblings of Zionism – six different attempts to establish a Jewish political entity in the 19th and 20th centuries – and why they all failed. Song: LessAcrobats - Time

Dr. Noa Lavie, a sociologist at the Tel Aviv-Yaffo Academic College, specializes in the impact of television on society, in Israel and beyond. She discusses with host Gilad Halpern her most recent research about reality television - how it's been shaped by forces like capitalism and art. Song: Riff Cohen - Helas

Noga Kadman, an Israeli researcher and tour guide, recently had her book, Erased from Space and Consciousness: Israel and the Depopulated Palestinian Villages of 1948, published in English by Indiana University Press. Kadman sits down with host Gilad Halpern and traces the ruins of hundreds of Arab-Palestinian villages in the current physical landscape, and tries to place them in the discursive or ideological landscape of contemporary Israel. Song: Tislam - Hatzavim Porchim

Prof. Yosef Toby, professor emeritus of Medieval Hebrew poetry at the University of Haifa, talks to host Gilad Halpern about the cultural golden age of Tunisian Jews, and their being torn between European acculturation and cultural conservatism.

Professor Meron Medzini, a Japanologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem but also, perhaps surprisingly, a biographer of Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel between 1969-1974 - our very own Iron Lady. Professor Medzini's mother was a childhood friend of Meir, and Medzini served as her press secretary. His book is the work of a political scientist but is riddled with personal anecdotes that shed light into the virtually most prominent woman in the history of Zionism.

Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, author of numerous books including, very recently, Lincoln and the Jews: A history, which he co-edited with Benjamin Shapell. The book, which was published by St Martin's Press, recounts the relationship of the 16th president of the United States with a then still small and relatively uninfluential ethnic group, based on hundreds of archival items, some of them newly unveiled.

Dr. Gabriel Noah Brahm, associate professor of English at Northern Michigan University, is probably best known for co-editing the comprehensive The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel. Today he talks to host Gilad Halpern about his forthcoming book, which dissects the theoretical underpinnings of the writing of Israel-bashers in academia around the world.

Prof. Alon Confino, a historian at the University of Virginia and at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, recently had his book A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide published in English by Yale University Press. Prof. Confino talks to host Gilad Halpern about the Nazi desire to remove the Jews not only from the present and the future, but also from the past.

Dr. Stefan Ihrig, a historian and post-doctoral fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, recently had his book Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination published in English by Harvard University Press. Dr. Ihrig tells host Gilad Halpern how rising Turkish nationalism in the wake of WWI served as valuable inspiration for the Nazis in the early Weimar years and beyond.

Dr. Paul Shrell-Fox, a rabbi and psychologist at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, tries to answer the question that's been troubling us for centuries. He explains to host Gilad Halpern how the Jewish intellect has developed over the years.

Dr. Michal Segal Arnold, a lawyer and political scientist, wrote her PhD thesis at the University of Pennsylvania about the American Indian Movement, a Native American pressure group. She explains to host Gilad Halpern how she lived for a year as the only non-Indian in Reservation Prairie Island in south-east Minnesota.

Omri Grinberg, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto, tells host Gilad Halpern about his research that focuses on the ethnography of the so-called Palestinian "children of the junction" – teenage boys from the West Bank who slip into Israel to work as peddlers.

Dr. Liora Halperin, assistant professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, author of Babel in Zion: Jews, Nationalism and Language Diversity in Palestine 1920-1948, tells host Gilad Halpern about the ideological as well as the practical aspects of the inculcation of the Hebrew language in pre-state Israel.

Dr. Amira Halperin, a communications scholar who has recently completed her PhD thesis at the University of Westminster, UK, is the first ever Israeli researcher to study the UK Palestinian diaspora. She discusses this community's use of new media with host Gilad Halpern.  

Jeffrey Herf, a distinguished professor of history at the University of Maryland, talks to host Gilad Halpern about the attitude of East Germany and the West German radical left towards Israel between 1967-1989, against the backdrop of the memory of the Holocaust as well as the Cold War.

Prof. Yosef Salmon, a Jewish history professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is the author of Do Not Provoke Providence: Orthodoxy In The Grip Of Nationalism, which was recently published in English by Academic Studies Press. He explores the history of the relationship between Zionism and Judaism with host Gilad Halpern.

Dr. Edna Barromi Perlman, a photography scholar and professor at the University of Haifa, speaks to host Gilad Halpern about the landscape photography in Palestine/Eretz Israel/the Holy Land, and how it became, just like anything else in the history of this place, an effective political and ideological tool.

Dr. Edna Barromi Perlman talks about the landscape photography in Israel and how it became an effective political and ideological tool.

Nachum Shiloh, who's about to complete his PhD at Tel Aviv University's Department of History, talks to host Gilad Halpern about his research that focuses on the history of Saudi elites in the first half of the 20th century. In our minds, Saudi Arabia, to this day, has been an ultraconservative, almost medieval society, with a clear hierarchy and a coercive leadership. But it turns out that is not exactly the case.

Prof. Roberta Ronsethal Kwall, a legal scholar and the founding director of the DePaul University College of Law, has just authored a new book entitled The Myth of the Cultural Jew – Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition. She explains to host Gilad Halpern why even the most secular Jews have imbibed the halakha, whether they like it or not.  

Saudi Arabia has always seemed an ultraconservative society, with a clear hierarchy and a coercive leadership.

Dr. Susan Nashman Fraiman, an art historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, tells host Gilad Halpern about her recent research, which focuses on the emergence and evolution of candle-lighting practices – namely, the Shabbat Lamp – among the Jews of Ashkenaz.

Prof. Meir Amor, an Israeli sociologist teaching at Concordia University in Canada, has been a Mizrahi activist for decades, as well as a long-time researcher of the Mizrahi question. Prof. Amor talks to host Gilad Halpern about the principles of the Mizrahi struggle, theoretical as well as practical.

Dr. Michal Aharony, political philosophy and Holocaust studies professor at Beit Berl Academic College, recently authored Hannah Arendt and the Limits of Total Domination: The Holocaust, Plurality and Resistance. Dr. Aharony talks to host Gilad Halpern about her work, which evaluates the Jewish-German philosopher's theories on totalitarianism through testimonies of Holocaust victims and survivors.

Dr. Avi Bareli, a historian of Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, recently authored Authority and Participation in a New Democracy: Political Struggles in Mapai, Israel's Ruling Party, 1948-1953. Dr. Bareli talks to host Gilad Halpern about opposition to Ben-Gurion's leadership from within the party, and how Israel's first prime minister was much less of a power-hungry, dictatorial leader than often thought.

Evaluating the Jewish-German philosopher's theories on totalitarianism through testimonies of Holocaust victims and survivors.

Prof. Lev Grinberg, a sociologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, joins host Gilad Halpern to discuss his new book Mo(ve)ments of Resistance: Politics, Economy and Society in Israel/Palestine 1931-2013. He gives a fresh analysis of power relations between the political hegemony and the people, exploring seven instances in the history of Israel.

Dr. Adia Mendelson-Moaz of the department of Literature, Language and the Arts at Israel's Open University joins host Gilad Halpern to talk about her exploration of literary works written by four Israeli groups - Arabs, Mizrahis (Jews of Middle Eastern origin), Russians, and Ethiopians - focusing on the tension between collective and particular identities.