Lior Sternfeld, Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Penn State University, discusses his book, "Iran: Life itself. History, politics, culture and trauma," a Hebrew-language primer for Israelis curious about their country's arch-enemy. Hear the full episode on Patreon
Prof. Guy Ben-Porat, political scientist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, discusses his co-written book Usual Suspects: Minorities, Police and Citizenship in Israel .
Adam Kirsch, poet, critic and editor at the Wall Street Journal, discusses his widely debated book, On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence and Justice . The settler-colonialism prism, especially in the wake of October 7, is a textbook example of the use and abuse of academic theories for political ends – how and why has it come to be? Kirsch offers an historical genealogy as well as a contemporary analysis. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA ...
Guy Miron, professor of modern European Jewish history at the Open University of Israel, and the director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust in Germany at Yad Vashem and a board member of the Leo Baeck Institute in Jerusalem, discusses his most recent book, Space and Time Under Persecution: The German-Jewish Experience in the Third Reich.
Dr Ido Yahel, a postdoctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, is a historian of modern Syria. An ethnic hodgepodge, was the decades-long stability provided by the brutal Assad regime an exception rather than the rule? Can Syria reinvent itself under the leadership of a reformed (at least partially) radical Islamist? Hear the full episode on Patreon
Prof. Jonthan Dekel-Chen, Rabbi Edward Sandrow Chair in Soviet and East European Jewry at the Hebrew University and the academic chairman of the Nevzlin Center for Russian and East European Jewry, takes a long view on the history of Jews in Russia and its past and present territories, from the turn of the 20th century to the 21st. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry ....
Dr Amit Levy, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Haifa's Department of Israel Studies, discusses his book, A New Orient: From German Scholarship to Middle Eastern Studies in Israel .
The October 7 events seemed, initially at least, to put the government's plans for a judicial overhaul on the back burner. But under the guise of wartime emergency regulations, the government has slipped back to its old habits. As Prof. Suzie Navot, a scholar of constitutional law and Vice-President of the Israel Democracy Institute, explains, the judicial overhaul is now returning in a much more circumspect (and therefore ominous) manner than before.
Dr Rona Aviram, a scientist, and Omer Benjakob, a journalist – both fellows at Brandeis University’s Institute of Advanced Israel Studies – discuss Wikipedia’s bumpy road towards becoming the go-to source of knowledge online. This episode is part of a series in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University.
Dr Anna Kushkova, an anthropologist, postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry, discusses her research on Jewish underground entrepreneurial networks in the Soviet Union. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry.
Hear this Patron-Exclusive Episode on Patreon William Kolbrener and Ronit Eitan, literary scholars at Bar Ilan University, are the founders of Writing on the Wall, an online platform for an open and diverse conversation, and co-editors of Balagan, a magazine of Art, Poetry and Perspective that launched earlier this year. What is the power of literature and writing to mitigate times of crisis?
Neta Shoshani's documentary film 1948: Remember, Remember Not was commissioned by Kan, Israel's public broadcaster for the country's 75th Independence Day. Almost two years on, it has yet to be broadcast, in the wake of a right-wing campaign that claims that it defames Israel. In this episode, she talks about the interplay between history, memory and public knowledge. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers....
Tom Eshed, postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University’s Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights, discusses knowledge production on Antisemitism in the wake of the Second World War in Israel and abroad. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights .
Adam Shinar, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, at Reichman University, discusses the recent return of Israel's Film and Theatre Review Board from oblivion, to serve the government's political goals. How did Israel's censorship laws evolve over the years?
Dr Lee Mordechai, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses Bearing Witness to the Gaza War , a comprehensive database of facts and figures that he meticulously collected since October 7, 2023. How did a Byzantine historian come to meticulously collect evidence about the atrocities of the current war, still ongoing? The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers....
Elyakim Rubinstein has had an incredibly prolific career in academia, politics, diplomacy and the judiciary. Among his many accomplishments, he served as cabinet secretary, attorney general, chargé d’affaires in Israel’s embassy in Washington, and deputy chief justice until his retirement in 2017. He is the only living Israeli who has taken part in peace negotiations with all of Israel’s five neighboring countries, in which capacity he led the Israeli delegation to the peace negotiations with Jo...
Dr. Yael Dekel, a literary scholar at the Open University and Ben Gurion University of the Negev and a lead fellow at Brandeis University's Institute of Advanced Israel Studies, talks about the Literary Laboratory: how can digital methods be used to study the canon of Hebrew literature - and redefine it, along the way? This episode is part of a series in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University.
Prof Nir Arielli, Professor of International History at the University of Leeds (UK), discusses his book The Dead Sea: A 10,000 Year History .
Dr. (Col. res.) Eran Shamir-Borer, Director of the Center for National Security and Democracy at the Israel Democracy Institute and formerly the head of the International Law Department of the IDF’s Military Advocate General, analyzes Israel’s legal standing in relation to the Gaza War and the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education....
Yehuda Shenhav Shaharabani, Professor Emeritus of sociology at Tel Aviv University and the editor in chief of Maktoob books, a series of Hebrew translations of Arabic literature, discusses the life and writing of Elias Khoury, the great Lebanese novelist who died in September, aged 76. Shenhav Shaharabani single-handedly translated ten of Khoury’s novels, and was a close personal friend of his. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by ...
Dr Brandon Friedman, a research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies specializing in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, discusses the future of Middle Eastern geopolitics in the wake of October 7th and ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education....
The climate crisis is a global issue with very concrete strategic consequences: on food security, energy and more. Galit Cohen, Director of the Program on Climate Change at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies and the former Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, discusses the implications of the climate crisis on national security and the importance of policymaking in moving forward. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Ade...
Daniel Lörcher, the founding director of What Matters , an organization that tackles racism, antisemitism and discrimination on the soccer field and elsewhere, discusses his work on reducing antisemitism among soccer fans and how sports culture can – and does – help create an atmosphere that promotes tolerance and pluralism. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education....
Ricarda Louk, the mother of Shani, a tattoo artist who became one of the most iconic victims of the Nova festival massacre, talks to us upon the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.
Dr Tammy Hoffman, a research fellow and the Head of the Education Policy Program at the Israel Democracy Institute and a lecturer at Hakibbutzim College of Education, explains how public education can tackle the erosion of democratic norms and the adverse effects of social media on society. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.
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 .
