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...
Jun 16, 2017•32 min
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...
Jun 12, 2017•37 min
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 sea...
Jun 09, 2017•46 min
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....
Jun 05, 2017•29 min
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....
Jun 02, 2017•30 min
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 U...
May 29, 2017•30 min
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 i...
May 26, 2017•31 min
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.
May 22, 2017•30 min
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....
May 19, 2017•28 min
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 Insti...
May 15, 2017•35 min
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....
May 12, 2017•35 min
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....
May 08, 2017•28 min
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.
May 05, 2017•32 min
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.
May 01, 2017•34 min
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.
Apr 28, 2017•30 min
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 hum...
Apr 24, 2017•23 min
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...
Apr 21, 2017•20 min
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.
Apr 17, 2017•26 min
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 Isr...
Apr 14, 2017•17 min
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....
Apr 10, 2017•30 min
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.
Apr 07, 2017•27 min
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...
Apr 03, 2017•33 min
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.
Mar 31, 2017•31 min
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...
Mar 26, 2017•30 min
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.
Mar 24, 2017•27 min
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....
Mar 20, 2017•31 min
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, an...
Mar 15, 2017•23 min
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 ...
Mar 13, 2017•31 min
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....
Mar 10, 2017•34 min
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 s...
Mar 06, 2017•31 min
