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 Un...
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. The interview was recorded on the sidelines of the "Democracy and Its Alternatives: The Origins of Israel's Current Crisis" confer...
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 .
