Tel Aviv Review

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.