Tel Aviv Review

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.