Tel Aviv Review

Aaron Henne, the artistic director of Theatre Dybbuk in Los Angeles, discusses the creative process of adapting Jewish texts for the stage and making this art palatable to a wide audience. 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.

Maggie Anton, a Talmud scholar and historical fiction writer discusses her new book Fifty Shades of Talmud: What the First Rabbis Had to Say about You-Know-What. 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.

Zev Farber, a rabbi and Hebrew Bible scholar, discusses his latest book Halakhic Realities: Collected Essays on Brain Death and the forthcoming sequel Halakhic Realities: Collected Essays on Organ Donation, showcasing a textbook example of how Jewish law had to adapt to modern realities. 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.

Daisy Abboudi, a historian of the Jewish community of Sudan, recounts the little known history of a small and short-lived Jewish presence in northeast Africa. 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 Professor Art Green, the founder and current rector of the Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Boston, discusses the Hasidic sect that in the space of just several decades has become a major draw for many Jews around the world.  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. 

Ariela Migdal, a women's rights lawyer formerly with the American Civil Liberties Union, analyzes the status of women in the United States and within the Jewish community through some of the cases and campaigns that she led.  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. Amir Locker-Biletzky, a post-doctoral fellow at Concordia University's Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, discusses how the Israeli Communist Party looked back on the participation of its members in the iconic battle against Fascism, and the cult-like culture that it instigated. Song: Rotem Cohen - El Ha'Olam Shelach 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. 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.