Tel Aviv Review

Prof. Arie Sover, the founding chair of the Israeli Society for the Study of Humor, dissects with host Gilad Halpern the ins and outs of his field, in an Israeli and a global context, ahead of the society's annual conference. Song: Matisyahu - One Day 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. Raanan Rein, a historian of Spain and Latin America and Vice-President of Tel Aviv University, explores the tumultuous relationship between Israel and Spain before and after diplomatic relations were established, as late as 1986. Song: Gili Yalo - Hailoga 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. Avner Wishnitzer, senior lecturer in Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University, is the author of the recently published Reading Clocks Alla Turca: Time and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire. He analyzes with host Gilad Halpern the tension between tradition and modernity in 19th century Turkey through the introduction of the concepts of standardized time. Song: Si Himan - Bekhol Makom 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.

Ofer Idels, a doctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University's Department of History, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the heated debate that swept the Jewish community in Palestine ahead of the 1936 Olympic Games, held in Nazi Berlin. Song: Eilad - Spirits (Rukhot) 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. Benjamin Z. Kedar, Professor Emeritus of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and former Vice-President of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, talks to host Gilad Halpern about his newly published collection of essays about Chaim Weizmann. Prof. Weizmann was Israel's first president and leader of the World Zionist Organization throughout much of the pre-state period, and maintained an active career as a chemist in parallel to his statesmanship. Where do science and state affairs interact? If you ask Weizmann, almost everywhere. Song: Buttering Trio - No Joke 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. Jeff Halper, an anthropologist and human rights activist, talks to host Gilad Halpern about his latest book, War Against the People; Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification, in which he analyzes the "securocratic" regime that dominates global politics, with Israel at its forefront. Song: Cohenbeats & KerenDun - What's On Your Mind

Zev Harvey, professor emeritus of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the life and opinions of Prof. Aviezer Ravitzky, one of Israel's foremost Jewish philosophers, ahead of a public event that will take place in his honor at the Van Leer Institute on Thursday, January 14, under the banner "The engaged intellectual and Jewish Philosophy." Song: The Idan Raichel Project - She'eriot Shel Ha'Chaim 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. Guy Ziv, an international relations professor at the American University in Washington, DC, is the author of the recently published Why Hawks Become Doves: Shimon Peres and Foreign Policy Change. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about the leftward shift of Israel's political establishment over the decades, and Shimon Peres' own journey as the standard-bearer of this shift. Song: Teapacks - Zmanim Ktanim 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. Ido Shahar, a lecturer in Middle East history at the University of Haifa, is the author of the recently published Legal Pluralism in the Holy City: Competing Courts, Forum Shopping and Institutional Dynamics in Jerusalem. He lays out for host Gilad Halpern his "organizational ethnography" of Muslim state courts in Jerusalem, how they interact with other legal entities, and how they affect the city's heterogeneous Muslim population. Song: Shai Tsabari - Lavi Oti 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. Ghil'ad Zuckermann, a professor of linguistics at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and Dr. Gitit Holzmann, a lecturer in Jewish philosophy at the Levinsky Teachers' College in Tel Aviv, discuss the linguistic, educational, and political implications and limitations of the crown jewel of the Zionist enterprise: The revival of the Hebrew language. Song: Alma Zohar - Egotrip 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. Roni Weinstein, a historian of Judaism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explores with host Gilad Halpern the origins of Jewish mysticism (in 16th and 17th century Palestine), which influenced Jewish orthodoxy for centuries to come. Song: Sivan Talmor - I'll Be 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.

Holocaust survivor Simon Malkes has dedicated his recently published memoirs to the man who saved him, a Nazi officer called Karl Plagge, for whom he lobbied Yad Vashem for recognition as a Righteous Gentile. Malkes tells host Gilad Halpern his story. Song: Ninet - Child

Adi Sherzer, a doctoral fellow at the Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, explores with host Gilad Halpern the construction of the Israeli national narrative in the early years, bridging statehood and millennia of Jewish tradition. Song: Karolina, Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Loren Oden - Feel Alive

Dr. Orli Sela, an environmental and legal historian at New York University, explores the evolution of the perception of water abundance and its place in the state building effort, before and after the establishment of the State of Israel. Song: The Secret Sea - Afterlife

Dr. Rony Klein, professor of political philosophy at Tel Aviv University specializing in French political thought, explores how late 20th century Jewish philosophers posed a challenge to the ideas of Enlightenment that were the predominant themes in their intellectual sphere. Song: Ivri Lider - Makom Leyoter

Dr. Aviva Tal, professor of Yiddish literature at Bar-Ilan University, discusses with host Gilad Halpern the forgotten history of Jewish criminality in the early 20th century, and how central it was to Jewish life during that period. Song: Evyatar Banai- Matanot

Dr. Ran Zwigenberg, professor of history and Asian studies at Pennsylvania State University and author of the recently published Hiroshima: The Origins of Global Memory Culture, explores with host Gilad Halpern the parallel cultures of commemoration that emanated from the two biggest catastrophes of the Second World War: Hiroshima and Auschwitz. Song: Doda - Elef Kaba'im

Dr. Hadas Cohen, a post-doctoral fellow at the Social Science Research Center in Berlin, discusses with host Gilad Halpern her analysis of the construction of Israeli identity through transgressions and aberrations from it, specifically the case of the "traitress" Tali Fahima. Song: Russo and Weinberg - Travel

Dr. Yakir Englander, a Jewish philosophy scholar at Harvard University and expert on interfaith dialogue, both as an activist and a scholar, reviews with host Gilad Halpern the role of religion in perpetuating and assuaging conflict, in the Israeli-Palestinian context and beyond. Song: Omer Netzer - Couldn't Love You Any More

Dr. Ido Yoav, a sociologist and anthropologist at Sapir College, joins host Gilad Halpern to analyze the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on its 20th anniversary, through the perspective of the sociology of emotions. The lesson: It could happen again, and for the reasons you may think. Song: Gan Khayot - Yareakh Kakhol