Tel Aviv Review

As part of our special series sponsored by the German government, the Tel Aviv Review hosts Germany’s Ambassador to Israel, Dr. Susanne Wasum-Rainer. The Ambassador discusses Germany’s vision at the start of its Presidency of the Council of the EU, challenges to the post-war global order, German-Israel relations, and her long professional connection to Israel. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

If healthy democracies depend on a well-informed citizen body, does disinformation destroy them? Can the average person know when to trust science, or spot bad information causing political and social mayhem? In Calling Bullshit: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World, co-authors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin D. West argue that people have the power to judge data critically and independently – and they teach us how. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Menny Mautner, Professor Emeritus of Law at Tel Aviv University, discusses his book Liberalism in Israel: History, Problems and Contingencies, analyzing the onset of the liberal agenda in Israel’s political history, up to its precarious state at present. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Prof. Ruth HaCohen-Pinczower, co-author of Singing Freedom: The Interplay between Music and Politics in the West, discusses the power of music as well as power and music. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

After decades of diplomacy, Oded Eran, former Ambassador to the EU and Jordan, now at the Institute for National Security Studies, provides a comprehensive checkup of Israeli foreign policy. He examines Israel’s relations with the Middle East, India and China, the EU, the Palestinians and the US, and we consider what impact annexation – or COVID – will have on Israel’s standing in the world. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

The Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 was among the seminal events of modern Jewish history. The violence was memorialized in ways that shaped Jewish identity, from the early Zionist national narrative to Jewish American social activism. Prof. Steven Zipperstein examines the history, memory and myth of the violence in Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

A politician you don’t like might be running child prostitutes from a pizzeria. Election results you don’t like were rigged. In their new book A Lot of People are Saying, Professors Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead argue that new conspiracists in Donald Trump’s America have no evidence and no argument – in essence, no theory at all. Rosenberg explains how they harm democracy. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

In his authoritative book on the subject, Prof. Jan Werner Muller asked What is Populism; in other works, he considers “militant democracy,” when constitutions protect countries from populist injury, Christian democracy, conservatives and populism, and how communities of democratic countries can deal with members who stray. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Dr Gili Hammer, an anthropologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses her book Blindness through the Looking Glass: The Performance of Blindness, Gender, and the Sensory Body, exploring how visually impaired Israeli women grasp and perform the interface between blindness and gender. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

In his new biography, Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent, Paul Mendes-Flohr explores the journey of the Jewish philosopher, from his early years as a polyglot cosmopolitan intellectual under the waning Habsburg empire, to a voice of political dissent in the new state of Israel. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

How can the EU cope with recent or ongoing ruinous wars in Syria, Yemen and Libya, in a field full of foreign powers, and still tow a clear line on the Israeli Palestinian conflict? Muriel Asseburg of the German foreign policy think tank SWP makes sense of the quagmire and offers policy ideas for a mission that can look impossible. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Rashid Khalidi, a leading historian of the Palestinian national movement, weaves his family history into a century of the Palestinian national struggle against Israel and international forces seeking to thwart self-determination in his new book, The 100 Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017.   This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

There’s no time like the COVID-19 pandemic to learn about the interconnectedness of countries in the Middle East – even across conflict lines. Gidon Bromberg, director of EcoPeace Middle East, shows the urgency – and feasibility – of coordinating environmental policies and sharing vital resources between Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Because water, energy and climate change won’t wait. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel's relationship with the EU and European countries. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Nancy Sinkoff, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History and the academic director of the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers University, discusses her new book From Left to Right: Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The New York Intellectuals and the Politics of Jewish Life, recounting her life on the cusp between Europe and America, and between liberal socialism and Reagan-era conservatism. This episode is sponsored by Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Prof. Dani Filc of Ben Gurion University continues our populism and democracy series by shining the spotlight on Israel. With comparative global context, he asks how Israeli political populism differs from all others, or does it differ? What other countries share similar qualities in their own populist movements? And he has surprising answers. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Dr Zohar Maor, lecturer in history at Bar Ilan University and co-editor of the new volume Nationalism and Secularization, discusses new views on the crux of political modernity, and old views revisited. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

The European Union treats Israel like the closest of cousins. However, the EU remains vexed by the atrophied peace process, and seeks measures to push the sides to end their conflict. But can EU’s current response be effective? Hugh Lovatt of the European Council on Foreign Relations explains the EU dilemmas regarding Israel, Palestine and an elusive peace. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Israel and the European Union were both founded following World War II – Israel would protect the Jews and the EU would inoculate the continent from another war. Yet their relationship with each other has been uneven: robust economic ties are beset by political tension. Dr. Maya Sion of Hebrew University explains why. This episode is part of a series made possible by the German Government which examines Israel’s relationship with the EU and European countries. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Dr Rachel Mesch, professor of French and English at Yeshiva University, discusses her new book Before Trans: Three Gender Stories from Nineteenth-Century France. 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. This episode was made possible by Yeshiva University’s Center for Israel Studies and the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs, and was recorded on the YU premises in New York City in front of a live audience.

Ronnie Perelis, Associate Professor of Sephardic Studies and the director of the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs, discusses his book Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic, a collective biography of three Iberian crypto Jews in the late 16th and 17th centuries. This season is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel. This episode was made possible by Yeshiva University’s Center for Israel Studies and the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs, and was recorded on the YU premises in New York City in front of a live audience.