Tel Aviv Review

Dr Amit Levy, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Haifa's Department of Israel Studies, discusses his book, A New Orient: From German Scholarship to Middle Eastern Studies in Israel.

The October 7 events seemed, initially at least, to put the government's plans for a judicial overhaul on the back burner. But under the guise of wartime emergency regulations, the government has slipped back to its old habits. As Prof. Suzie Navot, a scholar of constitutional law and Vice-President of the Israel Democracy Institute, explains, the judicial overhaul is now returning in a much more circumspect (and therefore ominous) manner than before.

Dr Rona Aviram, a scientist, and Omer Benjakob, a journalist – both fellows at Brandeis University's Institute of Advanced Israel Studies – discuss Wikipedia's bumpy road towards becoming the go-to source of knowledge online. This episode is part of a series in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University.

Dr Anna Kushkova, an anthropologist, postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry, discusses her research on Jewish underground entrepreneurial networks in the Soviet Union. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry.

Hear this Patron-Exclusive Episode on Patreon William Kolbrener and Ronit Eitan, literary scholars at Bar Ilan University, are the founders of Writing on the Wall, an online platform for an open and diverse conversation, and co-editors of Balagan, a magazine of Art, Poetry and Perspective that launched earlier this year. What is the power of literature and writing to mitigate times of crisis?

Neta Shoshani's documentary film 1948: Remember, Remember Not was commissioned by Kan, Israel's public broadcaster for the country's 75th Independence Day. Almost two years on, it has yet to be broadcast, in the wake of a right-wing campaign that claims that it defames Israel. In this episode, she talks about the interplay between history, memory and public knowledge. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Tom Eshed, postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights, discusses knowledge production on Antisemitism in the wake of the Second World War in Israel and abroad. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Adam Shinar, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, at Reichman University, discusses the recent return of Israel's Film and Theatre Review Board from oblivion, to serve the government's political goals. How did Israel's censorship laws evolve over the years?

Dr Lee Mordechai, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses Bearing Witness to the Gaza War, a comprehensive database of facts and figures that he meticulously collected since October 7, 2023. How did a Byzantine historian come to meticulously collect evidence about the atrocities of the current war, still ongoing?   The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Elyakim Rubinstein has had an incredibly prolific career in academia, politics, diplomacy and the judiciary. Among his many accomplishments, he served as cabinet secretary, attorney general, chargé d'affaires in Israel's embassy in Washington, and deputy chief justice until his retirement in 2017. He is the only living Israeli who has taken part in peace negotiations with all of Israel's five neighboring countries, in which capacity he led the Israeli delegation to the peace negotiations with Jordan that culminated in an accord that recently marked its 30-year anniversary. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr. Yael Dekel, a literary scholar at the Open University and Ben Gurion University of the Negev and a lead fellow at Brandeis University's Institute of Advanced Israel Studies, talks about the Literary Laboratory: how can digital methods be used to study the canon of Israeli literature - and redefine it, along the way? This episode is part of a series in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University.

Prof Nir Arielli, Professor of International History at the University of Leeds (UK), discusses his book The Dead Sea: A 10,000 Year History.

Dr. (Col. res.) Eran Shamir-Borer, Director of the Center for National Security and Democracy at the Israel Democracy Institute and formerly the head of the International Law Department of the IDF's Military Advocate General, analyzes Israel's legal standing in relation to the Gaza War and the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Yehuda Shenhav Shaharabani, Professor Emeritus of sociology at Tel Aviv University and the editor in chief of Maktoob books, a series of Hebrew translations of Arabic literature, discusses the life and writing of Elias Khoury, the great Lebanese novelist who died in September, aged 76. Shenhav Shaharabani single-handedly translated ten of Khoury's novels, and was a close personal friend of his. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Dr Brandon Friedman, a research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies specializing in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, discusses the future of Middle Eastern geopolitics in the wake of October 7th and ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

The climate crisis is a global issue with very concrete strategic consequences: on food security, energy and more. Galit Cohen, Director of the Program on Climate Change at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies and the former Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, discusses the implications of the climate crisis on national security and the importance of policymaking in moving forward. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Daniel Lörcher, the founding director of What Matters, an organization that tackles racism, antisemitism and discrimination on the soccer field and elsewhere, discusses his work on reducing antisemitism among soccer fans and how sports culture can – and does – help create an atmosphere that promotes tolerance and pluralism. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Ricarda Louk, the mother of Shani, a tattoo artist who became one of the most iconic victims of the Nova festival massacre, talks to us upon the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Tammy Hoffman, a research fellow and the Head of the Education Policy Program at the Israel Democracy Institute and a lecturer at Hakibbutzim College of Education, explains how public education can tackle the erosion of democratic norms and the adverse effects of social media on society. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Historian Dr Nimrod Lin, Managing Editor of the Journal of Israeli History, discusses his forthcoming book People Who Count: Zionism, Demography and Democracy in Mandate Palestine. This interview is part of the "Democracy and Its Alternatives: The Origins of Israel's Current Crisis" conference, held at Brandeis University and organized in partnership with the Center for Jewish History in New York.

Roni Stauber, Professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, discusses his book Diplomacy in the Shadow of Memory: Israel and West Germany, 1953-1965. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Matthias Becker, research fellow at Reichman University and the University of Cambridge, discusses his Decoding Antisemitism project, using novel scholarly and technological tools to monitor and analyze online hate speech. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Eran Halperin, professor of psychology at the Hebrew University and the founding director of aChord, a leading research center dedicated to promoting social change in Israel through the tools of social psychology, discusses his new book, Warning: Hate Ahead. Why is hate such a powerful emotion, and what can be done to contain it? The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Dr Yoav Fromer, a senior lecturer at the Department of English and American Studies and the head of the Center of US Studies at Tel Aviv University, discusses his new book (co-edited with Ilan Peleg), The Americanization of the Israeli Right.

Joshua Leifer, an American journalist (Dissent, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian) and PhD candidate in history at Yale University, discusses his new book Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Eviatar Zerubavel, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Rutgers University, discusses his new book “Don't Take It Personally: Personalness and Impersonality in Social Life.”

Prof. Orit Rozin, a historian at Tel Aviv University, discusses her new book Emotions of Conflict: Israel 1949-1967, analyzing the efforts of the Israeli establishment in the 1950s and 60s to control the people's emotional response to the impending sense of insecurity.

Liora Halperin, Professor of International Studies and History and Distinguished Endowed Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, discusses her book The Oldest Guard: Forging the Zionist Settler Past.

Yael Zerubavel, Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and History at Rutgers University, discusses her new book Desert, Island, Wall: Symbolic Landscapes and the Politics of Space in Israeli Culture, which has just been published in Hebrew and is an updated version of her 2019 book Desert in the Promised Land.

Dr. Jonathan Grossman explores Israel's evolving attitude and discourse toward Israeli emigrants, shifting from viewing them as selfish deserters to embracing them as loyal partners, fostering a legitimate and valuable diaspora community abroad. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Anne Rethmann examines post-1945 human rights discourses, highlighting the concept of justice by the Austrian-Jewish lawyer Franz Bienenfeld. Comparing it with T. W. Adorno's notion of maturity, she emphasizes the significance of dignity within the framework of human rights. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Prof. Rotem Giladi discusses his book “Jews, Sovereignty, and International Law: Ideology and Ambivalence in Early Israeli Legal Diplomacy” (Oxford 2021), which explores the role of ideology in shaping Israel's early attitudes towards international law. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Dr. Timo Aava examines Estonia's establishment of non-territorial autonomies during the interwar period, with a particular focus on the Jewish self-government case, thereby providing intriguing insights into Estonia's treatment of minorities. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Dr. Eran Shlomi discusses Zionist diplomacy and representation at the League of Nations, the UN predecessor, during the interwar period. He analyzes the League's role in the Zionist path to statehood. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Dr. Iris Nachum introduces the jurist Jacob Robinson (1889-1977), emphasizing his activism for minority rights and compensation for expulsion. A research institute in his name has recently been established at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Prof. Jeffrey Herf, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Maryland, College Park, discusses his book, The Three Faces of Antisemitism: Right, Left and Islamist. What common ground do these three markedly different worldviews hold when it comes to the Jews?

Dr Roni Mikel-Arieli, a postdoctoral and teaching fellow at Ben Gurion University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology and until recently the academic director of the Oral History Division at the Hebrew University's Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry, discusses her book Remembering the Holocaust in a Racial State: Holocaust Memory in South Africa from Apartheid to Democracy (1948-1994).

Katharina von Schurbein, the European Commission's Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, talks about the EU's response to anti-Jewish hate crimes and speech. Despite the alarming increase in cases, she says that the Union has taken many measures (some of them long before October 2023) that have begun to bear fruit. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Andrew Port, a historian at Wayne State University, discusses his new book Never Again: Germans and Genocide after the Holocaust, analyzing German responses to cases of genocide from the 1970s to the 1990s.

A special collaboration with the Jerusalem Unplugged podcast, where host Robert Mazza and the Tel Aviv Review's Gilad Halpern discuss the current moment for Israel domestically and internationally.

Dr Lihi Ben Shitrit, the director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies at NYU and editor of the forthcoming The Gates of Gaza: Critical Voices from Israel on October 7 and the War with Hamas, and Dr Dahlia Scheindlin, author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled assess what lies ahead for Israel: A sea change, or more of the same? Dr Ben Shitrit and Dr Scheindlin (and Dr Agbaria, in the older ep) are fellows at the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University's Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. The interview was recorded on the sidelines of the "Democracy and Its Alternatives: The Origins of Israel's Current Crisis" conference, held at Brandeis University and organized in partnership with the Center for Jewish History in New York.

The already volatile situation of the Palestinian citizens of Israel has been exacerbated by the October 7th massacre and the war with Hamas that ensued. Dr Ahmad Agbaria of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas, Austin, talks about how their status and democratic rights have been affected, and what role they might play in its aftermath.

Adam Shatz, author and writer, US Editor for the London Review of Books and a visiting professor at Bard College, discusses his book The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon.

The October 7th attack undermined some of the basic assumptions Israelis have had about the tenets of their sovereignty. Will the crisis send the country into a post-nation-state phase? Dr. Julie Cooper, Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Tel Aviv University, and a fellow of the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University's Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, shares her thoughts at the “Democracy and Its Alternatives: The Origins of Israel's Current Crisis” conference.

Dr Dafna Hirsch, senior lecturer at the Open University of Israel's Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, discusses her edited book, Entangled Histories in Palestine/Israel: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives.

Dr David Barak-Gorodetsky, Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Haifa and the Director of the Ruderman Program for American-Jewish Studies, discusses his book Judah Magnes: The Prophetic Politics of a Religious Binationalist, a biography of one of the more unusual characters in the history of Zionism.

Dr Avi-Ram Tzoreff, a Polonsky Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, discusses his new book R. Binyamin, Binationalism and Counter-Zionism, dedicated to one of the most unusual Jewish and Zionist intellectuals of the 20th century. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, discusses his new book Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence. What parallels can be drawn between Ukraine's war with Russia and Israel's with Hamas?