Tel Aviv Review

Dr. Sarab Abu Rabia-Queder, a researcher at the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University, specializes in the impact of higher education on Bedouin women. Herself of Bedouin origin and an activist for Bedouin rights, she talks to host Gilad Halpern about the nomadic people who live mainly in the south of Israel, and how they straddle the line between tradition and modernity, and between their Arab identity and the State of Israel. This episode originally aired Feb. 27, 2015.

Dr Michal Kravel Tovi, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Tel Aviv University, discusses her new book When the State Winks: The Performance of Jewish Conversions in Israel, an ethnographic account of the arduous conversion process female migrants from the former USSR choose to undergo in the hope that it would accelerate their integration into Israeli society. 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. Danna Piroyansky, author of Ramle Remade: The Israelization of an Arab Town 1948-1967, discusses the very Israeli concept of ‘mixed cities’ – the result of government-sanctioned mixing of Jewish and Arab populations. How did it come about in Ramle, a town in the south-eastern coastal plain that was 100 percent Arab Palestinian up until the 1948 War of Independence, and was subsequently populated with Jewish immigrants? This episode originally aired Feb. 21, 2015.

Dr. Leon Wiener Dow, a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, discusses his new book, The Going: A Meditation on Jewish Law, an autobiographical and theological exploration of the relationship between God, law prayer, practice and community in Jewish law. Check out the extra segment for this episode on patreon.com/telavivreview 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 originally aired on Feb. 20, 2015. Dr. Jonathan Rubin, a historian of the Medieval Levant at Tel Aviv University, specializes in the production of knowledge in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th and 13th centuries. He talks to host Gilad Halpern about how the Crusaders' encounters with local societies - beyond the initial indignation - led to theological, economic, and scientific developments.

With a severe humanitarian and economic crisis, another Gaza war could well be on its way. But Gaza is not only the packed, imprisoned and impoverished strip of misery. It is a place where high school students learn Shakespeare, whose residents have been to hell and kept their pride. Why isn't it a Singapore by the sea, and is there any hope or route to improvement? Veteran journalist Donald Macintyre brings years of firsthand reporting to his deeply informative and equally colorful book Gaza: Preparing for Dawn. 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 originally aired Feb. 13, 2015 Dr. Ephraim Chamiel, a lecturer and scholar of Jewish thought in the modern era, explains who were the Jewish philosophers who sought to harmonize modernity and tradition. His book, "The Middle Way: The Emergence of Modern Religious Trends in Nineteenth-Century Judaism," is available in English.

Michael Broyde, professor of law at Emory University and former rabbinical judge, discusses the constitutional, legal and societal implications of track two arbitration in the contemporary United States, which are the topic of his new book Sharia Tribunals, Rabbinical Courts and Christian Panels: Religious Arbitration in America and the West. This episode comes with bonus material for patrons only: www.patreon.com/telavivreview 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 originally aired Feb. 6, 2015 Prof. Anita Shapira, one of Israel's most eminent historians of Zionism, discusses her biography of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding prime minister.

Rise and Kill First reveals Israel's deadliest secrets. The history of targeted assassinations precedes the establishment of the state and continues to the present. Israel has killed terrorists, political figures, nuclear scientists, former Nazis and a UN negotiator; questions still swirl around the death of Arafat. When does Israel strike, and when does it abort a mission? Ronen Bergman's exposé obtains material never before released, and he talks with people who never talk. Here he discusses why and how Israel imposes the death penalty outside of any courtroom, based entirely on its own rules. 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 originally aired on Jan 31, 2015. Dr. Oren Meyers of the Department of Communications at the University of Haifa, co-author, together with Eyal Zandberg and Motti Neiger, of Communicating Awe: Media Memory and Holocaust Commemoration, analyzes with host Gilad Halpern the disproportionate role Holocaust-related imagery plays in the Israeli media debate. 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.

Liat Maggid-Alon, a historian of the modern Middle East at Kibbutzim College and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, discusses a paper she recently presented at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, focusing on the newly emerged stratum of upper-middle-class Jews in early-to-mid 20th century Egypt. The Egyptian-Jewish bourgeoisie serves as an ideal case study to explore how modernity, religion, nationalism and minority politics intermingled. Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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 originally aired on Dec. 5th, 2014. Bismarck famously said that "politics is not an exact science" - but what if exact sciences were determined by politics? Prof. Ute Deichmann, a historian of science at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, tells host Gilad Halpern about the exchanges between Israeli and German scientists in the early years. The two countries have marked more than 50 years since the full normalization of diplomatic relations between them, and we enquire to what extent scientists paved the way. Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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.

Mika Almog, journalist, screenwriter and author, discusses her new collection of short stories, Anticipation (ציפייה), compiling poignantly unremarkable characters and vignettes, rooted in the Israeli here and now. Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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.  

Sasha Polakow-Suransky, deputy editor of Foreign Policy magazine, discusses his new book Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy. The book explores the confluence of circumstances that led to the rise of authoritarian populism in countries that were until recently believed to be robust liberal democracies.   Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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.

Little to nothing has changed since the 19th century in the way ancient Jewish scriptures are analyzed and understood. Prof. Hindy Najman, professor of scriptural interpretation of the Bible at Oriel College, University of Oxford, is on a mission to eradicate outdated "Protestant" and "parochial" approaches to Bible criticism, and introduce contemporary approaches to the field. Receive extra segments, book discounts, and other patron-only perks by supporting the show on Patreon. Click to find out how a handful of dollars a month can help. 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.

No one can forget the horrifying terror attack of 2001 when a suicide bomber killed 21 people, mostly teenage girls, at a Tel Aviv nightclub. But few remember the Palestinian pharmacist murdered in East Jerusalem shortly afterward in a possible revenge attack - whose family donated his heart to save a Jewish Israeli man's life. Rowan Somerville explores the parallel stories in Beat: The True Story of a Bomb and a Heart Transplant. 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.

Defining corruption may be complicated, but people know it when they see it. Is there such a thing as a culture of corruption, or do people in some countries need bribes to survive? Ina Kubbe discusses "Corruption and Norms: Why Informal Rules Matter", co-edited with Annika Engelbert, to find out why corruption happens and what can be done about it. Any resemblance to actual persons, events or Israeli politicians is purely coincidental. 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.

Sir Geoffrey Nice prosecuted one of the world's most notorious war criminals - Slobodan Milosevic, who escaped justice by dying before his verdict. In his book Justice for All and How to Achieve It , Nice provides a critical exploration of international justice and the courts designed to address the world's worst crimes. Can this system advance peace and deter atrocities, or is it mainly victor's justice? 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.

And from that moment on, Linda Grant sets her cast of unlikely characters free - as much as possible in a TB clinic in 1950s London. The Dark Circle is her seventh novel. The protagonists are twin teens bursting with life, though they live in the space between collective death of the recent past and the shadow of death in the future, as patients. Yet Grant makes the period and the people come alive - and tells us how. 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.