New Books Network
Israel Studies
Spiritual Practice and Mindfulness April 14, 2021

What's Beyond Mindfulness?

Waking Up to This Precious Life

Stephen Fulder

Hosted by Yakir Englander
What is the power and significance of mindfulness and similar practices in conflict zones and conflict situations? Does a person need to challenge the norms and authority of the society …

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History April 6, 2021

Vengeance and Retribution Are Mine

Community, the Holocaust, and Abba Kovner's Avengers

Dina Porat

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Vengeance and Retribution Are Mine: Community, the Holocaust, and Abba Kovner's Avengers (Pardes, 2019) is a book by Israeli historian Dina Porat on Nakam, a small group of Holocaust survivors …
Jewish Studies March 22, 2021

Yiddish

Biography of a Language

Jeffrey Shandler

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
The most widely spoken Jewish language on the eve of the Holocaust, Yiddish continues to play a significant role in Jewish life today, from Hasidim for whom it is a …
Genocide Studies March 22, 2021

The Politics of Mass Violence in the Middle East

Laura Robson

Hosted by Kelly McFall
My students are generally 19 or 20 or 21. They have never known the Middle East without American boots on the ground. They have never turned on the news and …
Israel Studies March 2, 2021

Leaving Zion

The Israeli Diaspora in Europe

David Stavrou

Hosted by Yakir Englander
The meaning of being an immigrant has changed significantly in the 21st century. The internet, social media and networks, cost of travels, homeland products of food that one can find …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel March 1, 2021

Heirlooms

Memory and Cherished Objects

J. Jay Garfinkel

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Everyone will lose someone they love at some point in their life; a spouse, a parent, or a child. Having to deal with the clothes or personal effects that remain …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel February 8, 2021

Harpoon

Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism's Money Masters

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Samuel M. Katz

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Covid-19 is the global threat that owns today’s headlines, but the threat of international and domestic terrorism is still very much with us. Specifically, the widespread upheaval, uncertainty and global …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 19, 2021

The Last Million

Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War

David Nasaw

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
In May 1945, German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, putting an end to World War II in Europe. But the aftershocks of global military conflict did not cease with …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery January 13, 2021

Intoxicating Zion

A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel

Haggai Ram

Hosted by Lucas Richert
When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation …
Middle Eastern Studies January 7, 2021

The Sword is Not Enough

Arabs, Israelis, and the Limits of Military Force

Jeremy Pressman

Hosted by Aaron Hagler
Jeremy Pressman is Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of Middle East Studies at the University of Connecticut. Jeremy is the author of The Sword is Not Enough …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 4, 2021

Till We Have Built Jerusalem

Architects of a New City

Adina Hoffman

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
A remarkable view of one of the world's most beloved and troubled cities, Adina Hoffman's Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architects of a New City (FSG, 2017) is a gripping …
Jewish Studies December 17, 2020

Conceiving Agency

Reproductive Authority Among Haredi Women

Michal S. Raucher

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In Conceiving Agency: Reproductive Authority among Haredi Women (Indiana University Press, 2020), Michal Raucher explores the ways ultra-Orthodox Jewish women in Israel make decisions about their reproductive lives. Although they …
Politics & Polemics November 17, 2020

Mythologies Without End

The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020

Jerome Slater

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
The history of modern Israel is a fiercely contested subject. From the Balfour declaration to the Six-Day War to the recent assault on Gaza, ideologically-charged narratives and counter-narratives battle for …
Israel Studies November 5, 2020

Between Dixie and Zion

Southern Baptists and Palestine before Israel

Walker Robins

Hosted by Lane Davis
In Between Dixie and Zion: Southern Baptists and Palestine before Israel (University of Alabama Press, 2020), Walker Robins explores how Southern Baptists engaged what was called the “Palestine question”: whether …
Israel Studies October 5, 2020

Women’s Political Activism in Palestine

Peacebuilding, Resistance, and Survival

Sophie Richter-Devroe

Hosted by Josephine Chaet
Dr. Sophie Richter-Devroe’s book, Women’s Political Activism in Palestine: Peacebuilding, Resistance, and Survival (University of Illinois Press, 2018) offers an analysis of the forms assumed by women’s political resistance in …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel September 9, 2020

The Invention of Jewish Theocracy

The Struggle for Legal Authority in Modern Israel

Alexander Kaye

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The tension between secular politics and religious fundamentalism is a problem shared by many modern states. This is certainly true of the State of Israel, where the religious-secular schism provokes …
Literature September 7, 2020

The Hilltop

Assaf Gavron

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Mordantly funny and deeply moving, The Hilltop about life in a West Bank settlement has been hailed as “brilliant” (The New York Times Book Review) and “The Great Israeli Novel …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel August 6, 2020

The War of Return

How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace

Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Two prominent Israeli liberals argue that for the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to end with peace, Palestinians must come to terms with the fact that there will be …
Israel Studies July 29, 2020

Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East

Danyel Reiche and Tamir Sorek

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
Sports scholars Danyel Reiche and Tamir Sorek’s edited volume, Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2019), makes a significant contribution to what remains a largely …
Indian Ocean World July 21, 2020

The Gulf Region and Israel

Old Struggles, New Alliances

Sigurd Neubauer

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
Gulf scholar Sigurd Neubauer’s The Gulf Region and Israel: Old Struggles, New Alliances makes a significant contribution to our understanding of what drives shifting alliances in the Middle East, an …