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Jewish Studies
Jewish Studies May 20, 2022

Three Philosophies of Life

Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs

Peter Kreeft

Hosted by Phil Cohen
"I've been a philosopher for all my adult life and the three most profound books of philosophy that I have ever read are Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs." This …

Jewish Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Judaism about their new books.

Middle Eastern Studies May 13, 2022

A Liminal Church

Refugees, Conversions and the Latin Diocese of Jerusalem, 1946–1956

Maria Chiara Rioli

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
The history of the Palestine War does not only concern military history. It also involves social, humanitarian and religious history, as in the case of the Roman Catholic Diocese of …
Middle Eastern Studies May 10, 2022

Jews and Palestinians in the Late Ottoman Era, 1908-1914

Claiming the Homeland

Louis Fishman

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
Uncovering a history buried by different nationalist narratives (Jewish, Israeli, Arab and Palestinian) the book by Louis Fishman looks at how the late Ottoman era set the stage for the …
Jewish Studies May 6, 2022

International Jewish Humanitarianism in the Age of the Great War

Jaclyn Granick

Hosted by Amber Nickell
Today I talked to Jaclyn Granick about her book International Jewish Humanitarianism in the Age of the Great War (Cambridge UP, 2021).  In 1914, seven million Jews across Eastern Europe and the …
General History May 4, 2022

The Politics of Maps

Cartographic Constructions of Israel/Palestine

Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Valley has been one of the most disputed territories in history. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 …
Israel Studies May 3, 2022

Can Academics Change the World?

An Israeli Anthropologist's Testimony on the Rise and Fall of a Protest Movement on Campus

Moshe Shokeid

Hosted by Akin Ajayi
AD KAN (NO MORE) was founded in 1988 by a group of academics at Tel Aviv University. The initiative, a public pressure group, was prompted by public indifference (at best) …
Jewish Studies May 2, 2022

Fighter, Worker, and Family Man

German-Jewish Men and Their Gendered Experiences in Nazi Germany, 1933-1941

Sebastian Huebel

Hosted by Amber Nickell
When the Nazis came to power, they used various strategies to expel German Jews from social, cultural, and economic life. Fighter, Worker, and Family Man (U Toronto Press, 2022) focuses …
Biblical Studies April 27, 2022

Nightmares with the Bible

The Good Book and Cinematic Demons

Steve A. Wiggins

Hosted by David Kunsman
Demons! Nightmares with the Bible: The Good Book and Cinematic Demons (2021) published by Fortress Academic views demons through two lenses: that of western religion and that of cinema. Sketching out …
Intellectual History April 25, 2022

In God’s Image

The Making of the Modern World

Tomer Persico

Hosted by Yakir Englander
In God’s Image: The Making of the Modern World (Yediot Aharonot, 2021) examines the central role that the biblical idea of the “image of God” has played in the development of …
Jewish Studies April 19, 2022

Belonging and Betrayal

How Jews Made the Art World Modern

Charles Dellheim

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Since the late-1990s, the fate of Nazi stolen art has become a cause célèbre. In Belonging and Betrayal: How Jews Made the Art World Modern (Brandeis UP, 2021), Charles Dellheim …
Poetry April 19, 2022

Machluta

Sigal Naor Perelman

Hosted by Yakir Englander
This episode is part of a series of recordings I do with artists and scholars from Israel and Palestine. To allow people from the conflict to make their voices heard …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel April 14, 2022

Agnon’s Tales of the Land of Israel

Jeffrey Saks and Shalom Carmy

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of …
Jewish Studies April 13, 2022

The Commentators' Bible

The Rubin JPS Miqra'ot Gedolot

Michael Carasik

Hosted by Michael Morales
The biblical commentaries known as Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Hebrew readers. Now, with the five volumes of the acclaimed English edition of Miqra’ot Gedolot, The Commentators' Bible—Genesis …
Film April 8, 2022

Hollywood and Israel

A History

Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
From Frank Sinatra’s early pro-Zionist rallying to Steven Spielberg’s present-day peacemaking, Hollywood has long enjoyed a “special relationship” with Israel. This book offers a groundbreaking account of this relationship, both …
Jewish Studies April 5, 2022

American Shtetl

The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York

Nomi M. Stolzenberg and David N. Myers

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (Princeton University Press, 2022), Nomi Stolzenberg and David Myers tell the story of how a …
On Religion March 31, 2022

On Leaving Hasidism

A Discussion with Shulem Deen

Shulem Deen

Hosted by Gregory Soden
Shulem Deen is a writer, journalist, and author of the award-winning memoir All Who Go Do Not Return. He is a regular contributor to the Forward, and in 2015 was listed …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel March 28, 2022

Under Jerusalem

The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City

Andrew Lawler

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City (Doubleday, 2021) takes readers into the tombs, tunnels, and trenches of the Holy City. It brings to life the …
Jewish Studies March 22, 2022

The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization (6)

Confronting Modernity, 1750-1880

Elisheva Carlebach and Deborah Dash Moore

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 6: Confronting Modernity, 1750–1880 (Yale University Press, 2019), covers a period in which every aspect of Jewish life underwent the most …
Critical Theory March 22, 2022

How to Measure a World?

A Philosophy of Judaism

Martin Shuster

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What can the history of Jewish philosophy teach us about modern life? In How to Measure a World?: A Philosophy of Judaism (Indiana UP, 2021), Martin Shuster, an Associate Professor of …
Jewish Studies March 22, 2022

When I Grow Up

The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers

Ken Krimstein

Hosted by David Gottlieb
When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers (Bloomsbury, 2021), the latest graphic nonfiction narrative from New Yorker cartoonist Ken Krimstein, is based on six of hundreds …