New Books Network

About Yakir Englander

Dr. Yakir Englander is the National Director of Leadership programs at the Israeli-American Council. He also teaches at the AJR. He can be reached at: Yakir1212englander@gmail.com

NBN Episodes hosted by Yakir:

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 …
Law April 12, 2021

Human Dignity in Context

Dieter Grimm, Alexandra Kemmerer, and Christoph Möllers

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Human dignity is the key term that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights placed at the center of legal discourse on a global level. In 1949, Germany incorporated the concept …
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 5, 2021

Migrating Tales

The Talmud's Narratives and Their Historical Context

Richard Kalmin

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Migrating Tales: The Talmud's Narratives and Their Historical Context (University of California Press, 2014) situates the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, in its cultural context by reading several rich rabbinic stories …
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 …
Religion February 26, 2021

Dangerous Religious Ideas

The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Rachel S. Mikva

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Dangerous Religious Ideas: The Deep Roots of Self-Critical Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Beacon, 2020) reveals how faith traditions have always passed down tools for self-examination and debate, because …
Genocide Studies November 11, 2020

The Struggle for Understanding

Elie Wiesel's Literary Works

Victoria Nesfield and Philip Smith

Hosted by Yakir Englander
An in-depth look at Elie Wiesel’s writings, from his earliest works to his final novels. Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) was one of the most important literary voices to emerge from the …
Literature November 10, 2020

You Exist Too Much

Zaina Arafat

Hosted by Yakir Englander
On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12-year-old Palestinian-American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in …
Psychology November 10, 2020

To Heal a Wounded Heart

The Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action

Pilar Jennings

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Early on in her clinical practice, psychoanalyst Pilar Jennings was presented with a particularly difficult case: a six-year-old girl who, traumatized by loss, had stopped speaking. Challenged by the limitations …
German Studies November 2, 2020

Testimonies of Resistance

Representations of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando

Nicholas Chare and Dominic Williams

Hosted by Yakir Englander
The Sonderkommando--the "special squad" of enslaved Jewish laborers who were forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz-Birkenau--comprise one of the most fascinating and troubling topics within …
Literature October 7, 2020

The Bear

Andrew Krivak

Hosted by Yakir Englander
A cautionary tale of human fragility, of love and loss, The Bear (Bellevue Literary Press) is a stunning tribute to the beauty of nature’s dominion. In an Edenic future, a …
Intellectual History October 6, 2020

Human Dignity in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition

Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant Perspectives

John Loughlin

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Dignity is a fundamental aspect of our lives, yet one we rarely pause to consider; our understandings of dignity, on individual, collective and philosophical perspectives, shape how we think, act …
Anthropology September 18, 2020

On Inhumanity

Dehumanization and How to Resist It

David Livingstone Smith

Hosted by Yakir Englander
The Rwandan genocide, the Holocaust, the lynching of African Americans, the colonial slave trade: these are horrific episodes of mass violence spawned from racism and hatred. We like to think …
Poetry September 14, 2020

The First Free Women

Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns

Matty Weingast

Hosted by Yakir Englander
A radical and vivid rendering of poetry from the first Buddhist nuns that brings a new immediacy to their voices. The Therigatha ("Verses of the Elder Nuns") is the oldest …
East Asian Studies September 9, 2020

Readings of Dōgen's Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

Steven Heine

Hosted by Yakir Englander
The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shōbōgenzō) is the masterwork of Dōgen (1200–1253), founder of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist sect in Kamakura-era Japan. It is one of the most …
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 …
Literature September 4, 2020

Two Worlds Exist

Yehoshua November

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Yehoshua November's second poetry collection, Two Worlds Exist (Orison Books), movingly examines the harmonies and dissonances involved in practicing an ancient religious tradition in contemporary America. November's beautiful and profound …
Religion August 12, 2020

The Flip

Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge

Jeffrey J. Kripal

Hosted by Yakir Englander
A “flip,” writes Jeffrey J. Kripal, is “a reversal of perspective,” “a new real,” often born of an extreme, life-changing experience. The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of …
Critical Theory August 7, 2020

Betraying Dignity

The Toxic Seduction of Social Media, Shaming, and Radicalization

Orit Kamir

Hosted by Yakir Englander
What do medieval knights, suicide bombers and "victimhood culture" have in common? Betraying Dignity: The Toxic Seduction of Social Media, Shaming, and Radicalization (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press) argues that in …
Anthropology July 22, 2020

Degrees of Separation

Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism

Schneur Zalman Newfield

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Those who exit a religion—particularly one they were born and raised in—often find themselves at sea in their efforts to transition to life beyond their community. In Degrees of Separation …
Literary Studies July 20, 2020

Narrative Psychiatry

How Stories Can Shape Clinical Practice

Bradley Lewis

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Psychiatry has lagged behind many clinical specialties in recognizing the importance of narrative for understanding and effectively treating disease. With this book, Bradley Lewis makes the challenging and compelling case …
Education July 8, 2020

On Becoming a Healer

The Journey from Patient Care to Caring about Your Patients

Saul J. Weiner

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Medical students and physicians-in-training embark on a long journey that, although steeped in scientific learning and technical skill building, includes little guidance on the emotional and interpersonal dimensions of becoming …
Film July 2, 2020

Judging 'Privileged' Jews

Holocaust Ethics, Representation, and the 'Grey Zone'

Adam Brown

Hosted by Yakir Englander
The Nazis’ persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust included the creation of prisoner hierarchies that forced victims to cooperate with their persecutors. Many in the camps and ghettos came …
Literary Studies June 29, 2020

Permanent Beginning

R. Nachman of Braslav and Jewish Literary Modernity

Yitzhak Lewis

Hosted by Yakir Englander
The Hasidic leader R. Nachman of Braslav (1772–1810) has held a place in the Jewish popular imagination for more than two centuries. Some see him as the (self-proclaimed) Messiah, others …