New Books Network

About Renee Garfinkel

Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network’s Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at r.garfinkel@yahoo.com.

NBN Episodes hosted by Renee:

Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel December 4, 2020

Ladders to Heaven

How Figs Shaped our History, Fed our Imaginations, and can Enrich our Future

Mike Shanahan

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
They are trees of life and trees of knowledge. They are wish-fulfillers … rainforest royalty … more precious than gold. They are the fig trees, and they have affected humanity in profound but little-known ways. Mike Shanahan's book Ladders to Heaven: How Figs Shaped our History, Fed our Imaginations, and can Enrich our Future (Unbound, 2016) tells their amazing story. Fig trees fed our pre-human ancestors, influenced diverse cultures and played key roles …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel November 23, 2020

History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200-2000

Sumit Guha

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
In this far-ranging and erudite exploration of the South Asian past, Sumit Guha discusses the shaping of social and historical memory in world-historical context. He presents memory as the result …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel November 9, 2020

The Fascination with Death in Contemporary French Thought

A Longing for the Abyss

Betty Rojtman

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The Fascination with Death in Contemporary French Thought: A Longing for the Abyss (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020) analyses a cultural phenomenon that goes to the very roots of Western civilization: the …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 22, 2020

Blueprint

How DNA Makes Us Who We Are

Robert Plomin

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Have you ever felt, “Oh my God, I’m turning into my mother (or father)!” ? Robert Plomin explains why that happens in Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 14, 2020

Kinship, Law and Politics

An Anatomy of Belonging

Joseph E. David

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Why are we so concerned with belonging? In what ways does our belonging constitute our identity? Is belonging a universal concept or a culturally dependent value? How does belonging situate …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 7, 2020

The Geography of Genius

Lessons from the World’s Most Creative Places

Eric Weiner

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Living, as we do, in a time in which a U.S. president anoints himself “a very stable genius”, we are particularly appreciative of Eric Weiner, a former foreign correspondent for …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 2, 2020

What Black and White America Must Do Now

A Prescription to Move Beyond Race

Armstrong Williams

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
What Black and White America Must Do Now: A Prescription to Move Beyond Race (Hot Books, 2020) explores the complexity of race and culture in the United States. In his …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel September 21, 2020

Hidden Valley Road

Inside the Mind of An American Family

Robert Kolker

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of An American Family (Doubleday, 2020) is the story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that …
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 …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel August 31, 2020

The Jews Should Keep Quiet

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust

Rafael Medoff

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Like so many Americans, American Jews supported President Roosevelt. They adored him. They believed in him. They idolized him. Perhaps they shouldn’t have. Based on recently discovered documents, The Jews …
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 …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel July 31, 2020

When Christians Were Jews

The First Generation

Paula Fredriksen

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
How did a group of charismatic, apocalyptic Jewish missionaries, working to prepare their world for the impending realization of God's promises to Israel, end up inaugurating a movement that would …