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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 reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here.

NBN Episodes hosted by Renee:

Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 17, 2023

Impossible Takes Longer

75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders' Dreams?

Daniel Gordis

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
In 1948, Israel’s founders had much more in mind than the creation of a state. They sought not mere sovereignty but also a “national home for the Jewish people,” where …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 10, 2023

Bruno Schulz

An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History

Benjamin Balint

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The twentieth-century artist Bruno Schulz was born an Austrian, lived as a Pole, and died a Jew. First a citizen of the Habsburg monarchy, he would, without moving, become the …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 3, 2023

Third-party Peacemakers in Judaism

Text, Theory, and Practice

Daniel Roth

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
In the race to discover real solutions for the conflicts that plague contemporary society, it is essential that we look to precedent. Many of today's conflicts involve ethno-religious tensions that …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel April 26, 2023

The Transcendent Brain

Spirituality in the Age of Science

Alan Lightman

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Are science and spirituality incompatible? From the acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams comes a rich, fascinating answer to that question... Gazing at the stars, falling in love, or listening to …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel April 10, 2023

Ritual

How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living

Dimitris Xygalatas

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Ritual is one of the oldest, and certainly most enigmatic, threads in the history of human culture. It presents a profound paradox: people ascribe the utmost importance to their rituals …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel April 6, 2023

The Pope at War

The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler

David I. Kertzer

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, his papers were sealed in the Vatican Secret Archives, leaving unanswered questions about what he knew and did during World War II. Those …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel March 15, 2023

Wild Problems

A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us

Russ Roberts

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Algorithms and apps analyze data and tell you how to beat the traffic, what books to buy, what music to listen to, and even who to date—often with great results …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel February 26, 2023

Time and Beauty

Why Time Flies and Beauty Never Dies

Adrian Bejan

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Poets and philosophers are fascinated by time and beauty. They are two of our most visceral perceptions. In Time and Beauty: Why Time Flies and Beauty Never Dies (World Scientific …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 31, 2023

Ecclesiastes and the Meaning of Life in the Ancient World

Arthur Keefer

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Is the search for meaning a luxury of the modern world or have human beings always struggled to find meaning in the human condition – in the face of suffering …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 27, 2023

The Aryan Jesus

Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany

Susannah Heschel

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel December 20, 2022

The Political Economy of Organ Transplantation

Where Do Organs Come From?

Hagai Boas

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
This is the story of organ transplantation, told from the organ’s point of view. Organs for transplantations come from two sources: living or post-mortem organ donations. These sources set different …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel December 5, 2022

The Grieving Brain

The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss

Mary-Frances O'Connor

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
For as long as humans have existed, we have struggled when a loved one dies. Poets and playwrights have written about the dark cloak of grief, the deep yearning, how …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel November 22, 2022

Seek and Hide

The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy

Amy Gajda

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Should everyone have privacy in their personal lives? Can privacy exist in a public place? Is there a right to be left alone, even in the United States? The battle …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 25, 2022

Sustainable Agriculture in the Global South: A Religious Response to the Global Food Crisis

A Conversation with Rabbi Micha Odenheimer, Founder and Director of Tevel b’Tzedek

Rabbi Micha Odenheimer

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Micha Odenheimer is the founder and director of Tevel B’Zedek, an Israeli NGO that aims to create Israeli and Jewish leadership passionately engaged in Tikkun Olam – fixing the world – locally …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 4, 2022

Suicide Prevention: Grassroots Intervention for High-Risk Groups

A Conversation with Hannah Rothstein

Hannah Rothstein

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Suicide has been on the rise in recent years, most frighteningly among young people. Suicide is second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 and 25-34. Gay, lesbian, and …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel September 19, 2022

Queering Anti-Zionism

Academic Freedom, LGBTQ Intellectuals, and Israel/Palestine Campus Activism

Corinne E. Blackmer

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Why do some scholars sacrifice truth and logic to political ideology and peer acceptance? With courage and intellectual integrity, queer scholar-activist Corinne Blackmer stages a pointed critique of scholars whose …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel August 30, 2022

Minority Of One

The Unchaining of an Arab Mind

Hussein Aboubakr Mansour

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel August 25, 2022

Addressing Hunger, Food Insecurity--Local Solutions to a Global Problem

A Conversation with Joseph Gitler of Leket, Israel’s Largest Food Rescue Organization

Joseph Gitler

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
We live in a time of food paradox. In a world of historically unprecedented abundance, many don’t have enough to eat. Life-limiting obesity coexists with malnutrition - at the same …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel July 15, 2022

The New Science of Narcissism

Understanding One of the Greatest Psychological Challenges of Our Time—and What You Can Do About It

Keith W. Campbell

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
“Narcissism” is truly one of the most important words of our time―ceaselessly discussed in the media, the subject of millions of online search queries, and at the center of serious …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel July 7, 2022

How Religion Evolved

And Why It Endures

Robin Dunbar

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
What is the evolutionary purpose of religion, and are some individuals more inclined than others to be religious? Our species diverged from the great apes six to eight million years …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel June 27, 2022

Culturally Competent Health Care, Equality in Health Care

The Case of Muslims and Jews in the UK

Ben Kasstan

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The health care sector frequently emphasizes “Cultural competence”, an elastic concept that stretches from the simplest recognition of diversity of patient populations, to include policy implications of patients’ overall worldviews …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel June 20, 2022

Professor of Apocalypse

The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes

Jerry Z. Muller

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Genius or Charlatan? This is the story of Jacob Taubes, the controversial Jewish thinker whose tortured path led him into the heart of twentieth-century intellectual life Scion of a distinguished …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel June 6, 2022

Red Carpet

Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy

Erich Schwartzel

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
From trade to technology to military might, competition between the United States and China dominates the foreign policy landscape. But this battle for global influence is also playing out in …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 30, 2022

The Israeli Druze Community in Transition

Between Tradition and Modernity

Randa Khair Abbas and Deborah Court

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Randa Khair Abbas and Deborah Court's book The Israeli Druze Community in Transition: Between Tradition and Modernity (Cambridge Scholars, 2021) gives voice to the Israeli Druze through in-depth interviews with 12 …