Tel Aviv Review

Can films reveal what a nation really believes about itself? For decades, Dutch cinema told one story about its Jews. Then, slowly, that story began to change. This week, Dr. Eyal Boers, head of Film and Television at Ariel University, takes us on a fascinating journey through more than a century of Dutch cinema, showing how films have reflected—and shaped—the Netherlands' evolving relationship with its Jewish community, the Holocaust, national identity, and Israel. Why did Jewish characters move from being outsiders to symbols of national guilt? Why does Anne Frank loom so large over Dutch filmmaking? And what does today's portrayal of Israelis reveal about contemporary Europe? It's a conversation about cinema—but even more, it's about memory, identity, and the stories societies tell themselves. Check out Dr. Boers book, The Jew in Dutch Cinema: Images, Stereotypes and National Identity.

Upon the publication of Autocorrect, his latest collection of short stories, Etgar Keret joins us to discuss his favorite literary form, the impact of AI on storytelling and the power of literature post-Oct 7. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

The major turning points in Iran's nuclear program were not the JCPOA or the latest wars, but the Shah's defiance of Henry Kissinger and the Iran-Iraq War, says Dr. Sina Azodi, Assistant Professor of Middle East Politics at George Washington University and author of Iran and the Bomb: The United States, Iran and the Nuclear Question.

How does a Western-educated king survive — and thrive — in the political chaos of the Middle East for more than 25 years? Aaron Magid, a journalist formerly based in Jordan, discusses his book The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan, exploring the fascinating story of Jordan's King Abdullah II: a monarch shaped by American culture, dependent on American support, yet ruling one of the region's most fragile and strategically vital countries. From Georgetown and Star Trek to Gaza, the Arab Spring, ISIS, Trump, Obama, and the future of the Hashemite Kingdom — this conversation dives deep into the balancing act that has kept Jordan stable while the region around it burns. Why does Washington invest billions in Jordan? How "American" is King Abdullah really? Can authoritarian stability survive economic despair? And how has Jordan managed to weather every regional storm? A timely conversation about power, survival, diplomacy, and the quiet importance of Jordan in Middle Eastern politics.

Olga Gershenson, professor of Jewish and Near East Studies and Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, explains how a generation raised on VHS, torrents, and global cinema reinvented horror in Israel—turning familiar tropes into sharp, funny, and deeply local cultural critique. From "Hebraizing" zombies to exposing the absurdities of military life, Israeli horror is anything but escapist—it's subversive, original, and long overdue. Why did it take so long for horror to emerge in Israeli cinema—and why did it suddenly explode in the 2010s? Her book, New Israeli Horror: Local Cinema, Global Genre, is available here: https://websites.umass.edu/newisraelihorror

Oz Frankel, professor of American history at the New School for Social Research in New York, discusses his book Coca Cola, Black Panthers and Phantom Jers: Israel in the American Orbit 1967-1973.

A thought-provoking episode exploring how early Zionist thinkers engaged deeply with Arabic language and Islamic culture, challenging conventional views of identity and "Orientalism" in the Middle East. Dr Mostafa Hussein, Assistant Professor of Jewish-Muslim Relations at the University of Michigan, discusses his book Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman Palestine.

Did you know that a Yiddish newspaper once had a larger circulation than The New York Times? At the turn of the 20th century, the Yiddish press in America wasn't just a news industry — it was the beating heart of immigrant Jewish life. Newspapers didn't just report the news; they offered advice, shaped politics, and helped newcomers navigate a bewildering new society. In this week's episode, historian Ayelet Brinn joins us to discuss her award-winning book A Revolution in Type: Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish Press. Among the fascinating stories we explore: • Why men sometimes wrote under female pseudonyms just to get published • How "women's columns" became unexpected spaces for radical political ideas • The strange linguistic world of early Yiddish journalism — where the same word might be spelled differently in the same article • And how immigrant newspapers became guides to everyday life, with readers even showing up at editorial offices for personal advice. What emerges is a portrait of a vibrant media ecosystem where journalism, politics, gender, and immigrant identity collided in surprising ways. If you were a newly arrived immigrant a century ago, would you trust a newspaper to guide you through daily life?

Amir Naaman and Dr Ran Heilbrunn, Israeli writers based in Germany, discuss their new collection of essays Inversion: Gay Life after the Homosexual. What are the next steps for queer theory after the impressive gains made by gay rights activism over the last few decades?

For Michael Sfard, one of Israel's most prominent human rights lawyers and author of the forthcoming book Occupation from Within: How Israel's Oppression of the Palestinians Turned Inwards, the government's anti-democratic proposals, collectively known as the "judicial overhaul", are a culmination of the decades-long occupation of the Palestinians. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

How will the much-touted special relationship be affected by President Trump's overhaul of many aspects of American governance? Alon Pinkas, former Israeli diplomat and author of the forthcoming book An Unnatural Alliance, reflects on his time as Consul-General in New York in the early 2000s - how has Israeli diplomacy in the US evolved since? Join us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/telavivreview

Dr. Murat Yildiz, a historian of the Middle East at Skidmore College, discusses his book, The Ottoman World of Sports: Refashioning Bodies, Men and Communities in Late Imperial Istanbul. (Forthcoming, University of Texas Press).

Robert Malley, a former US negotiator and president and CEO of the International Crisis Group, and currently Senior Fellow and Lecturer at Yale University's Jackson School for Global Affairs, discusses his book (co-authored with Hussein Agha) Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Dr Balazs Berkovits, a Hungarian-born sociologist and philosopher, and Dr. Sara Hirschhorn, an American-Israeli historian, discuss the complexity – and adverse effects – of attributing the "whiteness" category to Jews. This series is made possible by the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa.

Steven E. Zipperstein, the director of the Nazarian Center for Israel Studies at UCLA, discusses his book, Zionism, Palestinian Nationalism and the Law: 1939-1948.

Dr Dikla Yogev and Dr Shlomi Balaban, two Israeli academics based in Canada, reflect on Oct. 7 and its aftermath in their professional and personal circles. This series is made possible by the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa.

Rabbi Dr Michael Marmur, Professor of Jewish Theology at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, discusses his book Living the Letters: An Alphabet of Emerging Jewish Thought.

Izabella Tabarovsky and Prof. Khinvraj Jangid, fellows at the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa, discuss the landscape of antisemitism in two non-Western environments: the Post-Soviet and the Indian. This series is made possible by the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racismat the University of Haifa.

Amos Goldberg, Professor of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a renowned historian of the Holocaust, explains why he believes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and weighs in on the role of historians and public intellectuals in addressing it. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Lior Sternfeld, Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Penn State University, discusses his book, "Iran: Life itself. History, politics, culture and trauma," a Hebrew-language primer for Israelis curious about their country's arch-enemy. Hear the full episode on Patreon

Prof. Guy Ben-Porat, political scientist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, discusses his co-written book Usual Suspects: Minorities, Police and Citizenship in Israel.

Adam Kirsch, poet, critic and editor at the Wall Street Journal, discusses his widely debated book, On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence and Justice. The settler-colonialism prism, especially in the wake of October 7, is a textbook example of the use and abuse of academic theories for political ends – how and why has it come to be? Kirsch offers an historical genealogy as well as a contemporary analysis. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Guy Miron, professor of modern European Jewish history at the Open University of Israel, and the director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust in Germany at Yad Vashem and a board member of the Leo Baeck Institute in Jerusalem, discusses his most recent book, Space and Time Under Persecution: The German-Jewish Experience in the Third Reich.

Dr Ido Yahel, a postdoctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, is a historian of modern Syria. An ethnic hodgepodge, was the decades-long stability provided by the brutal Assad regime an exception rather than the rule? Can Syria reinvent itself under the leadership of a reformed (at least partially) radical Islamist? Hear the full episode on Patreon

Prof. Jonthan Dekel-Chen, Rabbi Edward Sandrow Chair in Soviet and East European Jewry at the Hebrew University and the academic chairman of the Nevzlin Center for Russian and East European Jewry, takes a long view on the history of Jews in Russia and its past and present territories, from the turn of the 20th century to the 21st. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry.

Dr Amit Levy, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Haifa's Department of Israel Studies, discusses his book, A New Orient: From German Scholarship to Middle Eastern Studies in Israel.

The October 7 events seemed, initially at least, to put the government's plans for a judicial overhaul on the back burner. But under the guise of wartime emergency regulations, the government has slipped back to its old habits. As Prof. Suzie Navot, a scholar of constitutional law and Vice-President of the Israel Democracy Institute, explains, the judicial overhaul is now returning in a much more circumspect (and therefore ominous) manner than before.

Dr Rona Aviram, a scientist, and Omer Benjakob, a journalist – both fellows at Brandeis University's Institute of Advanced Israel Studies – discuss Wikipedia's bumpy road towards becoming the go-to source of knowledge online. This episode is part of a series in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University.

Dr Anna Kushkova, an anthropologist, postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry, discusses her research on Jewish underground entrepreneurial networks in the Soviet Union. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry.

Hear this Patron-Exclusive Episode on Patreon William Kolbrener and Ronit Eitan, literary scholars at Bar Ilan University, are the founders of Writing on the Wall, an online platform for an open and diverse conversation, and co-editors of Balagan, a magazine of Art, Poetry and Perspective that launched earlier this year. What is the power of literature and writing to mitigate times of crisis?

Neta Shoshani's documentary film 1948: Remember, Remember Not was commissioned by Kan, Israel's public broadcaster for the country's 75th Independence Day. Almost two years on, it has yet to be broadcast, in the wake of a right-wing campaign that claims that it defames Israel. In this episode, she talks about the interplay between history, memory and public knowledge. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Tom Eshed, postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights, discusses knowledge production on Antisemitism in the wake of the Second World War in Israel and abroad. This episode is made possible by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights.

Adam Shinar, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, at Reichman University, discusses the recent return of Israel's Film and Theatre Review Board from oblivion, to serve the government's political goals. How did Israel's censorship laws evolve over the years?

Dr Lee Mordechai, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discusses Bearing Witness to the Gaza War, a comprehensive database of facts and figures that he meticulously collected since October 7, 2023. How did a Byzantine historian come to meticulously collect evidence about the atrocities of the current war, still ongoing?   The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Elyakim Rubinstein has had an incredibly prolific career in academia, politics, diplomacy and the judiciary. Among his many accomplishments, he served as cabinet secretary, attorney general, chargé d'affaires in Israel's embassy in Washington, and deputy chief justice until his retirement in 2017. He is the only living Israeli who has taken part in peace negotiations with all of Israel's five neighboring countries, in which capacity he led the Israeli delegation to the peace negotiations with Jordan that culminated in an accord that recently marked its 30-year anniversary. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr. Yael Dekel, a literary scholar at the Open University and Ben Gurion University of the Negev and a lead fellow at Brandeis University's Institute of Advanced Israel Studies, talks about the Literary Laboratory: how can digital methods be used to study the canon of Hebrew literature - and redefine it, along the way? This episode is part of a series in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Israel Studies at Brandeis University.

Prof Nir Arielli, Professor of International History at the University of Leeds (UK), discusses his book The Dead Sea: A 10,000 Year History.

Dr. (Col. res.) Eran Shamir-Borer, Director of the Center for National Security and Democracy at the Israel Democracy Institute and formerly the head of the International Law Department of the IDF's Military Advocate General, analyzes Israel's legal standing in relation to the Gaza War and the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Yehuda Shenhav Shaharabani, Professor Emeritus of sociology at Tel Aviv University and the editor in chief of Maktoob books, a series of Hebrew translations of Arabic literature, discusses the life and writing of Elias Khoury, the great Lebanese novelist who died in September, aged 76. Shenhav Shaharabani single-handedly translated ten of Khoury's novels, and was a close personal friend of his. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Dr Brandon Friedman, a research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies specializing in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, discusses the future of Middle Eastern geopolitics in the wake of October 7th and ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

The climate crisis is a global issue with very concrete strategic consequences: on food security, energy and more. Galit Cohen, Director of the Program on Climate Change at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies and the former Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, discusses the implications of the climate crisis on national security and the importance of policymaking in moving forward. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Daniel Lörcher, the founding director of What Matters, an organization that tackles racism, antisemitism and discrimination on the soccer field and elsewhere, discusses his work on reducing antisemitism among soccer fans and how sports culture can – and does – help create an atmosphere that promotes tolerance and pluralism. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Ricarda Louk, the mother of Shani, a tattoo artist who became one of the most iconic victims of the Nova festival massacre, talks to us upon the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Tammy Hoffman, a research fellow and the Head of the Education Policy Program at the Israel Democracy Institute and a lecturer at Hakibbutzim College of Education, explains how public education can tackle the erosion of democratic norms and the adverse effects of social media on society. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Historian Dr Nimrod Lin, Managing Editor of the Journal of Israeli History, discusses his forthcoming book People Who Count: Zionism, Demography and Democracy in Mandate Palestine. This interview is part of the "Democracy and Its Alternatives: The Origins of Israel's Current Crisis" conference, held at Brandeis University and organized in partnership with the Center for Jewish History in New York.

Roni Stauber, Professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University, discusses his book Diplomacy in the Shadow of Memory: Israel and West Germany, 1953-1965. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Dr Matthias Becker, research fellow at Reichman University and the University of Cambridge, discusses his Decoding Antisemitism project, using novel scholarly and technological tools to monitor and analyze online hate speech. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Eran Halperin, professor of psychology at the Hebrew University and the founding director of aChord, a leading research center dedicated to promoting social change in Israel through the tools of social psychology, discusses his new book, Warning: Hate Ahead. Why is hate such a powerful emotion, and what can be done to contain it? The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

Dr Yoav Fromer, a senior lecturer at the Department of English and American Studies and the head of the Center of US Studies at Tel Aviv University, discusses his new book (co-edited with Ilan Peleg), The Americanization of the Israeli Right.

Joshua Leifer, an American journalist (Dissent, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian) and PhD candidate in history at Yale University, discusses his new book Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life. The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.