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“A real gem - a podcast for intellectual conversations that manage to be erudite and fun. It's the best way to keep up with the latest ideas, research, and thinking on Israel and its interactions with the Jewish world, Palestinians and the Middle East. What I love about it is that I never know where the next conversation would go.”
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“The Tel Aviv Review has become my indispensable companion on the road and an always provocative challenge to my own fixed ideas. This podcast is easily on the level of the best public radio interview shows in America. Kudos for making this unique contribution to the intellectual life of Israel.”
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“The hosts' probing questions revealed a sophisticated grasp of modern European history and politics, their intersection with the history of Israel and a welcome ability to listen to what I said and respond with thoughtful follow-up questions.”
Recent Episodes
The Untold Stories of Iran’s Jews
At times reminiscent of 19th century European Jewry, at others of American Jewry in the 20th, the modern history of Iran's Jews varies radically from other Jewish histories in the Middle East. A new book focuses on the unique case of Iranian Jewry.
Meet the Mayor Next Door
Musa Hadid is an all-around nice guy; he's determined to fix up the old town, re-brand his city, and have a Christmas celebration for everyone. But being the Mayor of Ramallah is no ordinary job and a new documentary, Mayor, is no ordinary film about Palestine. David Osit, the director, explains why.
About the Hosts
Gilad Halpern
Gilad is a journalist, broadcaster and media historian. He is also a founding co-editor of the Tel Aviv Review of Books magazine, an English-language online quarterly, and an Idit Fellow at the University of Haifa, researching the history of the Jewish press in Mandatory Palestine. Previously he was Managing Editor for Ynetnews and Assignments Editor for Haaretz English Edition. His work appeared on the BBC, Al Jazeera, Al Monitor, Time Out magazine, the Jewish Quarterly and the Jewish Chronicle.
Dr. Yael Berda
Dr. Yael Berda is Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Hebrew University, and a fellow at Middle East initiative at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She received her PhD from Princeton University; her MA from Tel Aviv University, and her LLB from Hebrew University faculty of Law. Previously a practicing Human Rights lawyer, representing clients in Military, District and Supreme courts in Israel, her most recent books are Living Emergency: Israel's Permit Regime in the West Bank and Colonial Bureaucracy and Contemporary Citizenship: Legacies of Race and Emergencies in the Former British Empire.
Cracking the Code
It took the world's most advanced digital pioneers, when the computer as we know it was barely born, to stave off Nazi conquest of the Middle East. And it took Gershom Gorenberg to write the true history of the “War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East” - as if it was a novel.