Recent Episodes
We Forgave the Germans, and Then We Were Friends
How did Ben Gurion and first post-war German chancellor Konrad Adenauer become sincere political allies just a few years after the end of the war? David Witzthum, historian and longtime journalist, explores how Germany and Israel built a critical and controversial political alliance.
Ben-Gurion: An Intimate Portrait
Historian and journalist Dr Tom Segev discusses his book, “A State at all Costs: The Life of David Ben-Gurion,” a biography of Israel's founding father that draws heavily on his newly declassified personal papers.
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.
What’s Eating Russian Artists?
Liza Rozovsky writes about contemporary Russian culture under ongoing forms of political oppression, alongside artistic expressions of the experiences former Soviet immigrants to Israel. Her subjects touch on alienation, marginalization, subversion and defiance in literature, drama, art and politics.