The Tel Aviv Review

Each Country – Populist in Its Own Way?

Julius Rogenhofer studies manifestations of populism and democratic erosion in deeply divided societies. Rogenhofer identifies the causes and consequences of populist-driven democratic erosion in Turkey, India and Israel, shaped by each state’s social, ethnic and religious divisions.

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Brothers From Another Mother?

Rabbi Dr Tal Sessler, the incoming Dean of the Rabbinical School at the Academy of Jewish Religion in California, discusses his forthcoming book, “Leibowitz and Levinas: Between Judaism and Universalism,” juxtaposing the political and theological thought of two of the most prominent Jewish philosophers in the 20th century

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The Arab Vote – Is There Such a Thing?

Dr Arik Rudnitzky, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, analyzes the changing voting patterns in the Arab community ahead of Israel’s fourth general election in two years

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A Rainbow of Complexities in Palestine

Why is the LGBTQ global movement intensely invested in the Palestinian cause, and when does a social movement grow or plateau? Sa’ed Atshan asks and answers these questions in “Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique.”

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Idiomatic Expression

When Robert Berman, an American Jewish immigrant to Israel began studying Arabic, he didn’t stop until he had written a book full of idioms. Together with language expert Christy Bandak as editor, the linguistic duo explain what “his face is good on me” conveys in Arabic, and why there is a whole chapter on fingers.

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Israeli Democracy in 2021: Close To Breaking Point?

Ahead of another election, Yohanan Plesner, President of IDI, explains the requirements needed to come out of the ongoing political crisis that has left Israel without a stable government, a state budget for three years on end, and an effective response to the Covid pandemic

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Long, Long, Long Live King Bibi

In their documentary film, “King Bibi,” Dan Shadur and Liran Atzmor get to the bottom of Benjamin Netanyahu’s magic, which has made him the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israel’s history and a prominent fixture in Israeli politics for the past four decades, and counting.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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