What does economic history have to do with a country’s national identity? In Israel’s case, a great deal. The myth of a socialist ideal morphing into a neo-liberal global powerhouse is captivating but contains far more complex processes, and many run contrary to the national self-image. Dr Arie Krampf explains.
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Prof. Deborah Posel, a sociologist at the Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town, analyzes how racial tensions have played out in South Africa since the end of Apartheid in 1994.
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Yair Ettinger, a journalist and researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute explains the causes of Shas’s identity, leadership, and popularity woes, some resulting from and others coinciding with the death of its towering founder and spiritual father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in 2013.
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Milton Shain, emeritus professor of history at the University of Cape Town, specializing in the history of Jews and anti-Semitism in South Africa, tells the very different story of a Jewish settlement in the New World.
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What does radical Islam have in common with right wing extremism? Much, it turns out. Julia Ebner explains why each side exists in a world of obsession with the other; and proposes how to mitigate the pull of extremism that preys on the young.
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When Malka Marom, a Canadian-Israeli musician and broadcaster, walked into a destitute Toronto night club in 1966, she was swept off her feet by the music played by the still unknown Joni Mitchell. Their lifelong friendship is the subject of Malka’s new book.
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If another war breaks out between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, it could “turn Lebanon into a car park,” and take down wholesale targets in Tel Aviv, says longtime journalist and Lebanon expert Nicholas Blanford.
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Ahead of the 70th Independence Day celebrations, Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, discusses the past accomplishments and future challenges of democracy in Israel.
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Daniel Boyarin, Professor of Talmudic Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses his forthcoming book “Judaism: The Genealogy of a Modern Notions”, in which he argues that Judaism, as a full-blown concept, is a modern creation.
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After writing books about the god of Islam and Jesus of Nazareth, religion scholar Reza Aslan takes on the biggest question of all: What does “God” mean, anyway? Aslan comes to a surprising answer which raises the question, does this make him a deep believer or an atheist?
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