Foundation Course 3: The Jews and the Crisis of Modernity: The Russian Empire and Jewish Migrations
Over the past 200 years, the Jewish world has undergone profound transformations. In partnership with the Jewish Literary Foundation, this short, overview course explores the complex journey of the Jewish people from the era of Enlightenment, which introduced ideas of emancipation, liberalism, and tolerance, to the present day, where those very forces have, in some […]
Foundation Course 2: The Jews and the Crisis of Modernity: Nationalism and its Discontents – Antisemitism and Zionism
Over the past 200 years, the Jewish world has undergone profound transformations. This short, overview course explores the complex journey of the Jewish people from the era of Enlightenment, which introduced ideas of emancipation, liberalism, and tolerance, to the present day, where those very forces have, in some cases, turned against them. Historian and educator […]
Foundation Course 1: The Jews and the Crisis of Modernity: From Ghetto to Emancipation and the Redefining of Jewish Identity
Over the past 200 years, the Jewish world has undergone profound transformations. This short, overview course explores the complex journey of the Jewish people from the era of Enlightenment, which introduced ideas of emancipation, liberalism, and tolerance, to the present day, where those very forces have, in some cases, turned against them. Historian and educator […]
Tanya Gold Interviews Jan Grabowski on His New Book “Whitewash Poland and the Jews”
On the day his groundbreaking essay Whitewash hits the press, world-renowned historian Jan Grabowski sits down with journalist Tanya Gold. They delve into how the Polish government, museums, schools, and state institutions promote a narrative of national innocence regarding the Holocaust. Grabowski also shares his personal experiences facing smears and a notorious lawsuit for challenging […]
Why Schoenberg Matters
Austrian American composer Arnold Schoenberg was an international icon in his own time, with his 12-tone system considered the future of music itself. Today, leading orchestras rarely play his works and his name is met with apathy, if not antipathy. A New Yorker Book of the Year, Harvey Sachs’ lyrical Schoenberg: Why He Matters rescues […]
Ian Goldin: Age of the City
From centres of antiquity such as Athens or Rome, to modern metropolises such as New York or Shanghai, cities throughout history have been the epicentres of our greatest achievements. Now, for the first time, more than half of humanity lives in cities, which are growing at an unprecedented rate. The visionary Oxford professor Ian Goldin […]
Breaking Through Depression
We are often told that depression is ‘all in the mind’. So why are so many of its symptoms felt in our bodies? One of the world’s leading researchers on depressive illness shares his expertise. As he marks 50 years at the US National Institute of Health, Philip Gold shows how this devastating disease can […]
Jewish Priorities
With the unprecedented Jewish Priorities: Sixty-five proposals for the future of our people, writer and author David Hazony brings together voices from across the Jewish world for a no-holds-barred debate on the future. With essays from thought leaders including Natan Sharansky, Dara Horn and Fania Oz–Salzberger and featuring rabbis, scholars, activists and novelists, the collection […]
Yascha Mounk – The Identity Trap
Barack Obama’s ‘favourite political thinker’ joins us to discuss the origins, consequences and limitations of what he terms ‘identity synthesis’. In The Identity Trap, Yascha Mounk argues that what started as an appreciation of the culture and heritage of minorities marginalised by society, has transformed into an obsession with group identity in all its forms, […]
Maestros & Monsters: Sontag & Steiner
Susan Sontag and George Steiner were two of the most notable secular Jewish intellectuals of the last century; the former an influential writer, activist and filmmaker, the latter a media commentator and New Yorker literary critic. They disliked and mistrusted one another, meeting only on the few occasions where their mutual friend Robert Boyers brought […]
Jewish Women: Literacy & Liberty
Through much of history the Jewish Hebrew library of the ‘People of the Book’ excluded half of humanity; across all traditional Jewish communities compulsory communal education was only for boys until the turn of the last century. In her comprehensive study The Unknown History of Jewish Women Through The Ages Rachel Elior examines the social, […]
The Jewish Newspaper Phenomenon Reconsidered
National Library of Israel expert Eyal Miller offers an introduction to the rich and vivid history of Jewish newspapers and periodicals over the past 250 years, examining their role in modern Jewish society and culture. From the wider Jewish world, he will focus on London, a significant centre of the Jewish press for over two […]