Art Spiegelman & Hillary Chute in conversation with Jonathan Freedland
From Superman to Maus, comic art has both subverted and triumphed over popular culture for almost a century. Our latest online event sees Jonathan Freedland joined by Maus creator Art Spiegelman and Hillary Chute, editor of the National Jewish Book Award winner Art Spiegelman’s MetaMaus and the upcoming Maus Now. They will look at the […]
Translating Soviet Literature
Three of the leading literary translators from Russian to English – Robert Chandler, Boris Dralyuk and Bryan Keretnyk – join literary critic David Herman to discuss their most recent translations: Vasily Grossman’s The People Immortal; Isaac Babel’s Of Sunshine and Bedbugs; and Yuri Felsen’s Deceit. From Jewish gangsters in Babel’s native Odessa and the catastrophic first months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union to a […]
Landscapes of Silence
Celebrated anthropologist and filmmaker Hugh Brody weaves a dazzling tapestry of personal memory and distant landscapes, from childhood in the Derbyshire attending Hebrew classes but sent to a C of E boarding school, to a kibbutz in Israel. Bewildered by the silence created by his concealed family history, he sought places of escape. It was […]
Lapidarium: The Secret Life of Stones
From the hematite used in cave paintings and the moldavite that became a TikTok sensation to from crystal balls to compasses, rocks and minerals have always been central to our story. 3,000 years ago, Babylonians constructed lapidaries, books that tried to pin down their magical secrets. Now art critic and author Hettie Judah explores the […]
Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew
From a Catskllls comic to one of the few individuals to have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards, Mel Brooks dominated 20th century American comedy. Now, as he approaches 97, the director of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein is the subject of the latest book in Yale’s Jewish Lives series. Jeremy Dauber’s Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew explores how Brooks’ American Jewish humour morphed from being solely […]
The BDS War: From Hollywood to Academia
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, conceived at the United Nations World Conference against Racism in South Africa in 2001, unleashed the “new” antisemitism which targeted the State of Israel. Ronnie Fraser, in Challenging the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement focuses on the efforts to oppose the academic boycott, while industry insider and […]
The Relativity of Death: Eduard Shyfrin
Dr Eduard Shyfrin, founder of the Kabbalah of information, best-selling author of From Infinity to Man: The Fundamental Ideas of Kabbalah Within the Framework of Information Theory and Quantum Physics has written extensively for the Jerusalem Post on a series of topics such as Torah, Theory of Creation, life and death, science and many more through the lens of […]
The Fire and the Bonfire
Celebrated artist Ardyn Halter, in conversation with art historian Monica Bohm-Duchen, offers a profound meditation on genocide, memory and art interwoven through three compelling journeys through time and place. From the dynamics of his relationship with his father, Roman Halter, to his work designing and creating stained-glass windows for the Rwandan National Genocide Centre, to […]
The Future Face of the Jewish State
Israel today is navigating internal struggles over what kind of Jewish state it wants to be—a debate that is playing out through tensions over reproduction. As demographic forecasts show that by 2065 Haredim will constitute a third of Israel’s Jewish population, Israeli policy makers have attempted to manage the rapid increase through steep cutbacks in […]
The Disrupted Mind
Philopsopher Noga Arikha spent 18 months at the Pitié-Salpêtière hospital in Paris, studying what happens when the mind goes wrong – and how our physical experiences inform our identities. Weaving together stories of her subjects’ troubles, from Vanessa who wakes from a coma having forgotten ten years of her life to Thomas, who no longer knows […]
The Pope at War: Pius XII, Mussolini & Hitler
“After winning a Pulitzer for The Pope and Mussolini, David Kertzer returns with an explosive book on Pius XI’s successor, based on Vatican papers sealed for over 60 years and never-before seen documents from Britain, France, Germany and the US. The Brown University professor explores Pope Pius XII’s actions during the War, including his response […]
John Lahr & Nicholas Hytner on Arthur Miller
Playwright Arthur Miller almost single-handedly propelled 20th Century American Theatre to a new level of cultural sophistication. Distinguished theatre critic John Lahr focuses on the fault lines of Miller’s life – his family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee of Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam – demonstrating the synergy […]