Golda Meir’s Path to Power
In this authoritative, empathetic and ground-breaking biography, Pnina Lahav, in conversation with historian Trudy Gold, re-examines the life of Golda Meir through a feminist lens, focusing on Israel’s first and only female prime minister’s recurring role as a woman standing alone among men. The award-winning author of Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and […]
The Collaborators
A Hasidic Jew fixer, a Manchu princess and Himmler’s masseur; each regarded as both heroes and villains due to their wartime acts. Friedrich Weinreb took money from fellow Jews in a deportation-avoiding scam, but is known by supporters as ‘the Dutch Dreyfus’. Kawashima Yoshiko spied for the Japanese secret police in China. Felix Kersten became […]
Bill Browder: Surviving Putin
Can one man take on a ruthless global leader – and win? Financier Bill Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia, but the Moscow jail murder of his lawyer after uncovering a $230 million fraud by government officials sparked a fight for justice that has made him number one both in the New York […]
Mizrahi and Sephardi Voices
Almost a million Jews fled their ancestral homelands following the founding of the State of Israel; Henry Green & Richard Stursberg trace their journeys in the wide-ranging yet intimate Sephardi Voices: The Untold Expulsion of Jews from Arab Lands. In The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto Hen Mazzig catalogues the Jewish population of the Middle East and North Africa, their history […]
The Marx Brothers: From Vaudeville To Israel
Like many children of 19th century Jewish immigrants, as each Marx brother boy celebrated his Barmitzvah their formal education was replaced by life on the stage. Non-religious, they fiercely embraced their Jewish identity in the face of rampant antisemitism. And late in life, Harpo in particular and unexpectedly profoundly connected with Judaism during an emotional […]
Short Stories/Tall Tales
With the short story enjoying another resurgence, two of today’s most exciting British-Jewish writers join us to discuss their extraordinary first fiction collections. Having written non-fiction for the TLS and the White Review and contributed a story to the Queer Life, Queer Love anthology, Parallel Hells is the deliciously strange debut from Leon Craig. Among […]
Shylock: Merchant & Matriarch
Something special to close our 72nd festival: star of stage and screen Tracy-Ann Oberman performing excerpts from a radical new production of The Merchant of Venice alongside a panel discussion sparked by one of Shakespeare’s most controversial characters. Set in London’s East End in 1936, Ridley Road actor Tracy-Ann is playing Shylock as a widowed single mother and refugee from Russia, running […]
The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe
Edda Mussolini was Benito’s favourite daughter: spoilt, clever, faithless, flamboyant, venal, a brilliant diplomat. Her father’s confidante during 20 years of Fascist rule she acted as first lady, helping steer Italy to join forces with Hitler, and with husband Galeazzo Ciano was part of Italy’s most celebrated couple. In a dramatic story that takes in […]
Philanthropy From Aristotle To Zuckerberg
The super-rich are shaping our world. Award-winning journalist Paul Vallely follows previous bestsellers Bad Samaritans & Pope Francis with Philanthropy. He takes us from the Greek man of honour, the Roman patron, the Jewish prophet and Christian scholastic to the Victorian moralist, the welfare socialist, the celebrity activist and today’s wealthy mega-giver. Exploring the successes, failures and contradictions of philanthrocapitalism, he asked tough questions of […]
The Escape Artist: Jonathan Freedland & Tracy Chevalier
“Awe inspiring, exciting and poignant, this is a thrilling read, a piece of redemptive storytelling and a work of important Holocaust historical research.” Simon Sebag Montefiore. In April 1944 teenager Rudolf Vrba and fellow inmate Fred Wetzler became two of the first Jews ever to break out of Auschwitz. Shortlisted for both the Baillie Gifford Prize […]
The Life Fantastic
Western culture as you’ve never seen it before. In a series of mind-blowing essays, critic and broadcaster Noa Menhaim digs down to the roots of stories, myths and literary genres, travelling from art to politics to history to folklore, and from high to popular culture and back again. Through an intricate web of side notes, she embarks […]
Hollywood & Israel
From Sinatra’s pro-Zionist rallying to Spielberg’s present-day peace-making, Hollywood has long enjoyed a “special relationship” with Israel. Historians Giora Goodman & Tony Shaw offer an innovative account of this relationship, both on and off the screen, investigating the ways Hollywood’s moguls, directors, and actors have supported or challenged Israel for over 70 years. Detailing the […]