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 […]
Pressburger & Pearls
With A Matter of Life & Death, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, Pressburger and Powell changed the face of cinema. Emeric Pressburger also wrote two novels; The Glass Pearls, a post-war thriller about a mysterious German émigré, was reissued by Faber last year to acclaim. Here his grandson Kevin MacDonald, the Oscar-winning director of One Day in September and The Last King of […]
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 […]
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 […]
Case Histories to Drama: Panel discussion
Our latest specially commissioned production celebrating great writers focuses on renowned British neurologist Oliver Sacks. His 1973 collection of beautifully crafted case histories, Awakenings was an instant success, inspiring many writers and artists. Via performance and commentary we explore two outstanding examples, Harold Pinter’s A Kind of Alaska and Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney, with reference to Sacks’ original case history. […]
Israel: A Fragile Democracy?
The opening weeks of this year saw 80,000 Israelis take to the streets of Tel Aviv, protesting the new government’s proposed sweeping changes to the judicial system. Supreme Court president Esther Hayut denounced the move, calling it a “plan to crush the justice system”, with opposition leader Yair Lapid pledging to stand by her side “in […]
DO NOT PUBLISH – Lost, Loved & Left: Poetry & Spoken Word
Guardian poetry reviewer and The Craft editor Rishi Dastidar hosts an hour of readings. Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year nominee Rachel Long’s My Darling From The Lions was a TIME book of 2020 and shortlisted for the Costa. Festival favourite Jeremy Robson covers Picasso, post-Brexit chaos, the horrors of recent Jewish history and more in Chagall’s Moon. National Jewish Book Award winner Sarah Blake’s epic poem of survival In Springtime follows […]
Come to this Court and Cry
“At the very moment the last survivors – and legal witnesses – were dying, a criminal investigation in Latvia put hard-won facts about the Holocaust on the line. Then journalist Linda Kinstler discovered that a Nazi, 50 years dead and from the same killing unit as her grandfather, could be pardoned by the proceedings. Nominated […]
David Dein in conversation with Stephen Bush
‘Without David Dein there wouldn’t have been a Premier League’ Greg Dyke. Part memoir, part inspirational meditation on leadership and teamwork, Calling the Shots: How to Win in Football and Life is the entertaining and eye-opening account of a remarkable career that changed football forever. David Dein was co-owner of Arsenal for 24 years, vice-chair […]
Why We Sing
What is it about song that brings communities together, in harmony and protest? Why do parents feel compelled to sing to their new-borns? How can an activity that helps to embed languages and maths formulae also be used to rehabilitate Long Covid sufferers? Singing is at the root of what it is to be human. Acclaimed music therapist, […]
Dani Shapiro: Signal Fires
Family secrets were at the heart of Dani Shapiro’s memoir Inheritance, a New York Times bestseller sparked by a shocking discovery that made her rethink her identity, and now again in her sixth novel Signal Fires, a book of the year for the Washington Post, Time & Vanity Fair. And with her iTunes Top 10 […]
A Guide for the Jewish Undecided
Is it rational to be religious? How much evidence do you need before deciding to act on a belief? If your religious beliefs are tightly bound up with your particular experiences and upbringing, doesn’t that undermine their reliability? In his new book, A Guide for the Jewish Undecided: A philosopher makes the case for Orthodox […]