Jacob’s Advice
Speakers: Jude Cook, Marina Benjamin Described by the Daily Mail as “a thoughtful paean to Paris”, Jacob’s Advice – the second novel from Byron Easy author Jude Cook – is set against a backdrop of nationalism, the Charlie Hebdo attack and the resurgence of antisemitism, as protagonist Larry Frost searches for proof of his hoped-for […]
Rescue: From Global Crisis to a Better World
Speakers: Ian Goldin Ian Goldin draws on his recent book Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years and his forthcoming Rescue: From Global Crisis to a Better World to show why globalisation creates catastrophic risks and how the pandemic could provide the catalyst to stop future health, climate and other crises, prompting […]
Yeshiva Days
New York’s Lower East Side has witnessed a severe decline in its Jewish population in recent decades, yet every morning in the big room of the city’s oldest yeshiva, students still gather to study the Talmud beneath the great arched windows facing out onto East Broadway. Jonathan Boyarin, Cornell professor of Modern Jewish Studies, spent a […]
The Happy Traitor: Spies, Lies and Exile
Speakers: Simon Kuper, Helen Fry The death in the final days of 2020 of George Blake, aged 98 in Moscow, lifted the embargo on Simon Kuper revealing for the first time the results of his unparalleled access and years of research on the most notorious double agent in British history. 65 years after he escaped […]
Kings of Shanghai
Speakers: Jonathan Kaufman, Rebecca Taylor Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Kaufman reveals the epic, multigenerational story of two rival Jewish dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as 20th-century China surged into the modern era. The Bloomberg executive editor is our guide, from beginnings in Baghdad to surviving Japanese occupation, entertaining Wallis Simpson and Charlie […]
Oliver Kamm: Mending the Mind
Speakers: Oliver Kamm, Isabel Hardman More than a fifth of the UK population report symptoms of depression or anxiety. Yet how much do we really know of the condition and of ways to treat it? In his candid but hopeful Mending the Mind, Times leader writer and columnist Oliver Kamm recounts what it’s like to be mentally ill with severe […]
The Lives of Lucian Freud
Speakers: William Feaver, Marina Vaizey Few knew Lucian Freud better than his collaborator and close friend William Feaver. Now the former Observer chief art critic and Pitmen Painters author comes to Jewish Book Week in conversation with Marina Vaizey to discuss his second and final volume of the biography, described by Craig Brown as “explosively enjoyable”. From being commissioned […]
Antisemitism & the Russian Revolution
Speakers: Brendam McGeever,Trudy Gold When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, they announced the overthrow of a world scarred by exploitation and domination, but these sentiments were put to the test as antisemitic pogroms swept the former Pale of Settlement. Brendan McGeever offers the first book-length analysis in The Bolsheviks and Antisemitism in the […]
What Are Jews For?
Speakers: Adam Sutcliffe, Joseph Dweck The Bible singles out the Jews as God’s ‘chosen people’ but the significance of this special status has been understood in many different ways over the centuries. Adam Sutcliffe, professor of European history at King’s College and author of Judaism and Enlightenment, looks at Western thinking on the purpose of the Jewish people […]
Making Sense of Hatred
Speakers: Delphine Horvilleur, Philippe Sands. With no female word for rabbi existing in French, when Delphine Horvilleur, the third woman to take the role in France, is mentioned in the media – which is often due to her strong feminist stance on social justice issues – they simply call her Madame Le Rabbin. One of the leaders of […]
Jews and Power
Speakers: Ruth Wisse, Anthony Julius Taking in everything from the Kingdom of David to the Oslo Accords, Harvard professor Ruth R. Wisse offers a radical new way to think about the Jewish relationship to power in her provocative book, part of the Jewish Encounters series. Although she sees hope in Israel, Wisse questions the way […]
Jewish Pride
Speakers: Ben Freeman, Dave Rich “The Jewish journey is not just about fighting antisemitism. It is about rejecting the shame of antisemitism. Rejecting the non-Jewish world’s inaccurate definitions of what it means to be a Jew.” So writes Ben M. Freeman in his call-to-arms Jewish Pride: Rebuilding a People. Inspired by his experiences with LGBTQ+ […]