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 […]
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 […]
Rescuing Jewish Culture
Speakers: Elizabeth Gallas, George Prochnik In 1946 the American Military Government for Germany established the Offenbach Archival Depot to store, identify and restore the huge quantities of Nazi-looted books, archival material and ritual objects found hidden in German caches. The astonishing efforts of scholars and activists to rescue these cultural treasures – including over three […]
The Middle East: A New Era
Speakers: Raphael Marcus, Miri Elsen, Anshel Pfeffer Everything we thought we knew about Israel is changing – politics, relationships with Arab neighbours, the secular-religious divide, demographics, the economy and perhaps most fundamental of all, the values. Dr Raphael Marcus is joined by Miri Elsen and Anshel Pfeffer to discuss: where will Israel be in 20 years’ […]
Tom Stoppard: A Life
Speakers: Hermione Lee, Mark Damazer One of the most admired biographers in the English-speaking world takes on one of its greatest living playwrights. Tom Stoppard was once again the talk of theatreland last year with Leopolstadt adding to a catalogue that already included Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers and The Real Inspector Hound. Hermione Lee, the award-winning biographer of Penelope […]
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 […]
Fresse: Food stories with Jay Rayner & Pen Vogler
Speakers: Jay Rayner, Victoria Prever, Pan Vogler We have all the ingredients for an extremely entertaining hour with two of our best-loved food writers in the mix. Observer restaurant critic and The Kitchen Cabinet presenter Jay Rayner travelled from London to Louisiana to Tokyo and beyond in his search for My Last Supper. In Scoff Pen Vogler, Dinner with Mr Darcy author and […]
Mahler and His Faith
Does it matter what a composer believes? Or how deep that faith was? In the case of Gustav Mahler the evidence has been muddied by interested parties. He was raised in a traditional Jewish family, before marrying outside the faith, converting to Christianity to become head of the Vienna Opera and ultimately buried by a […]
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: A Tribute
Speakers: Simon Schama, Rowan Williams, Raphael Zarum, Jenni Frazer The death of Rabbi Lord Sacks left a huge void in the world of Jewish theological and philosophical writing and discourse. Jewish Book Week was honoured to have presented so many wonderful events with him, each of which showed the range of his humanity and knowledge; his contributions […]
A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion
Speakers: Helen Fry, Matthew Stadlen Helen Fry, in conversation with Matthew Stadlen. During WWII, Allied fighters trapped behind enemy lines were helped to escape by MI9. This branch of military intelligence, made up of secret agents and resistance fighters, established clandestine escape routes that criss-crossed Nazi-occupied Europe. Often at great risk to themselves and their […]
Dead Doubles
Speakers: Trevor Barnes, Christopher Andrew Marking the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Portland Spy Ring – one of the most dangerous and remarkable KGB espionage rings ever to operate in the UK – and based on hitherto secret MI5 and FBI files, Dead Doubles is espionage historian Trevor Barnes’ explosive new book on […]
The Virus in the Age of Madness
Speakers: Bernard-Henri Lévy, Mark Lawson With medical mysteries, rising death tolls, and conspiracy theories beamed minute by minute through the vast web universe, the coronavirus pandemic has irrevocably altered societies around the world. World-renowned philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy interrogates the many meanings and metaphors we have assigned to the pandemic—and what they tell us about ourselves. […]