The Knock on the Door: Struggling Against Apartheid
In apartheid South Africa, many desperate parents fought to rescue their children, arrested for so-called ‘anti-apartheid’ activities, from the state’s clutches. Many of these children were tortured, some were murdered; some were as young as nine years old. The Knock on the Door tells the story of the parents who fought back, and of how […]
The Jewish World: The Remembered & Forgotten
Speakers: Daniel Walkowitz, Rebecca Taylor Heritage tourism has boomed in the last half century, especially in older industrial cities such as Kiev, Berlin, Bucharest, Krakow, London and New York. Jews, often rediscovering their family’s traumatic pasts marked by the Holocaust, have become a vital component of this burgeoning heritage industry. Daniel Walkowitz invites readers to […]
The Echo of a Noise: A One-Man Memoir on Stage
An evening with South Africa’s foremost satirist, the acclaimed Pieter-Dirk Uys, in his 7,000th solo performance that feels as fresh as his very first. Uys was – and still is – a voice in the wilderness, ever since he appeared fearlessly on stage in the 1970s. He jokes that the all-powerful censor board was his […]
Angels: A Visible & Invisible History
Speakers: Peter Satnford, Julia Neuberger In a 2016 poll, one in ten Britons claimed to have experienced the presence of an angel, while one in three remain convinced that they have a guardian angel. Angels takes a modern look at what was once referred to as ‘angelology’, but which has its real roots in Judaism […]
Israel: A Jewish State or a State for Jews?
Ever since the movement’ s inception, Zionists have advocated very different ideas of Israel: would the dream of Herzl, Ahad Ha’am, Weizmann, Jabotinsky, Ben Gurion or Begin triumph? Would Israel be a ‘normal’ state, or a ‘light unto the nations’? The state that emerged, partially out of the ashes of the Shoah, became a refuge […]
Love is…
Speakers: Simon May, Frank Tallis, Lisa Appignanesi Love rules our lives. Philosopher Simon May, in a radically new theory of love, examines its real aim. For all its wild unpredictability, why is love so pertinacious? Indeed why do we love at all? Clinical psychologist Frank Tallis takes a look at the darker side of love […]
A Tribute to Amos Oz
Amos Oz, celebrated Israeli author, wrote over 30 novels and short stories, widely translated from the Hebrew, poignant expressions of the human condition. He was an ardent advocate for peace, who wrote passionately on the scourge of extremism. Oz famously said, ‘We can fold all the moral imperatives, the Ten Commandments, and the human virtues, into a […]
Of Places & People, Art & Literature
Speakers: Alba Arikha, Janet Wolf Alba Arikha and Janet Wolff present their stunning and idiosyncratic coming-of-age memoirs, exploring their family backgrounds, from post-war Manchester to 1980s Paris. They write of lives intellectually and emotionally enriched by those they encounter – in person, on canvas or through books – among them the leading thinkers, artists and […]
Trump on Trial
Speakers: Jonathan Freedland, Howard Jacobson, Simon Schama, Jonny Geller Freedland, Jacobson and Schama take on Donald Trump, at least figuratively, as they compete for bandwidth to expose the latest exploits of the Western World’s most powerful and contentious leader. The inspiration for a satire by Jacobson, a thriller by Freedland and steaming articles by Schama […]
Three Floors Up
Speakers: Eshkol Nevo, Francesca Segal Set in an upper-middle-class Tel Aviv apartment building, prize-winning author Eshkol Nevo’s brilliant recent novel, translated by Sondra Silverstein, presents a complex and emotionally wrought society, through revealing the turmoil, secrets, unreliable confessions and problematic decisions of the building’s interconnected residents.
The Story of Hebrew
Speakers: Lewis Glinert, Jeremy Dauber In this unique narrative of the Hebrew language from biblical to modern times, Professor Lewis Glinert explores the extraordinary hold that Hebrew has had on Jews and Christians, who have invested it with a symbolic power far beyond that of any other language in history. Preserved by the Jews for […]
The Rise & Fall Of Adam and Eve
Speakers: Stephen Greenblatt To world-renowned literary critic and Pulitzer Prize-winner, Stephen Greenblatt, the story of Adam and Eve is a prism refracting our most primitive fears and the inspiration for our most glorious works of art. In a richly illustrated talk, he shows how this myth has shaped understanding of our origins and destiny since […]