Feeling Jewish (a book for just about anyone)
Speakers: Devorah Baum, Josh Cohen Why are ‘negative’ feelings such as self-hatred, guilt, resentment, paranoia, hysteria, and overbearing mother-love characterised as ‘Jewish’? In her sparkling debut, Devorah Baum delves into film, fiction and psychoanalysis. In so doing, she explores what it’s like to be a Jewish woman, shining a light on cultural icons from Groucho […]
Gershom Scholem – Stranger In A Strange Land
Speakers: Zvi Leshem, George Prochnik George Prochnik, in a vivid and compelling mix of biography and personal memoir, traces the life and thought of the visionary founder of the modern study of Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem, from his alienated childhood in Berlin, to his emigration to the land of his dreams, where he finds himself once […]
Warner Bros and the Making of the American Dream
David Thomson is arguably the world’s greatest living film critic and writer on the movies. His New Biographical Dictionary of Film was voted by Sight and Sound the best book on film ever written. His latest book, Warner Bros, charts the history of the ultimate family business, taking us behind the scenes of the legendary […]
The Némirovsky Question
Speakers: Susan Suleiman Irène Némirovsky was a literary superstar of the 1920s and 1930s but a controversial figure in her lifetime, seen by some as a self-hating Jew. Born in Tsarist Russia, she fled to France, becoming an overnight sensation with the publication of David Golder. Her novel Suite Française was published in 2004 to […]
The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge
Speakers: Erica Wagner, Martin Knight The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the iconic landmarks of the New York skyline; it has stood for more than 130 years, taking fourteen dramatic years to complete. In Chief Engineer, Erica Wagner tells the riveting story of the bridge’s construction and of Washington Roebling, the man who built it, […]
The Jewish Question In 20th Century Literature
Racial and religious prejudice, persecution and the complexities of assimilation, forced 19th and 20th century writers and thinkers such as Kafka, Proust, Zweig, Némirovsky and Roth, to confront their Jewish identities in profound and often controversial ways. Our panel, writer George Prochnik, Professor Susan Suleiman, and curator of European collections at the NLI, Stefan Litt, […]
Melanie Phillips and Maureen Lipman in conversation
Speakers: Maureen Lipman, Melanie Phillips, Tanya Gold Doyennes of the media and stage, Melanie Phillips and Maureen Lipman, explore their politics, passions, writing, journalism and broadcasting, coinciding with the print publication of Melanie Phillips’ memoir, Guardian Angel, and her first novel, The Legacy.
Making Sense of Terror
Speakers: Gabrielle Rifkind, Rowan Summerville, Hugo Rifkind Gabrielle Rifkind offers a unique insight into the psychology of political extremism. When we talk about IS and similar groups, we approach them as political organisations. What, however, would Sigmund Freud have made of these deadly entities? We need to ask the question: Do the inner disquiets of […]
Just Not Kosher
Speakers: Rick Pushinsky, Steven Morris, Tanya Gold Steven Morris has always cooked; his photographer son Rick Pushinsky has always eaten. Just Not Kosher is a stunning collection of recipe cards that began as a family archive of Steven’s 60 years of ‘making a mess in the kitchen’. For Rick, this repository was not just a […]
Moral Dilemmas
Speakers: Joseph Dweck, Raphael Zarum We are a people with the baggage of millennia. The practice and tradition contained in our book of books concerning fundamental life lessons are often forgotten or misunderstood. Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum interviews Rabbi Joseph Dweck, a leading religious voice in Anglo-Jewry today, on his interpretations of the biblical prophets.
Uprooted
Speakers: Lyn Julius, Jenni Frazer Israel’s declaration of independence precipitated not only the birth of a Jewish state, but the beginnings of a mass upheaval, as the ancient Jewish communities of the Arab World were forced to flee. Nearly a million people left. Lyn Julius examines why, and what became of them, particularly those who […]
The Big Debate 2018: Today, Tomorrow…
Speakers: Ian Goldin, Stephen D. King, Jonathan Haskel, Jamie Bartlett, Rohan Silva Our panel of global experts outlines the latest developments in artificial intelligence, politics, society and economics, analysing their impact on the world today and forecasting their effects on the world to come. Jamie Bartlett is one of the world’s leading thinkers on technology […]