Fiction of Guilt and Identity
Speakers: John Steinberg, Richard Aronowitz, Jenni Frazer John Steinberg’s Blue Skies Over Berlin is a moving and thought-provoking book about guilt and identity, featuring a young German woman who moves to London from war-ravaged Berlin in 1956. Taking a false name – Charlotte Brown – she lands the job of her dreams at the National […]
How Game Theory, Strategy and Probability Rule Our Lives
Speakers: Haim Shapiro Using a grand piano as his prop, Haim Shapira explores the interplay between happiness and game theory in his contemplation of an eclectic range of theories. His books provide many humorous anecdotes and insightful examples of how our daily lives are affected by Game Theory, the mathematical formulisation of interactive decision-making. Drawing […]
Voices From Pinterland
Speakers: Claudie Blakely, Ilan Goodman, Malcolm Sinclair, Alison Steadman, Kenneth Cranham, Michael Billington, Honor Borwick, Tristram Powell An exhilarating event featuring 17 early works by Harold Pinter, comprising his essays, sketches and radio plays, displaying the variety and wit of Pinter’s extraordinary talent. Starring Claudie Blakely, Ilan Goodman, Malcolm Sinclair and Alison Steadman and narrated by Kenneth […]
The Left’s Jewish Problem
Speakers: Dave Rich, Nick Cohen In his thought-provoking new work, The Left’s Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti-Semitism, Dave Rich offers a judicious analysis of the Left’s increasingly controversial ‘Jewish problem’. He examines the widening gulf between British Jews and the anti-Israel left and, based on fresh academic research, demonstrates that while the election […]
The Curse of Cash
Speakers: Kenneth Rogoff, Andrew Haldane One of the world’s leading economists, Harvard Professor and chess grandmaster, Kenneth Rogoff, makes a persuasive case for ridding the world of high value paper money. Even as people in advanced economies are using less paper money, there is more cash in circulation – a record $1.4 trillion in U.S. […]
Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story
In an astute and moving exposé of war’s futility – part memoir, part reportage – award-winning writer and journalist Matti Friedman, in conversation with Hugo Rifkind, recounts in his nonfiction work Pumpkinflowers the fate that befell an Israeli military outpost on the Lebanese borders in the 1990s. A lyrical yet devastating insight into the day-to-day […]
Midrash Unbound: Transformations and Innovations
Speakers: Joanna Weinberg, Philip Alexander, Theodor Dunkelgrün Professors Joanna Weinberg and Philip Alexander with Dr Theodor Dunkelgrün discourse on the Midrash. Covering a broad range of texts, from late antiquity to the modern period, including non-rabbinic and non-Jewish literature, an impressive array of the leading names in the field have produced a volume that seeks […]
Not Chosen
Speakers: Giles Fraser, Richard Harries Giles Fraser, priest, columnist, broadcaster and educator talks to Richard Harries about his upbringing as the child of a Christian-born mother and Jewish-born father, describing his faith, his passions, his politics, and his hopes and qualms for the future. A man of high principles, he nevertheless admits to time spent […]
The Wild West: Boom or Bust?
Speakers: Mark Lawson, Michael Goldfarb, Daniel Johnson,Jonathan Shenin, Ann Treneman, Peter Trubowitz The arrival of President Trump and the threat of Europe’s so-called alt-right are already having far-reaching implications around the world. Our panel of experts assess whether Trump’s America will be a gun-slinging new version of The Wild West – a ‘boom or bust’ […]
Rabbi I Have A Problem
Speakers: Jonathan Romain, Naftali Brawer Bring all your questions, puzzles and dilemmas for the experts to grapple with in a truly interactive event. The JC’s Rabbinic authorities – Naftali Brawer and Jonathan Romain – will consider all your quandaries about matters Jewish from their respective Orthodox and Progressive points of view. A new collection of […]
Men of the World
Speakers: Barrington Black, Michael Freedland, Jonathan Goldberg Mr Justice Barrington Black was one of the UK’s best-known criminal defence lawyers. His old brother-in-arms, journalist and broadcaster Michael Freedland, is author of more than 40 biographies and presenter of, among other radio shows, the celebrated You Don’t Have To Be Jewish. Led by Jonathan Goldberg QC […]
Sailing to Byzantium
Speakers: Bettany Hughes, Peter Frankopan Istanbul has always been a place where stories and histories collide and crackle. In her epic new biography, Istanbul, Bettany Hughes takes us on a dazzling historical journey through one of the world’s greatest cities as it transmogrified from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul. Based on meticulous research and new […]