Translating Anne Frank
Speakers: Daniel Hahn, Shaun Whiteside, Sam Garrett Most of Anne Frank’s readers come to her diary through a translation. How much has this affected our experience of this iconic piece of writing? How much is the voice we feel we know so well really the creation of her translators? Two prize-winning Dutch-English translators produced independent […]
The Arabs and the Holocaust
Speakers: Gilbert Achcar, Tom Segev When his cousin was killed in the Zululand hills, journalist Kevin Bloom’s reporting of South Africa’s tempestuous social upheaval took on a deeply personal aspect. Bloom explored what life is like for white South Africans under majority rule and how tragedy still haunts the re-born rainbow nation.
Kevin Bloom talks to Janet Suzman
Speakers: Kevin Bloom, Janet Suzman When his cousin was killed in the Zululand hills, journalist Kevin Bloom’s reporting of South Africa’s tempestuous social upheaval took on a deeply personal aspect. Bloom explored what life is like for white South Africans under majority rule and how tragedy still haunts the re-born rainbow nation.
Clive James & Pascal Bruckner
Speakers: Clive James, Pascal Bruckner Pascal Bruckner is not afraid of controversy. Original and unconventional, the author of The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism has garnered praise from Nick Cohen, Christopher Hitchens and, of course, the brilliant polymath Clive James. He came to fame as one of the “nouveaux philosophes” together with […]
Flavours of Babylon
Speakers: Linda Dangoor, Bea Lewkowicz Following a screening of Sephardi Voices, in which seven Jewish men and women from Iraq, Egypt, Iran and Morocco tell their stories of coexistence and persecution, emigration and new beginnings, Linda Dangoor evokes the flavours of Babylon she has captured in her cookbook and what they mean to her.
The Hare With The Amber Eyes
Speakers: Edmund de Waal, James Harding The internationally acclaimed ceramicist, Edmund de Waal, retraced the history of his family through an inherited collection of netsuke – tiny Japanese figurines. He spoke here to James Harding about the painstaking journey he unwittingly embarked upon. He evoked vanished worlds – whether 19th century Paris or 20th Vienna […]
Eat, Write, Love
Speakers: Allegra Goodman, Yotom Ottolenghi, Charlotte Mendelson Recipe for a delectable and stimulating talk: take an award-winning novelist and a fabulous cookbook writer. Add a flavour of Jane Austen, equal doses of intelligence, humour and sensibility. Sprinkle with business acumen, passion and sympathy. Let the audience add their pinch of salt. To be consumed and […]
Jesus and the Jews
Speakers: Susannah Heschel, Miri Rubin, David Cesarani Why is Jesus the source of fascination in modern Jewish thought? How has Christianity changed Jewish practice and how did Judaism shape the medieval imagination? We discovered the Jews who insisted on Jesus’ Jewish-ness, the movement to identify Jesus as an Aryan, and how an examination of the […]
How the Jew in Gustav Mahler changed the music of the West
Speakers: Norman Lebrecht Norman Lebrecht’s best-selling book Why Mahler? examines how a composer, scorned and rejected for decades, has come to replace Beethoven at the centre of symphonic culture. Here, especially for Jewish Book Week, Norman Lebrecht explains how Mahler’s major innovations in music stem directly from his Jewish heritage and the trauma of exile […]
Fifty Year Reflections of a Jewish Historian
Speakers: Martin Gilbert With consummate skill, patience and brilliance in equal measure, Martin Gilbert has recounted most of the major events of the 20th century. His work encompasses both world wars; the definitive set of Churchill biographies; chronicles of the Jewish people; and accounts of their adversaries and saviours. He has also created 12 pioneering […]
Community Buildings: Building Community
Speakers: Alex Lifshutz, Alain de Botton, Debbie Klein One of the causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment. Alain de Botton tells us about his new Living Architecture project, dedicated to the promotion and enjoyment of world-class modern architecture. Alex Lifschutz described the new Jewish Community Centre for London building […]
Anne Frank Revisited
Speakers: Bernard ‘Buddy’ Elias, Mirjam Pressler, Ilana Winterstein, Gillian Walnes Buddy Elias, Anne Frank’s only surviving relative, told us about his cousin, as he remembers her. He was joined by Mirjam Pressler, who translated and edited The Diary, and is the author of Treasures from the Attic, which brings together recently discovered material on Anne […]