Tel Aviv Review

In Israel, people vote for a party rather than a candidate. But over the years, there has been a shift towards the personalization of politics. Why have our elections become a competition among single personalities rather than a confrontation among different parties and ideas? Prof. Gideon Rahat, faculty member of the Political Sciences Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and director of the political reform program at the Israel Democracy Institute, offers his take. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Gilad Malach of the Israel Democracy Institute gives the latest electoral trends among Israel's insular ultra-orthodox Jewish community. Why is a small community so divided, and why are growing numbers of ultra-Orthodox voters leaving the Haredi parties altogether? This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

In this special panel discussion recorded in Washington DC, Gilad Halpern and Americans for Peace Now's PeaceCast host Ori Nir speak to Amir Tibon, the Haaretz correspondent in Washington, and to Said Arikat, his counterpart for the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds, about covering consecutive US administrations, journalism in the age of social media, and the role of diaspora groups in setting the dynamic of the Israeli-Palestinian-American love-hate triangle over the years. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Iran has apparently hacked the cellphone of Benny Gantz, Prime Minister Netanyahu's main challenger in the April 9 elections. But despite serving as a tool in Likud's campaign, it has not derailed the democratic process in any significant way. In this conversation, produced as part of the Tel Aviv Review's special election series in partnership with the Israel Democracy Institute, we speak to Eli Bahar, former legal adviser to Shin Bet and IDI fellow, and Ron Shamir, the former head of the technology division at Shin Bet and a fellow at the Hebrew University's Federman Cybersecurity Center, about the danger posed by potential cyber attacks on the anyway vulnerable Israeli democracy. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Prof. Oren Harman, a historian of science and the Chair of the Graduate Program in Science, Technology and Society at Bar-Ilan University, discusses his book Evolutions: Fifteen Myths that Explain Our World and Talking about Science in the 21st Century, a lecture series he directs at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Will Israel's democratic institutions prove resilient? How is the party system changing and is Israel headed for a tyranny of the majority? Yohanan Plesner, President of the Israel Democracy Institute, examines the ramifications of the unprecedented indictment of an incumbent Prime Minister in Israel. This episode of the Tel Aviv Review was brought to you by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Dr. Cecile Kuznitz, director of Jewish Studies at Bard College and author of YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture: Scholarship for the Yiddish Nation retraces with host Gilad Halpern the history of the 90-year-old Yiddish Scientific Institute from Interwar Poland to Postwar America. Song: Tuna ft. Shlomi Saranga - Lama Lo Achshav This episode originally aired on Oct. 16, 2015

Yossi Dahan, a law and philosophy professor at the Ramat Gan College of Law and Business and at the Open University, and the chairman of the Adva Center for equality and social justice, discusses his new book "Justice, Privatization and the Objectives of the Education System," published by the Van Leer Institute press. How has education in Israel been influenced by the encroachment of capitalism, on the one hand, and the growing awareness of multiculturalism in society, on the other? What is educational justice, and how should policymakers address it? This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

When do people to commit mass violence against an ethnic, religious or racial group in their midst? Does the demand for minority rights inevitably spark existential fears and violent reactions from the majority group? In his book Intimate Violence, co-author Jeffrey Kopstein of University of California, Irvine looks at pogroms against the Jews of Poland to explain when and why ethnic violence occurs. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

Nurit Novis-Deutsch, a psychologist of religion, values, morality and identity, believes that people who perceive themselves as having a complex identity might be more tolerant of the "other" in society. Her research advances much-needed anecdotes to angry tribalism in the world today. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.