Tel Aviv Review

How do you fight a war by becoming the enemy and still keep your identity? Who are the good guys who are the bad guys? What's the best action series on television today, why is it a psychological drama as much as a shoot 'em up, and is it real, fake, fair? As Season 2 hits Netflix, Avi Issacharoff, the co-creator of hit TV series "Fauda," tells all. 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.

"I never thought I'd go back to live in South Africa," says Lorna Levy, a trade unionist and anti-Apartheid activist who spent decades in exile after being banned from her native South Africa. In her memoir, Radical Engagements: A Life in Exile, she reflects on her almost accidental activism, starting in her student days in 1950s Johannesburg. 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.

What does economic history have to do with a country's national identity? In Israel's case, a great deal. The myth of a socialist ideal morphing into a neo-liberal global powerhouse is captivating but contains far more complex processes, and many run contrary to the national self-image. Follow the gestation and birth of Israel's economy under the shadow of war, peace and privatization in a discussion with Dr Arie Krampf about his book "The Israeli Path to Neo-Liberalism: The State, Continuity and Change." 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.

Prof. Deborah Posel, a sociologist at the Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town, analyzes how racial tensions have played out in South Africa since the end of Apartheid in 1994. 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.

Yair Ettinger, a journalist and researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute's "Ultra-Orthodox in Israel" program as well as a fellow at the Hartman Institute in New York, is the co-author, together with Nissim Leon, of the recently published book A Flock With No Shepherd: Shas Leadership The Day After Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. It analyzes the causes of the movement's identity, leadership and popularity woes, some resulting from and others coinciding with the death of its towering founder and spiritual father in 2013. 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.

Milton Shain, emeritus professor of history at the University of Cape Town, specializing in the history of Jews and anti-Semitism in South Africa, tells the very different story of a Jewish settlement in the New World. 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.

What does radical Islam have in common with right wing extremism? Much, it turns out. From the perception of existential, apocalyptic threat to the sense of historic mission as saviors of their people, the two sides have more in common than either want to admit. Julia Ebner's book "The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far Right Extremism" shows why each side exists in a world of obsession with the other; and proposes how to mitigate the pull of extremism that preys on the young. 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.

In our minds, Saudi Arabia, to this day, has been an ultraconservative, almost medieval society, with a clear hierarchy and a coercive leadership. But it turns out that is not exactly the case. Nachum Shiloh discusses his research that focuses on the history of Saudi elites in the first half of the 20th century. This episode originally aired June 6, 2015.

When Malka Marom, a Canadian-Israeli musician and broadcaster, walked into a destitute Toronto night club in 1966, she was swept off her feet. The music, played by Joni Mitchell, mousy-looking and still unknown, was unlike anything she had heard before. Soon thereafter, they became lifelong friends; Marom's book Joni Mitchell in Her Own Words is a compilation of conversations they had over a 40-year period. She is now working on another book, featuring conversations with another great Canadian singer-songwriter: Leonard Cohen. 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.

Prof. Roberta Ronsethal Kwall, a legal scholar and the founding director of the DePaul University College of Law, has just authored a new book entitled The Myth of the Cultural Jew – Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition. She explains to host Gilad Halpern why even the most secular Jews have imbibed the halakha, whether they like it or not. This episode originally aired June 5, 2015.