When Deborah Friedell and Adam Thirlwell met twenty years ago, they started a discussion about Jewish identity they are still puzzling over today. Revisiting Philip Roth’s The Counterlife (1986), an American take on British antisemitism and the escapist allure of aliyah, Adam and Deborah discuss the nuances of Jewish experience and novel-writing across the A ... Show More
Jan 2024
Human Conditions: ‘Anti-Semite and Jew’ by Jean-Paul Sartre
Judith Butler joins Adam Shatz for the first episode of Human Conditions to look at Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1946 book Anti-Semite and Jew, originally published in French as Réflexions Sur La Question Juive. Sartre’s ‘portraits’ of the ‘anti-Semite’ and the ‘Jew’, as he saw them, cause ... Show More
55m 42s
Nov 2023
Providence and Power: Rabbi Meir Soloveichik on Jewish Statesmanship from King David to David Ben Gurion
For thousands of years, the Jewish people lacked a political state; yet, what can we say about the Jewish tradition of statesmanship? What makes it distinctive, and what can we learn from it? In Providence and Power: Ten Portraits in Jewish Statesmanship (Encounter Books, 2023) , ... Show More
53m 39s
Oct 2023
The Jewish Left Is Trying to Hold Two Thoughts at Once
<p>Grief moves slowly and war moves quickly. After Hamas assailants killed at least 1,400 Israelis and took hundreds more hostage, Israel dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza in the first week of a conflict that is still ongoing. So far, more than 5,000 Palestinians are <a href= ... Show More
1h 4m
Oct 2023
In Search of Anti-Semitism (w/ John Ganz)
<p>In a 1991, William F. Buckley, Jr. dedicated almost an entire issue of <i>National Review</i> to an essay entitled "In Search of Anti-Semitism." In its pages, Buckley attempted to adjudicate a conflict that was then roiling America's right wing intelligentsia — over whether ... Show More
1h 12m
Mar 2016
Judith Kerr - When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
This month we talk to the much-loved German-born, British author and illustrator Judith Kerr about her classic children’s novel, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. Set during World War Two, this semi-autobiographical novel traces the story of a young Jewish girl and her family who fl ... Show More
49m 16s
Oct 2019
#173 — Anti-Semitism and Its Discontents
<p>Sam Harris speaks with Bari Weiss about her book "How to Fight anti-Semitism." They discuss the three different strands of anti-Semitism (rightwing, leftwing, and Islamic), the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, the difference between anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, ... Show More
28m 5s