Complexity Welcome

When the Horrors of War Meet the Power of Literature: Reactions and Transformations

This episode features Sarai Shavit, writer, literary editor, and Research Fellow at Tel Aviv University, in conversation with Yael Segalovitz, Israel Institute Visiting Professor at the Helen Diller Institute and Assistant Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Sarai Shavit and fellow writer and literary editor, Dr. Rawya Burbara, have been collaborating on a project to edit a multilingual anthology of short stories written by authors from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Shavit and Professor Segalovitz will discuss the complex and challenging process of putting together this literary anthology and the ways in which it was transformed by October 7 and the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War. This episode is drawn from an event that took place in April 2025.  Featuring:  Sarai Shavit, Poet, Writer, Literary Editor; Co-Editor, Moznayim; Lecturer, Research Fellow, Tel Aviv University; Recipient, ADEI WIZO Adelina Della Pergola Literary Prize    Yael Segalovitz (Moderator), 2024–2025 Israel Institute Visiting Professor at the Helen Diller Institute; Assistant Professor, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev About the Helen Diller Institute: The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu.  Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X1TzK8H-O1mRb-oqvvYgtj7bd1dkeTAIRhX0EPP9bOY/edit?usp=drive_link] to view a transcript of this episode. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Reading The Hebrew America: The Double Reception of The Hebrew Teacher

This episode features Maya Arad, author of twelve Hebrew books of fiction and Writer in Residence at the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University, in conversation with Yael Segalovitz, Israel Institute Visiting Professor at the Helen Diller Institute and Assistant Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Reflecting on The Hebrew Teacher, first published in Hebrew, and more recently in English translation, Maya Arad will speak with Professor Segalovitz about the experience of writing Hebrew at this time, in this place: What does Hebrew literature written in America contribute to Israeli readers, and what is it that an American audience expects now from Hebrew literature? This episode is drawn from an event that took place in April 2025. Featuring: Maya Arad, Author of twelve Hebrew books of fiction; Writer in Residence, Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University Yael Segalovitz (Moderator), 2024–2025 Israel Institute Visiting Professor at the Helen Diller Institute; Lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev About the Helen Diller Institute: The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu.  Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BOOr-BYHojoKBY3xn4EqjDJaXQdUCDxkTwEhkt9SRRA/edit?usp=drive_link] to view a transcript of this episode. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Israel and the United Nations

This episode features Yuval Shany, Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in International Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and former Chair of the UN Human Rights Committee, in conversation with Masua Sagiv, Koret Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley and Senior Faculty at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Together, they hold a frank discussion about the complexities and nuances of Israel’s current and historical relationship with the United Nations, the world’s preeminent international body. This episode is drawn from the 5th Annual Libitzky Lecture on Israel and the Great Powers at the Helen Diller Institute, in March 2025.  Featuring: Yuval Shany, Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in International Law, Former Dean, Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Former Member, Chair, UN Human Rights Committee  Masua Sagiv (Moderator), Koret Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley (2021–2025); Senior Faculty, Shalom Hartman Institute; Researcher at the Menomadin Center for Jewish and Democratic Law, Bar-Ilan University Law Faculty About the Helen Diller Institute: The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu.  Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1argXLdNurWqn_Nu-KX8i1GpkHlTaz3LRjvpcM0ogV48/edit?usp=drive_link] to view a transcript of this episode. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Coca-Cola, Black Panthers, and Phantom Jets: Israel in the American Orbit, 1967–1973

This episode features Oz Frankel, Associate Professor of History at The New School for Social Research. Professor Frankel examines the period of the late 1960s as a unique moment when Israel became more closely entwined with the United States not just as a strategic ally but also through its intensifying intimacy with American culture, society, and technology. This is the subject of his new book Coca-Cola, Black Panthers, and Phantom Jets: Israel in the American Orbit, 1967–1973. This episode is drawn from an event that took place in March 2025.  Featuring: Oz Frankel, Associate Professor of History, The New School for Social Research  About the Helen Diller Institute: The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu.  Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qrb2CZ0WxQZHMGXCbtTEBE_mm-42EIbvlGxiJ4ujpRk/edit?usp=drive_link] to view a transcript of this episode. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Fourth Quarter: The Blueprint for a Bottom-Up Constitutional Movement in Israel

This episode features Ronen Avraham, Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University, in conversation with Adi Ayal, Professor of Law and Economics at Bar Ilan University and Helen Diller Institute Visiting Professor. Professor Avraham is also one of the leaders of the Fourth Quarter, the largest grassroots movement in Israel. Together, Avraham and Ayal discuss this bottom-up constitutional initiative that seeks to unite people across political, religious, and secular divides and proposes a new plan for constitutional reform. This episode is drawn from an event that took place in March 2025.  Featuring: Ronen Avraham, Director of the Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law, Editor-in-Chief of Theoretical Inquiries in Law, Tel Aviv University, Buchmann Faculty of Law Adi Ayal (Moderator), Spring 2025 Helen Diller Institute Visiting Professor; Professor at Bar Ilan University Faculty of Law About the Helen Diller Institute: The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu.  Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U76rhNJxWgdlfsvAmXEIyRT8mECqnzjaIiq_SiNgY3U/edit?usp=drive_link] to view a transcript of this episode. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.