The not-yet-final loss of Colombia
David A. Rosenthal
Colombia, once Israel's most loyal ally in Latin America, broke off ties with the Jewish state in 2024. Does it mean it's heading for Iran's and China's orbit? Not necessarily.
Jewish and Palestinian-Arab Nationalisms: A Reappraisal
Olga Kirschbaum-Shirazki
The common perception in the West that Palestinian nationalism is left-wing and specifically anti-imperialist, and Jewish nationalism right-wing and imperialist, runs counter to the modern history of nations and nationalism. How did this come to be?
Religious Zionists from Mars, Secular Israelis from Venus
Avidan Freedman
The support of secular Israelis for a hostage deal, citing humanistic values, and the rejection of it on security grounds by many Religious Zionists mark an interesting inversion of traditional roles. How did that come to be?
Behind the scenes of the ‘Amos Oz’ performance
Naama Israeli
Some of Oz's books were real cultural events, sometimes specifically because of their relationship with the great novelist's biography. Two new scholarly books, published after his death, investigate the interplay between Oz the person and Oz the phenomenon.
Not A Very Good Time For Hebrew
Michal Zechariah
It is not a coincidence that the first English translation of a book by California-based Maya Arad, a virtuoso of linguistic verisimilitude, is dedicated to the growing bifurcation of Israeli expats' attitudes to their country of origin.
Who Owns Palestine’s Cultural Assets?
Amir Nassar
The seizure of Palestinian archives by Israel in 1948 and thereafter is marked by ambivalence: some view it as an act of cultural preservation, while others see it as theft and plunder.
Hebrew Against the Odds
Yeshua Tolle
The translation of Israeli literature into English – and of Jewish-American literature into Hebrew – has always reeked of political struggles, as the two centers of 20th-century Jewry wrestled for primacy.
‘The Land Is a Text’
Joshua Krug
Prominent 20th-century American rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel is widely remembered as a thinker of Jewish temporality. But his thinking on Zionism and the notion of a Jewish homeland are all the more relevant after October 7th.
Libretto: Hanoch Levin
Tal Kra-Oz
Twenty-five years after his death, Israel's greatest playwright is given an operatic tribute. The lush adaptation could not be further removed from the crummy fringe theatres that once featured his sardonic satires—but it certainly does justice to his legacy.
How different does this novel on Jewish history read post-Oct. 7?
Jessamyn Hope
Janice Weizman's new novel, 'Our Little Histories,' traces three branches of a Jewish family – American, Israeli and Eastern European – from 2015 back to the Pale of Settlement. In an interview she says that even though it was published on the eve of October 7, it still has a lot to say on our present moment.
Sabras in Outer Space
Marcela Sulak
Exquisitely crafted so that the smallest details give us worlds, Iddo Gefen's short stories combine a preoccupation with spirituality and the incursion of advanced technology into our most personal, sensitive areas.
How social media triggered my BZD (Bipolar Zionist Disorder)
Zoe Karbe
I want peace. I want us to be friends with Palestinians, but these nutjob anti-Zionist/Israel folks need to be put in their place. Obviously, I'm the right person for the job. Two, three, five, ten, thirteen TikToks later, I am addicted.
Rotted Hinterland
Ariyeh Benjamin
I am in Massafer Yatta now, in the South Hebron Hills. It’s winter. The desert is bizarrely green. After 7 October, the unease has been replaced by absolute terror. Terror permeates itself through every second of every day. It always approaches; every tick of the clock is riddled with fear.
Our Foorprints on Water / Joys That Do Not Come / Top-Down
Marzuq Halabi
Three poems by Palestinian poet Marzouk Halabi, translated from Arabic exclusively for the Tel Aviv Review of Books.
Jewish Ripples
Zev Mishell
A new book revisits a sizable, and now forgotten, anti-Zionist discourse that held sway among large swaths of American Jews in the mid-20th century. It serves as topical reminder of the prevalence of Jewish dissent before a consensus on Israel and Zionism took hold, one that now seems to fray.
Israel Must Win This War
Ophir Toubul
The answer to Hamas’ barbarous attack would be to press on with efforts to consolidate a “peace axis” in the Middle East, in the spirit of the Abraham Accords.
A Martyr of Sorts, Punished for Our Imaginary Sins
Dana Kessler
A new Hebrew edition of Christiane F—the memoir of a 15-year-old German teenage prostitute and drug addict—has sent Dana Kessler on a reappreciation of one of the most influential books of her generation.