Melbourne poet and literary critic, Tali Lavi and award-winning journalist and author, Jonathan Freedland, will discuss his bestselling books – The Traitors Circle: The Rebels Against the Nazis and the Spy Who Betrayed Them, the compelling true story of a high-society, anti-Nazi resistance network in 1943 Berlin, and The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World, the remarkable account of the life of Rudolf Vrba, who together with fellow escapee Alfred Wetzler first revealed the full truth of the notorious death camp.
Event Topic: Politics & Current Affairs
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The Human Touch: Creativity In The Age of AI
Artificial intelligence is transforming every aspect of modern life, driving innovation, productivity and economic growth. Yet it also raises urgent questions about authenticity, authorship and trust. Join Alan Finkel, former Chief Scientist and founder of the international certification organisation, ProudlyHuman™, and highly esteemed academic publishing director, Nathan Hollier, in conversation with John M Green, business leader and board member, Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, whose latest thriller, Staged stars an investigator who uses AI!
**Speakers:** Alan Finkel and Nathan Hollier in Conversation with John M Green
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International Spotlight: Yishay Ishi Ron in Conversation with Ben Lindner
Author of Dog and The Girl Who Rode the White Lion, Yishay Ishi Ron is the winner of two US National Book Awards, and Dog was long-listed for the prestigious Israeli Sapir prize. Dog is an auto-fiction about war, addiction and PTSD, soon to be made into a movie. Ben Lindner, acclaimed producer of Beyond the Zero podcast, is passionate about changing lives through interviewing outstanding authors.
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Upstanders Not Bystanders
What inspires some people to stand up to hatred in the face of danger? In this call to action, Erica Frydenberg speaks of the remarkable heroes who saved countless lives during the Holocaust. Michael Scott explains his drive, as a non-Jewish ally, to shine a light on the exponential rise in antisemitism since October 7. Lee Kofman speaks from the heart about the online doxxing of 600 creatives, and how Ruptured has confronted the scourge. And Kylie Moore Gilbert provides insight into the plight of Iranians and her experience as a hostage in Tehran. This huge session will be expertly convened by Rachelle Unreich who has herself contributed to 3 recent anthologies on being Jewish today.
**Speakers:** Erica Frydenberg, Lee Kofman, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Michael Scott – moderator Rachelle Unreich
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Beth Din Book Club: Talking Howard Jacobson’s Howl
Only Howard Jacobson would dare write the post-October 7 Jewish diaspora experience with such irreverent wit, hilarity and frightening insight. Join the Beth Din of Books’ Tali Lavi and Bram Presser to discuss Jacobson’s astonishing new novel, Howl, and the state of contemporary Jewish fiction in a changed world. Whether you’ve read the book or not, this is bound to be a fun and thought-provoking interactive session.
**Speakers:** Bram Presser and Tali Lavi on Howard Jacobson’s Howl
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SOLD OUT: Jewish Quarterly Global Conversation (‘Hamas and its Two Million Hostages’)
THIS EVENT is proudly supported by:
For almost 20 years, Hamas has ruled Gaza and prepared for a battle that it knew it could not win. As Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib writes in his Jewish Quarterly essay, their path to victory has rested on sacrificing the lives and livelihoods of over 2.2 million Gazans. Ahmed is a Palestinian American humanitarian activist and blogger. In this live Zoom event, he will be in conversation with Kylie Moore-Gilbert, renowned Middle East expert, author, academic and former hostage of the Iranian regime.
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Nazis in Australia: Exploring the Legacy of Australia’s Special Investigations Unit
In 1986, Australian journalist Mark Aarons produced an explosive radio documentary series that drew attention to the number of former Nazi war criminals living in Australia. This led to a parliamentary enquiry that resulted in the formation of Australia’s first Special Investigations Unit, directed by Graham Blewitt from 1991-1992. Professor Konrad Kwiet served as the chief historian for this unit as they excavated killing fields in Ukraine, and sought to prosecute war criminals here in Australia.
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Global Conversations: Adam Kirsch in conversation with Michael Gawenda
The current issue of The Jewish Quarterly presents: The Z Word: Reclaiming Zionism by Adam Kirsch.
In the aftermath of October 7, Zionism has increasingly been used by critics of Israel as a term of derision. From university campuses to TikTok and Twitter/X, the term is employed as a self-evident slur that presumes that Zionists are racist and supremacist. Yet, as Adam Kirsch writes in this groundbreaking essay, the challenge for Jews today is not merely to counter attempts to distort and corrupt the meaning and origins of Zionism. The Jewish people, he argues, do not need to defend the term – they need to reclaim it.
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Global Conversations: Mindless: What’s Happened to Our Universities?
In this special conversation, Emeritus Professor Cary Nelson discusses the state of university discourse after October 7 in conversation with Professor Kim Rubenstein. Nelson argues that the university – an institution dedicated to the search for truth, knowledge and freedom – became overrun by a toxic and dangerous fervour. Civil discourse was abandoned, as campuses became the epicentre of hate speech, bigotry, conspiracy theories, denialism and antisemitism.
Yet, as Nelson reveals, this betrayal of the university’s ideals was decades in the making. -
Journalism and its Discontents
In The Constitution of Knowledge Jonathan Rauch argues that the key institutions of liberal democracies – academia, law, government and journalism – all build knowledge through gathering evidence and testing it against different viewpoints. But journalism appears to have lost its way. So what has gone wrong, how did we get to this moment and how do we find our way back to a reconstitution of these foundational principles?