Event Type: Online

In his captivating new essay in the latest issue of the Jewish Quarterly, Walkley award-winning journalist Richard Cooke explores Elon Musk’s spectacular ambition, and how it has shaped his transition from unorthodox liberal to trolling neo-reactionary. How did the richest man in the world transform from a self-described moderate to a staunch advocate for hardline US conservatives? Why did Musk purchase the social media site Twitter, only to welcome back white nationalists and Holocaust deniers, sometimes personally?

Cooke will speak with Deborah Stone, Editor-in-Chief of Plus61J Media, on the roots of this turning in Musk’s rise to power, and what his evolution reveals about a wider shift in the politics of Silicon Valley and beyond.

When award-winning writer, Ben Judah, embarked on a pandemic-fuelled mission to learn Hebrew, he did not anticipate the immensely personal internal shift that would occur in him. With Hebrew came a deepening of Jewish identity, of connection to religion and culture. To ancestry and community. 

It also led him to deep reflection on crucial role of modern Hebrew in defining and reshaping the Jewish people. In this ground-breaking essay featured in the latest edition of the Jewish Quarterly, Judah delves into the remarkable evolution and revival of Hebrew – a language whose trajectory charts the recent history of the Jewish people.

Judah will speak with critic and writer Tali Lavi about his experience of longing for and learning the language, and of his belief in Hebrew as the missing connection between Israel and the Diaspora.

Dr Andrew Dean (Deakin University) will interview Devorah on her latest essay, ‘The Myth of the Jewish Literary Mafia’ featured in the Jewish Quarterly.

Devorah Baum is Associate Professor in English Literature at the University of Southampton. Her books include Feeling Jewish: a book for just about anyone (Yale University Press), The Jewish Joke (Profile) and the forthcoming On Marriage (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin). She co-directed the feature films The New Man and Husband. She guest edited the special issue of Granta #146 on ‘The Politics of Feeling’ and she has written for a range of publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Tate and the Jewish Quarterly.

Presented in partnership with The Jewish Quarterly, the latest entry in our series of Global Conversations is only a few weeks away.

Professor Steven Nadler, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has spent a great deal of his professional life researching and writing about Spinoza’s life, philosophy and relationship with his faith. In the current issue of The Jewish Quarterly, in an article titled ‘The Curse on Spinoza’, he provides new insights into Spinoza’s excommunication. He will be probed in this interview by renowned academic, broadcaster and author, Dr. Rachael Kohn, who also brings enormous research and knowledge to the topic.