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Event Type: Video

  • Global Conversations: Richard Cooke & Deborah Stone Discuss ‘Dark Star: Elon Musk’s Dangerous Turn’

    Global Conversations: Richard Cooke & Deborah Stone Discuss ‘Dark Star: Elon Musk’s Dangerous Turn’

    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.

  • Global Conversations: Ben Judah & Tali Lavi Discuss ‘Ivrit: The Language That Makes a People’

    Global Conversations: Ben Judah & Tali Lavi Discuss ‘Ivrit: The Language That Makes a People’

    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.

  • Book Chat: Lee Kofman on ‘The Writer Laid Bare’

    Book Chat: Lee Kofman on ‘The Writer Laid Bare’

    In this wide-ranging Book Chat, author Lee Kofman discusses the inspiration behind The Writer Laid Bare — a work that is both reflective memoir and practical guide aimed at writers and deep readers. She shares her love of Chekhov, Ferrante and Knausgård, and her theory of writers as ‘builders or renovators’.

  • Writing Lives: Ruth Weiss & Michael Cohen

    Writing Lives: Ruth Weiss & Michael Cohen

    First in our Writing Lives series, is an interview with Ruth Weiss, human rights campaigner, journalist, and activist in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement. As a child, Ruth fled Nazi Germany with her family, arriving in South Africa only to witness oppression of a different kind. Ruth remains an outspoken voice against hatred in any form and, at 98, is finally receiving international public recognition for a lifetime of activism.

    Ruth will be interviewed by South African born educator and historian Michael Cohen.

  • Rami and Bassam’s Peacebuilding Tour: An MJBW and KDS Event

    Rami and Bassam’s Peacebuilding Tour: An MJBW and KDS Event

    Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin are from ‘enemy’ sides but are self-proclaimed ‘brothers’.
    Rami is a Jewish Israeli from Jerusalem who lost his daughter Smadar in a Palestinian suicide bombing in 1997, the same year Bassam’s daughter Abir was born. Bassam, who grew up in Hebron, was a former fighter who had spent time in an Israeli jail where he saw the film Schindler’s List that changed his life. His daughter, Abir was tragically killed aged 10 years old, by the bullet of Israeli border police.

    Their grief bonded the two and forged a joint path of dialogue and reconciliation, rather than hate and revenge, which is the subject of Colum McCann’s award winning book Apeirogon.

    In an age of polarisation, their example and message of peace and reconciliation is vital, the rarer it becomes. PLUS61J Media brings them to Australia for the first time, to share a unique encounter. In Rami’s words: “no one can listen to us and remain the same.”

  • Global Conversations: Javier Sinay in Conversation with Elissa Goldstein

    Global Conversations: Javier Sinay in Conversation with Elissa Goldstein

    The 1994 ‘AMIA Bombing’ was an attack on Argentina’s Jewish centre in which 85 people were killed. Join writer, editor and digital producer, Elissa Goldstein in conversation with award-winning author and journalist, Javier Sinay to discuss his remarkable essay in the May issue of the Jewish Quarterly. The essay examines the ongoing political intrigue surrounding this catastrophic crime and the reasons it remains unsolved.

  • Shalom Auslander: American Jewish Humour with a Modern Twist

    Shalom Auslander: American Jewish Humour with a Modern Twist

    In this live event filmed at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, acclaimed American author Shalom Auslander digs deep in conversation with David Slucki, revealing how his upbringing in an ultra-orthodox community has helped shape him and his view of the world. Shalom uses humour to not just defuse but illuminate the trauma. Please note, the discussion contains expletives.

  • Global Conversations: Devorah Baum in conversation with Andrew Dean  

    Global Conversations: Devorah Baum in conversation with Andrew Dean  

    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.

  • Global Conversations: Professor Steven Nadler in conversation with Dr. Rachael Kohn

    Global Conversations: Professor Steven Nadler in conversation with Dr. Rachael Kohn

    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.

  • Book Chat: Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus on ‘Fancy Meeting You Here’

    Book Chat: Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus on ‘Fancy Meeting You Here’

    Ali and Michelle have been best friends for life. As ten year olds, they could be found ditching play time for writing club. Now, they write books together. ‘Fancy Meeting You Here’ is their latest novel — a charming and unconventional love story about trying to rewrite history.

    In this Book Chat, Ali and Michelle explore how rom-coms have changed over the past two decades — and what elements of romantic comedies remain timeless.