Bet Debora - Jewish Women's Perspectives

Martin Christopher Dean, a research scholar at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). In 2023 the Diary of Ita Diamant “Survival”, edited by Martin Dean, was published. Martin Dean is a renowned scholar of Nazi camps and ghettos. In this conversation with Andrea Petö he describes was fascinated him about this diary of a woman surviving the ghetto in Warsaw and other ghettos while also helping others.

The distinguished guest of this podcast is Noa Sattath, Executive Director of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), one of the leading human rights organizations in the country. Noa explains that although the Supreme Court cancelled the government’s legislation to weaken the judiciary and with it Israeli democracy, the war brings new attacks on democratic rights particularly of the Arab citizens of Israel with it.

Sandi Wisenberg, author, journalist and editor from Chicago, has enriched numerous Bet Debora conferences with her witty, creative workshops. Now she published a book of autobiographical essays as well as reflections on perceptions of and theories about women through the ages. The common denominator of her very diverse texts is the Jewish feminist perspective, the consistently female voice of the narrator/author and the subtle humor and irony.

In 2017, I, Rabbi Barbara Borts, read a note about some concerts being held in my city of Newcastle upon Tyne, with music by composers who were considered 'entarte', 'degenerate', music banned by the Nazis as too modern, too corrupting, too Jewish. I had heard some of the compositions here and there, as they began to be reclaimed and performed, and I went along to the first one. I wasentranced. The music was special, intriguing, lovely, different, and it was exciting to have this music as an aspect of the commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day. The inspired figure behind this programme was Sasha Raikhlina, a gifted violinist with the Northern Sinfornia Orchestra. She assembled a team, and thus was established the annual Brundibar Festival. I am here discussing this project with Sasha herself.

Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli is a medical sociologist and professor in the Department of Nursing at the Faculty of Welfare and Health Sciences at the University of Haifa. She is known, among many other things, for asking research questions that provide unique insights into the working of contemporary societies. In this podcast episode, Daphna talks with Barbara Prainsack about two of her research projects that illustrate the changing meaning of kinship in Israeli society, from two very different perspectives: One project looks at how family relationships are changing when same-sex parents break up. The other one explores how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the relationships of young Israelis with their partners and children, as well as their attitudes towards family and work.

Carmel Shalev is an Israeli bioethicist and writer. Her work spans the big themes of life: Having been the first academic researching and writing about surrogacy, she influenced the introduction of surrogacy in Israel. Her most recent book, "In Praise of Ageing", combines reflections on growing older in a society that has particular "scripts" for ageing women with ancient Buddhist wisdom. In this podcast episode, Carmel Shalev tells the story of what made her a feminist, how her years studying law in Yale shaped her, and what it is like growing older in a radically changing Israeli society.

Barbara Staudinger ist seit Sommer 2022 Direktorin des Jüdischen Museums Wien. Im November 2022 präsentierte sie die erste von ihr und anderen kuratierte Ausstellung „100 Missverständnisse über und unter Juden“. Wir sprechen mit ihr über ihren Werdegang als Historikerin, Judaistin und Kuratorin, ihre Arbeit in Museen in Deutschland und Österreich sowie ihre Ziele als Direktorin des Jüdischen Museums Wien.

Ronit Irshai and Orna Sasson-Levy both work in the department of Gender Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. They both see Israel in crisis and Gender Studies in Israel under attack. In an open discussion they point out the problems they are faced with and their strategies to overcome them. They also point to the special situation of Gender Studies at Bar-Ilan University, a conservative, religious institution.