Complexity Welcome

This episode features Sarai Shavit, writer, literary editor, and Research Fellow at Tel Aviv University, in conversation with Yael Segalovitz, Israel Institute Visiting Professor at the Helen Diller Institute and Assistant Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Sarai Shavit and fellow writer and literary editor, Dr. Rawya Burbara, have been collaborating on a project to edit a multilingual anthology of short stories written by authors from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Shavit and Professor Segalovitz will discuss the complex and challenging process of putting together this literary anthology and the ways in which it was transformed by October 7 and the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War. This episode is drawn from an event that took place in April 2025. Featuring: Sarai Shavit, Poet, Writer, Literary Editor; Co-Editor, Moznayim; Lecturer, Research Fellow, Tel Aviv University; Recipient, ADEI WIZO Adelina Della Pergola Literary Prize   Yael Segalovitz (Moderator), 2024–2025 Israel Institute Visiting Professor at the Helen Diller Institute; Assistant Professor, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevAbout the Helen Diller Institute:The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu. Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here to view a transcript of this episode.

This episode features Maya Arad, author of twelve Hebrew books of fiction and Writer in Residence at the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University, in conversation with Yael Segalovitz, Israel Institute Visiting Professor at the Helen Diller Institute and Assistant Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Reflecting on The Hebrew Teacher, first published in Hebrew, and more recently in English translation, Maya Arad will speak with Professor Segalovitz about the experience of writing Hebrew at this time, in this place: What does Hebrew literature written in America contribute to Israeli readers, and what is it that an American audience expects now from Hebrew literature? This episode is drawn from an event that took place in April 2025.Featuring:Maya Arad, Author of twelve Hebrew books of fiction; Writer in Residence, Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford UniversityYael Segalovitz (Moderator), 2024–2025 Israel Institute Visiting Professor at the Helen Diller Institute; Lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the NegevAbout the Helen Diller Institute:The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu. Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here to view a transcript of this episode.

This episode features Oz Frankel, Associate Professor of History at The New School for Social Research. Professor Frankel examines the period of the late 1960s as a unique moment when Israel became more closely entwined with the United States not just as a strategic ally but also through its intensifying intimacy with American culture, society, and technology. This is the subject of his new book Coca-Cola, Black Panthers, and Phantom Jets: Israel in the American Orbit, 1967–1973. This episode is drawn from an event that took place in March 2025. Featuring:Oz Frankel, Associate Professor of History, The New School for Social Research About the Helen Diller Institute:The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu. Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here to view a transcript of this episode.

This episode features Ronen Avraham, Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University, in conversation with Adi Ayal, Professor of Law and Economics at Bar Ilan University and Helen Diller Institute Visiting Professor. Professor Avraham is also one of the leaders of the Fourth Quarter, the largest grassroots movement in Israel. Together, Avraham and Ayal discuss this bottom-up constitutional initiative that seeks to unite people across political, religious, and secular divides and proposes a new plan for constitutional reform. This episode is drawn from an event that took place in March 2025. Featuring:Ronen Avraham, Director of the Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law, Editor-in-Chief of Theoretical Inquiries in Law, Tel Aviv University, Buchmann Faculty of LawAdi Ayal (Moderator), Spring 2025 Helen Diller Institute Visiting Professor; Professor at Bar Ilan University Faculty of LawAbout the Helen Diller Institute:The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu. Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here to view a transcript of this episode.

This episode features Christine Hayes, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Yale University. A Talmudic scholar of late antiquity, she draws on performance studies, as well as theories of humor and play, to examine the Talmudic rabbis’ counter-cultural construction of divine law as a contingent and dynamic phenomenon unfolding in historical time. This episode is drawn from the 16th Annual Robbins Collection Lecture in Jewish Law, Thought, and Identity at the Helen Diller Institute, in February 2025. Featuring:Christine Hayes, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, Yale UniversityAbout the Helen Diller Institute:The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu. Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here to view a transcript of this episode.

In this episode, Ilan Troen, historian and founding scholar of the field of Israel studies, speaks about his new book, Israel/Palestine in World Religions: Whose Promised Land? He examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens of religion and argues that religious perspectives should be considered alongside studies of nationalism and geopolitics as essential components of the conflict. Ethan Katz moderates the conversation. This episode was recorded in late November 2024.Featuring:Ilan Troen, Professor Emeritus and Founding Director, Schusterman Center, Brandeis University; Professor Emeritus, Ben Gurion UniversityEthan Katz (Moderator), Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies; Faculty Director, Center for Jewish Studies, UC BerkeleyAbout the Helen Diller Institute:The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu. Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here to view a transcript of this episode.

In this episode, Nadav Eyal (prominent Israeli author and journalist) and Professor Kenneth Bamberger (Berkeley Law) discuss the fast-changing developments in Israel and in the region – including the continuing hostage crisis, the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israeli society and the burdens of reserve service in the 14th month of war, and the reelection of Donald Trump in relation to Israel and the Netanyahu government. This episode was recorded in mid-November 2024.Featuring:Nadav Eyal, Senior Columnist, Yediot Ahronot; Senior Commentator, Keshet 12; 2024–2025 Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs; Winner, Sokolov AwardKenneth Bamberger, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Law; Faculty Co-Director, Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, UC BerkeleyAbout the Helen Diller Institute:The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu. Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here to view a transcript of this episode. 

In this episode, leading expert on Jewish-Arab relations in Israel Mohammad Darawshe, and Professor Masua Sagiv (Koret Visiting Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at the Helen Diller Institute) discuss the challenges and opportunities for building shared society in Israel post-October 7. The events of October 7 and the Israel-Hamas War have had a unique impact on Jewish and Arab-Palestinian communities across Israel, and have posed significant challenges for intergroup relations. Darawshe and Sagiv discuss Darawshe’s vision for a way forward at this precarious juncture. This episode was recorded in November 2024. Mohammad Darawshe, Director of Strategy, Center for Shared Society, Givat HavivaMasua Sagiv, Koret Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley (2021–2025); Senior Faculty, Shalom Hartman Institute; Researcher at the Menomadin Center for Jewish and Democratic Law, Bar-Ilan University Law FacultyThe Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies provides a rich academic forum for our nation’s future leaders to explore the breadth and complexity of Israel and contemporary Jewish issues. At a time when polarization is more severe than ever, we bring integrity, excellence, and grit to fostering dynamic spaces where students and the wider community can thoughtfully exchange ideas. To learn more about our mission and work, please visit hdi.berkeley.edu. Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Click here to view a transcript of this episode.