Since independence, Israel has lived with a paradox–needing and seeking legitimacy, understanding, and empathy from the world community while simultaneously also discounting the world, which David Ben Gurion articulated so succinctly with his “Um Shmum.” These tension-laden tendencies reflect not only strong cultural dispositions along with issues arising from Israel’s troubled birth, development, and existence, but also some of the deep...

Go behind the headlines and explore the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the first of The Agenda’s special four-part series, Israel and Palestine: 60 Years On. Originally airing in November 2007, these programs examine the history and missed opportunities of a volatile region that, with current events in Gaza, once again dominates international...

David Grossman, leading Israeli novelist, gave the 8th Annual Andrea and Charles Bronfman Chair Lecture in Israeli Studies.  Grossman has written dozens of books and achieved international acclaim for his works, which have been translated into more than 30 languages. In 2001, he was awarded the annual Sapir Prize, Israel’s most prestigious literary award, for his work Someone to Run With. In 2004, Grossman was a co-recipient of the Bialik...

Shlomo Avineri, Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gave the 7th Annual Andrea and Charles Bronfman Chair Lecture in Israeli Studies.  Born in Poland in 1933, he has lived in Israel since 1939. He studied at the Hebrew University and the London School of Economics and has held visiting appointments at Yale, Cornell, the University of California, Wesleyan University, City University of New York, Oxford,...

The Bronfman chair presents a selection of photos from the UofT conference titled “Is There Rationality in the Arab-Israeli...