The Tel Aviv Review of Books

"Irreconcilable visions for Israel? Before and After Oct. 7" A panel discussion with our co-editor @Gilad_Halpern and award-winning writer @OrenKessler , moderated by @Columbia 's Prof. Clemence Boulouque. Held at NY's @bjnyc youtube.com/watch?v=c4FvNb…

Colombia, once Israel's most loyal ally in Latin America, broke off ties with the Jewish state in 2024. Does it mean it's heading for Iran's and China's orbit? Not necessarily, writes @rosenthaaldavid tarb.co.il/the-not-yet-fi…

Transatlantic Cable / Poem by @JoshRolnick tarb.co.il/transatlantic-…

The common perception in the West that Palestinian nationalism is left-wing and specifically anti-imperialist, and Jewish nationalism right-wing and imperialist, runs counter to the modern history of nations and nationalism. How did this come to be? tarb.co.il/jewish-and-pal…

Repairing Glass / Poems by Tom Fuchs tarb.co.il/repairing-glas…

The support of secular Israelis for a hostage deal, citing humanistic values, and the rejection of it on security grounds by many Religious Zionists mark an interesting inversion of traditional roles. How did that come to be, asks Avidan Freedman. tarb.co.il/religious-zion…

Disengagement is the key feature of a new cohort of Israeli poets: Disengagement from the physical world and lofty ideals for the sake of the marginal, the ridiculous and the mundane, writes @PockerShani . tarb.co.il/the-unnamed-ge…

Three biographies of Palestinian revolutionary leaders tell a story of post-Nakba dreams and reckoning away from the national consensus. Review by @yizharbeer tarb.co.il/from-the-margi…

After October 7, Yishai Sarid's 2015 dystopian novel "The Third Temple" (now out in English) feels less like a cautionary tale than an eerie description of Israel's unfolding reality, writes Stav Meishar. tarb.co.il/israels-very-o…

Some of Amos Oz's books were real cultural events, sometimes because of their relationship with the novelist's biography. Two new scholarly books, published after his death, investigate the interplay between Oz the person and Oz the phenomenon. @NaamaIs tarb.co.il/behind-the-sce…

Two edited books, published on the eve of Oct 7, attempt to accord academic rigor to the growing consensus on the demise of the 2-state solution. But even after Hamas' attack & the destruction of Gaza, the ambivalence remains, @NathanielShils writes. tarb.co.il/the-two-state-…

Setting a crime thriller on a kibbutz is a novel proposition indeed, but Lavie Tidhar's novel fails to contribute to the canon of kibbutz literature, writes Eyal Goldstein. tarb.co.il/a-collective-o…

The survival of the multiethnic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria would be a litmus test for the country's future – whether it can turn the page after the Assad regime's genocidal mix of Islamism and Arab supremacy, writes @DastanJasim . tarb.co.il/assad-may-be-g…

THE HEBREW TEACHER by Maya Arad is praised by @TAReviewofBooks as a hidden gem with "poignant insights," "many pleasures," and in a "masterful" translation by Jessica Cohen. "Arad is a virtuoso of linguistic verisimilitude." tarb.co.il/not-a-very-goo…

It is not a coincidence that the first English translation of a book by California-based Maya Arad, a virtuoso of linguistic verisimilitude, is dedicated to the growing bifurcation of Israeli expats' attitudes to their country of origin. @NewVesselPress tarb.co.il/not-a-very-goo…

"Ironically, the PLO Research Center can be considered a pioneer in the field of Israel Studies." Amir Nassar on Jonathan Gribetz's "Reading Herzl in Beirut" @PrincetonUPress tarb.co.il/who-owns-pales…

The seizure of Palestinian archives by Israel in 1948 and thereafter is marked by ambivalence: some view it as an act of cultural preservation, while others see it as theft and plunder. tarb.co.il/who-owns-pales…

“The Classic Sephardic tradition combines deep Jewish learning with a celebration of human excellence, and for a short period, it occupied center stage in Jazz Age Shanghai.” - Classic Sephardic Judaism, Made in China, by Aryeh Tepper, Spring 2023 edition tarb.co.il/classic-sephar…

“Activism, in the West Bank, bears little resemblance to this cesspit of American discursive insanity: it is not fashionable, there is no choice, it does not lead to fame.” - Rotted Hinterland by Ariyeh Benjamin, Winter 2024 edition tarb.co.il/rotted-hinterl…

The first definitive biography of the great Israeli author, who died in 2022, was written by a cultural organizer rather than an academic. It addresses many of the many contradictions – artistic as well as political – that guided his prolific career. tarb.co.il/portrait-of-a-…