
Episode 424·Aug 28, 2025
Ido Hevroni on Teaching Homer in Wartime
The dust and blood and bronze of the Trojan War come to life in Gaza.
The Tikvah Podcast·Episode 7·Apr 8, 2014
Lord Acton famously proposed that “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In Jews and Power, Ruth Wisse provides an analysis of Jewish history that suggests the exact opposite. With neither sovereignty, nor centralized government, nor even mechanisms of self-defense, the Jewish people reconceived the meaning of their nation in manifestly moral terms. They fell prey to the danger of being corrupted by powerlessness. Generations of exilic Jews sought to live as “a light unto the nations,” seeking toleration and protection from their host rulers. But their political dependency left diaspora Jews vulnerable to being scapegoated–a tendency that has persisted despite the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in Israel. Ranging from the Hebrew Bible to contemporary politics, how does Professor Wisse’s analysis of Jewish history affect our understanding of the State of Israel, the United States, and all those nations who–admirably–insist on the moral dimension of political life?
Episode 424·Aug 28, 2025
The dust and blood and bronze of the Trojan War come to life in Gaza.
Episode 423·Aug 21, 2025
Has the field lost its way, and can it recover?
Episode 422·Aug 14, 2025
Two Centuries of Rebellion
Episode 421·Aug 7, 2025
Republicans remain staunchly pro-Israel, despite their social-media eccentrics
Episode 420·Jul 31, 2025
Examining the ideological roots of Islamism with Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, Bernard Haykel, and Ze'ev Maghen.
Unlock the most serious Jewish, Zionist, and American thinking.
Subscribe Now