Dr Rebecca Steinfeld named a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker 2013

Rebecca has been selected as a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker 2013. The scheme gives her the opportunity to share her research with a wider audience, and to acquire useful broadcasting skills to help her achieve impact with her research in the future. BBC Radio 3 listeners will hear about her research on the role of demography in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the history and politics of reproduction in Israel.

She will now spend a year working with Radio 3 presenters and producers to develop her research and ideas into broadcasts. She will make her debut appearance on Radio 3's arts and ideas programme, Night Waves, and will be invited to make regular contributions to the network throughout the year. She will also deliver a talk at Radio 3's annual Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at the Sage, Gateshead in October 2013. 

For more on Rebecca's participation in the scheme, see this announcement from the School of Government and Society at the University of Birmingham:

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/government-society/departments/political-science-international-studies/news/2013/05/bbc-radio-three-new-generation-thinker.aspx

For more on the BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers 2013 scheme, see:

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/newgenthinkers.html

Holocaust Memorial Day Film

In January 2013, I contributed to a film that was made by the University and College Union (UCU) in order to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2013, which took place on Sunday 27 January.

The film gave me and other Jewish UCU members an opportunity to share our families' tragic stories with a wider public. Most of my family on my father's side was killed in Auschwitz. Though it was difficult to talk about these experiences and the impact they had on our families, especially on film, I think it is very important to not only remember those killed, but also raise awareness about genocide, ethnic cleansing and racism more broadly. As members of a teaching union and as educators, we have a particular responsibility to stimulate thinking on these critical issues. After all, if society is to change, it has to come through the education system. I therefore hope this film is not only a fitting memorialisation of the deaths of my family members and a tribute to their lives, but also reminds us of the importance of standing up against racism, sexism, homophobia and other ideologies of exclusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m86B9WDvCiI&feature=player_embedded

Please share the film widely. Thank you.

"Liberal Zionism: A Contradiction in Terms?"

In the following piece in Jewish Quarterly, I question the seemingly neat fusion of liberalism and Zionism encapsulated by the term "Liberal Zionism." Following the launch in early 2012 of Peter Beinart's blog, Open Zion, and the publication of his book, The Crisis of Zionism, it is increasingly clear that Liberal Zionism is in vogue. I critically analyse both theoretical and historical arguments to ask whether Liberal Zionism is coherent or actually a contradiction in terms.

http://jewishquarterly.org/2012/03/liberal-zionism-a-contradiction-in-terms/

"We Should Be Free To Debate"

I published this piece in The Jewish Chronicle in July 2011 after my position as an Under-35 Observer to the Board of Deputies of British Jews was rescinded in light of the article I co-authored in The Guardian on circumcision, together with the press in The JC itself. In this article, I call on the Jewish community to continue following the tradition of constantly questioning and seeking truth to find answers to difficult questions. 


http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/51143/we-should-be-free-debate

"Birth Right"

On 20 June 2011, I was interviewed by Sara Ivry for Tablet Magazine's podcast, Vox Tablet, about my doctoral research on fertility policies in Israel. I discussed the evolution of these policies, from Ben-Gurion's cash “Birth Prizes” awarded to mothers on the birth of their 10th child in the early days of the state to today’s heavily subsidized fertility procedures for women who wish to conceive, and about accusations that these policies have favoured Jewish citizens over others.


http://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/70052/birth-right-2

"Fruitful"

In this article, published in Tablet Magazine in June 2011, I explore Israel's fertility policies within the context of the seemingly paradoxical decision to keep  Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, in solitary confinement for more than 15 years while allowing him to father a child. I argue that in the context of Israel's exceptionally pro-natalist fertility policies, this seeming paradox actually makes sense.


http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/70286/fruitful

On Circumcision

In this piece, published in The Guardian in June 2011, my friend and colleague, Neil Howard, and I discuss male infant circumcision. We ask whether the differences between male and female circumcision are so straightforward as to justify a distinction in the law. The article was prompted by a bill in San Francisco in 2011 that proposed to outlaw the circumcising, cutting, or mutilation of the foreskin, testicles, or penis of another person aged under 18, with an exemption for cases of medical necessity, but not for custom or ritual. Unsurprisingly, the bill attracted considerable controversy at the time, primarily from feminists who objected to the idea of comparing male and female genital cutting, as well as from those who regard attempts to limit the practice of infant male circumcision as a modern manifestation of anti-Semitism. We explored some of these issues.  


http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/jun/14/circumcision-ban-row-san-francisco