Join host David Hartmann and fellow Columbia alumni as the book club discusses Israel: What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov. Introduction by book club member Dr. Frederick Schweitzer.

The distinguished historian Omer Bartov was born on a kibbutz, grew up in Tel Aviv, and served in the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War. He went on to become a leading scholar of the German army and the Holocaust. In Israel: What Went Wrong?, Bartov sketches the tragic transformation of Zionism, a movement that sought to emancipate European Jewry from oppression, into a state ideology of ethno-nationalism. Tracing the roots of the violent events currently unfolding in Israel and the occupied territories, Bartov tracks his country's moral tribulations and considers the origins of Zionism, the intertwining of Israel’s independence with Palestinian displacement, the politics of the Holocaust, controversies over the term "genocide," and the uncertain future.

Date: Thursday, October 29, 2026

Times: 6:30PM Central, 7:30PM Eastern, 4:30PM Pacific. For those in Europe the time is 12:30AM in London on October 31.

Location: Zoom Video Conference

Cost: Free

Reviews

“[Bartov’s] understanding of his subject is both historical and intimate . . . Clear, sober, and deliberate. Israel is his attempt to chart what has happened to the country where he was born . . . Bartov uses all the tools at his disposal, weaving together history, personal anecdotes, even some literary criticism . . . One of Bartov’s points in this mournful book is that too many possibilities have been kept off the table.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review

“Remarkable . . . Anyone seeking an explanation of Israel’s ‘fall from grace’ will find no better guide than this perceptive, sophisticated, erudite, elegantly written and strikingly fair-minded book.” - Avi Shlaim, The Guardian

Photo Credit: Macmillan Publishers, Promotional Material, Public Domain