Events

The first meeting in a new series – dialogues with researchers who have written essays on various aspects of illusion in their fields of research, as appeared in the 2026 edition of ‘Poetry of Science’, a periodical published once a year concurrently with the Weizmann Institute’s annual Ofer Lider prize for encouraging creative writing among scientists award ceremony. The editor of ‘Poetry of Science’ is Idan Barir, a translator of poetry and prose from Portuguese, Arabic, English, and Turkish.

"All history is contemporary history, according to Italian historian Benedetto Croce. Any representation of the past (including academic history research papers) is shaped by the reality within which it is created; it reflects prevalent beliefs, ideologies, hidden assumptions, writing strategies, and more. The difference between Travels to the Past and history in its academic sense is that historians are expected to be aware of the contemporary nature of their writings.” (Avner Wishnitzer)

Public discourse often raises the possibility of simultaneously returning to a glorious past and the greatness of a nation. Prof. Avner Wishnitzer and Idan Barir discuss the credibility, the validity, and the glory of that past, and the question of whether this past, which can ostensibly be visited or returned to, is indeed the one that historians refer to in their historical research.

Prof. Avner Wishnitzer – Historian, author, translator, Head of the Middle Eastern and African History Department at Tel Aviv University, and co-chair (with Prof. On Barak) of the Laboratory for the Histories of Climate Change at Tel Aviv University's Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies
 

The series is sponsored by the Braginsky Center for the Interface between Science and Humanities.
 

Series Schedule:
16/2 Travels to the Past as Deceptive Illusion, with Prof. Avner Wishnitzer
16/3 The Placebo Effect, with Prof. Asya Rolls
18/5 The Psychedelic Renaissance, with Prof. Shauli Lev-Ran

 

The third meeting in a new series – dialogues with researchers who have written essays on various aspects of illusion in their fields of research, as appeared in the 2026 edition of ‘Poetry of Science’, a periodical published once a year concurrently with the Weizmann Institute’s annual Ofer Lider prize for encouraging creative writing among scientists award ceremony. The editor of ‘Poetry of Science’ is Idan Barir, a translator of poetry and prose from Portuguese, Arabic, English, and Turkish.

“Alongside science’s demand for precision, society’s need for resolutions, nationalist movements and identity politics, with media polarizing opinions, and language whittling away to exclamation points, a hushed renaissance of incertitude is emerging. Challenging certainty and blurring the boundaries between “fact” and “fiction”, this psychedelic renaissance reminds us of the value of wonder and astonishment, but especially the willingness to entertain the unknown.” (Prof. Shauli Lev-Ran)

The use of psychoactive substances - hallucinogens, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and additional ingredients - has, in recent years, returned to the world of science and medical treatment in what has been designated as the “Psychedelic Renaissance”. Science recognizes the medicinal properties of psychedelic materials, but it is not always prepared to accept the undefined and unquantifiable aspects of its treatments. Prof. Shauli Lev-Ran in a dialogue with Idan Barir on hallucinations and reality within the context of this psychedelic renaissance - both as an established and historically cogent cultural phenomenon and as a considerable (even though yet unsatisfied) reawakening in research and treatment.

Prof. Shauli Lev-Ran – Psychiatrist and addiction treatment specialist, Researcher of psychiatric effects of psychoactive substances, Associate Professor at the Psychiatric Department of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty for Medical & Health Science’s School for Medicine, Fellow at The Center for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada, Co-founder and Academic Director, Israel Center on Addiction.

sponsored by the Braginsky Center for the Interface between Science and Humanities
 

Schedule:
16/2 Travels to the Past as Deceptive Illusion, with Prof. Avner Wishnitzer
16/3 The Placebo Effect, with Prof. Asya Rolls
18/5 The Psychedelic Renaissance, with Prof. Shaul Lev-Ran

 

Based on the diaries of Etty Hillesum, this series by Golden Globe winner Hagai Levi, ("Be’Tipul"  [In Treatment], "Scenes from a Marriage", "The Affair"), traces the extraordinary personal journey of the young Dutch woman from 1941 to 1943.
In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, a young woman goes to therapy. 
This is Etty Hillesum. At the age of 27, driven by a deep passion for life, she embarks on a spiritual and emotional journey, all chronicled in her diaries. In them, she unfolds her turbulent love affair with psycho-chirologist Julius Spier - a relationship that becomes the catalyst for a radical inner transformation, accelerated by the growing threat she faces as a Jewish woman, ultimately leading her to an enormous act of solidarity.
Hillesum’s diaries were first published 40 years after her death. Since then, they have been translated into over 20 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. Told in an unconventional fashion, the series offers a dialogue between past and present, revealing how Etty's striving for meaning continues to resonate today, and evoking the timely question: How do we find hope in a hopeless world?

Director: Hagai Levi 

The series will be screened in two parts :

Part 1(Episodes 1–3) and Part 2 (Episodes 4–6). 

Part 2 will be screened on Monday, February 9, at 19:00 p.m.
A conversation with the creator Hagai Levi after the screening of Part 2

Dutch | 148 minutes | Hebrew subtitles