Thursday’s online offering examines culture, literature, and intrigue, with Nigel Biggar on the moral stakes of modern debates, Rüdiger Görner on Stefan Zweig’s literary legacy, and Mikhl Yashinsky reviving the adventures of Max Spitzkopf, the Yiddish Sherlock Holmes.

Culture Wars: A Polarised World – 3:00pm

What fuels today’s culture wars – and can society handle the divide? Nigel Biggar explores polarisation, free expression, and the challenges of keeping debate alive in a fractured world.

Debates often described as “culture wars” have become a defining feature of contemporary public life, shaping discussions around values, identity, free expression and social cohesion. Oxford professor Nigel Biggar draws on moral philosophy and public debate to examine why these disagreements have become so charged, and what they reveal about the pressures facing liberal democratic societies. In conversation with Baroness Ruth Deech, he considers how disagreement is conducted today, the impact of polarisation on institutions such as universities and the media, and how open debate might be sustained in an increasingly divided public sphere.

This event will last approximately 1 hour.

In partnership with Lockdown University

Nigel Biggar

Lord Biggar of Castle Douglas is Emeritus Regius Professor of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Pusey House, Oxford. He holds a B.A. in Modern History from Oxford and a Ph.D. in Christian Theology & Ethics from the University of Chicago. He was appointed C.B.E. “for services to Higher Education” in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Ruth Deech

Baroness Ruth Deech, DBE QC is a crossbench peer, a member of UK Lawyers for Israel, and formerly Principal of St. Anne’s College Oxford, and chair of the Bar Standards Board.

Stefan Zweig: A Literary Life – 5:00pm

A new look at a giant of European literature from founding Director of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations Rüdiger Görner , in conversation with fiction reviewer David Herman.

Exploring his remarkable contribution to world literature, rooted in the Austro-Jewish tradition, In the Future of Yesterday offers a fresh perspective on Stefan Zweig. Founding director of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations Rüdiger Görner reexamines his globetrotting life and prolific output, including his influential time in England. He joins Jewish Chronicle chief fiction reviewer David Herman to discuss a towering figure whose vibrant writing reminds us that there can only be a future if we remain conscious of the past.

This event will last approximately 1 hour.

In partnership with Lockdown University

Rüdiger Görner

Rüdiger Görner was professor of German with comparative literature at Queen Mary University of London. The founder of the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature and the founding director of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations, his books include biographies of Rainer Maria Rilke, Georg Trakl, and Oskar Kokoschka. In 2025, he was awarded the Gundolf Prize for the promotion of German culture abroad.

David Herman

David Herman, a former TV producer, is a freelance writer based in London. Over the past 20 years he has written almost a thousand articles, essays, and reviews on Jewish history and literature for publications including the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Quarterly, Jewish Renaissance, the Guardian, the New Statesman, and Prospect. He has taught courses on Jewish culture for the London Jewish Cultural Centre and JW3. He is a regular contributor to Jewish Book Week, Lockdown University, the Association of Jewish Refugees, and the Insiders/Outsiders Festival on the contribution of Jewish refugees to British culture.

Adventures of Max Spitzkopf: the Yiddish Sherlock Holmes – 7:00pm

Discover a new hero for your to-be-read pile in these thrilling new translations of Jonas Kreppel’s detective stories, featuring legendary private eye Max Spitzkopf’s adventures in early 20th century Vienna.

Meet Max Spitzkopf: legendary Viennese private eye, undefeated foe of villains, and passionate defender of the Jewish people. Isaac Bashevis Singer hailed Jonas Kreppel’s early 20th-century detective stories as “masterpieces.” Now Mikhl Yashinsky’s charming translations from the original Yiddish bring 15 of these mysteries, with their unique twist, to a new audience. The teacher, translator, and actor joins us online from New York to discuss writing that is also a vivid testament to Jewish life in all its richness during the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This event will last approximately 1 hour.

In partnership with Lockdown University

In association with

Mikhl Yashinsky

Mikhl Yashinsky is a translator, playwright-lyricist, singer-actor, and teacher in New York City. He was born in Detroit and graduated with a degree in European history and literature from Harvard. His translation of Ester-Rokhl Kaminska’s memoirs, The Mother of Yiddish Theatre, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury. He has taught Yiddish at Columbia, the University of Michigan, and Tel Aviv University and co-authored the award-winning Yiddish language textbook In eynem (White Goat Press).

Sarah Weinman

Sarah is the author of the nonfiction books The Real Lolita, Scoundrel, and Without Consent, as well as the editor of several anthologies, most recently Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. She is the Crime & Mystery columnist for the New York Times Book Review and her work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and New York Magazine. She lives in New York City.