Six After the War – A Study Group Following Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem’s Lost Café

“I’m angry with you for not coming to our agreed meeting: at the café at five after the Second World War. But I admit: in a sense, the café no longer exists.”

141 letters were exchanged between Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem, two close friends and among the most prominent Jewish thinkers of the 20th century. The correspondence took place between Israel and the United States in the years following the Holocaust, revealing deep concerns about the fate of the Jewish people, described from entirely different worldviews. The letters document the courageous friendship formed between these two intellectual giants, as well as the bitter arguments that erupted between them. In this study session, we will follow their correspondence and ask whether the café—the shared space for meeting and deliberation between friends and rivals—still exists today.

The event is part of the “Why Politics Now?” series of events at Beit Avi Chai.

Cringeworthy campaign videos, heated panels that ended before they even began, and spins fired at us day after day—all the signs indicate that Election Day is approaching. But engagement with political ideas can also be inspiring, spirited, and even enjoyable—just ask Gershom Scholem, Hannah Arendt, Natan Alterman, Amos Oz, and even Madam Ravia herself, among the heroes at the heart of “Why Politics Now?”, a series of cultural events at Beit Avi Chai held in the lead-up to democracy’s holiday. Just before we each disappear behind the voting booth curtain, we will gather for festive events and delve into what truly interests and affects us in Israeli politics—without propaganda, without exclamation marks, but with no shortage of question marks.

With: Efrat Shapira-Rosenberg, Dr. Micah Goodman, Assaf Inbari, Amichai Chasson, Madam Ravia, Yochi Brandes, Ariel Schnabel, and others.