Extremism, antisemitism and intolerance are thriving on campus. How did this happen?

Some programmes are well on their way to running Zionists out of their unit. That will put an end to complaints of antisemitism. --Cary Nelson

After October 7, the university - an institution dedicated to the search for truth, knowledge and freedom - became overrun by a toxic and dangerous fervour. Civil discourse was abandoned as campuses became the epicentre of hate speech, conspiracy theories and antisemitism. Yet, as Cary Nelson reveals, this betrayal of the university's ideals was decades in the making.

In this groundbreaking essay, Nelson, an academic and writer whose years of involvement in university organisations has made him a leading expert on higher education, explains the causes of the institutional failure that has been evident on campuses worldwide. Mindless shows how universities came to abandon a commitment to shared intellectual principles and fractured into disciplines that - unconstrained and unchecked - slid towards conformity and indoctrination.

Yitskhok Rudashevski was taken to the Vilna Ghetto at age 13 and murdered at age 15. This is his diary, discovered in his final hiding place.

'Today I turned 15. I feel ... a regret, a kind of nagging feeling. I wish to take back the year that has passed and keep it for later, for my new life. The second thing that I feel today is strength and hope. Today I turned 15 and live very much for tomorrow.'

This issue of The Jewish Quarterly presents the diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski, a Jewish teenager in the Vilna Ghetto. An only child, Rudashevski was transferred to the ghetto at age 13 and used a small notebook to chronicle his experiences, wonder, hopes and regrets. The diary was later discovered in an attic that was the final hiding place for him and his parents.

This remarkable translation of the diary from Yiddish provides a glimpse into the observations of a teenager whose belief in culture, history and knowledge defied the cruelty that surrounded him, all captured in his tender, honest voice. It is a crucial document of youth, innocence, and a refusal to be silenced.

The recollections of Australia's leading public intellectual

Robert Manne is one of Australia's most profound political analysts. His memoir traces his intellectual roots, revealing how his family background and early years informed the questions he would spend his life trying to answer. It also provides a fascinating portrait of key political controversies, including intellectual combat over Pol Pot, Wilfred Burchett, Quadrant, the Stolen Generations, Manning Clark, the Howard government, the Murdoch press and much more.

During the Cold War and the culture wars, Manne clashed with some of the most influential thinkers, writers and polemicists - Noam Chomsky, Les Murray, Leonie Kramer, Tom Keneally, Isi Leibler, Helen Demidenko Darville, Peter Craven, Paddy McGuinness, Keith Windschuttle and Andrew Bolt. This memoir recounts with surprising and unknown detail what really happened and why.

Often subverting conventional notions of left and right, Manne is an original thinker who has helped shape the nation's discourse for decades. This is the inside story of a life of engagement and reflection, and a book for anyone interested in the shape and meaning of the past nearly fifty years of politics.

Trespassing bees, murderous zebras, reasonable cows ... Ever since biblical times, animals have been clashing with human laws.

In Guilty Pigs, animal law experts Katy Barnett and Jeremy Gans guide readers through the philosophy and practice of animal-related law, from the very earliest cases to the issues we are debating today, including the responsibilities of pet owners and the application of human rights to animals. They also cover hunting rights, using animals to solve crime, protecting animals from abuse and neglect, and the unique nature of owning a living being.

What to do with animals that injure or kill people, in particular, has long troubled humans. In medieval Europe, 'killer' animals - horses, cattle and most often pigs, which were notorious for eating young children - were put on trial. Even in the early twentieth century, circus elephants who lashed out at their keepers in America were summarily executed for their crimes.

Filled with lively and sometimes bizarre case studies, this is a fascinating and entertaining read - for all lovers of misbehaving creatures.

The gripping story of Australia's first female crime writer and her career-criminal son

When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne with her infant son in 1855, she was determined to reinvent herself. The Victorian goldfields were just the place.

After a time selling sly grog and a bigamous marriage to a policeman, Mary became a pioneering journalist and author. The Detective's Album was the first book of detective stories to be published in Australia and the first by a woman to be published anywhere in the world. Her work appeared in magazines and newspapers for over forty years - but none of her readers knew who she was. She wrote using pseudonyms, often adopting the voice of a male narrator to write about 'unladylike' subjects.

When Mary died in 1911, her identity was nearly lost. In Outrageous Fortunes, Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex retrieve Fortune's astonishing career and discover an equally absorbing story in her illegitimate son, George. While Mary was writing crime, George was committing it, with convictions for theft and bank robbery. In their intertwined stories, crime fiction meets true crime, and Melbourne's literary bohemia consorts with the criminal underworld.

'Mary Fortune's bold fictions electrified colonial Australia. But her own story, pieced together by two tenacious literary detectives, was best of all.' -Gideon Haigh

'A fine introduction to the author and her work.' -Garry Disher

'Outrageous Fortunes is a delight: beautifully written and carefully researched, it is an engrossing, illuminating and ultimately deeply moving portrait of an extraordinary woman and her ne'er-do-well son. The pioneering crime writer Mary Helena Fortune finally receives the biography she deserves, and no mystery reader should be without it.' -John Connolly

A clear-eyed examination of how Australia should approach the complex security challenges at play in its maritime domain

Security starts at home ...

Australia has drawn closer to many of its Asia-Pacific neighbours in recent years, but 'when push comes to shove, it continues to look well beyond the oceans and regions that surround it to the distant horizons of Europe and North America for its ultimate security guarantee'.

In Girt by Sea, international-relations experts Rebecca Strating and Joanne Wallis instead turn their gazes to Australia's near region, focusing on the six maritime domains central to its national interests: the north seas (the Timor, Arafura and Coral Seas and the Torres Strait), the Western Pacific, the South China Sea, the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean.

In so doing, they reimagine how Australia should understand its strategic challenges and find lasting security.

'A searching critique of Australia's statecraft'-Michael Wesley, author of There Goes the Neighbourhood

A landmark book - the first full political history of Australia

In this compelling and comprehensive work, renowned historian Frank Bongiorno presents a social and cultural history of Australia's political life, from pre-settlement Indigenous systems to the present day.

Depicting a wonderful parade of dreamers and schemers, Bongiorno surveys moments of political renewal and sheds fresh light on our democratic life. From local pubs and meeting halls to the parliament and cabinet; from pamphleteers and stump orators to party agents and operatives - this enthralling account looks at the political insiders in the halls of power, as well as the agitators and outsiders who sought to shape the nation from the margins.

A work of political history like no other, Dreamers and Schemers will transform the way you look at Australian politics.

'With acuity and grace, Bongiorno divines the soul of the nation ... All told with a cheeky eye for detail and nose for skullduggery by a historian in full archival, narrative and rhetorical flight. A landmark work' -Clare Wright

'Bongiorno is one of our premier historians and this is his masterwork. An original take on our politics and people, written with an open mind and warm Australian heart.' -George Megalogenis

The incredible story of the resilience and recovery of Australia's First Nations languages

Australia's language diversity is truly breathtaking. This continent lays claim to the world's longest continuous collection of cultures, including over 440 unique languages and many more dialects. Sadly, European invasion has had severe consequences for the vitality of these languages.

Amid devastating loss, there has also been the birth of new languages such as Kriol and Yumplatok, both English-based Creoles. Aboriginal English dialects are spoken widely, and recently there has been an inspiring renaissance of First Nations languages, as communities reclaim and renew them.

Bina: First Nations Languages Old and New tells this story, from the earliest exchange of words between colonists and First Nations people to today's reclamations. It is a creative and exciting introduction to a vital and dynamic world of language.

With a foreword by Nardi Simpson, author of Song of the Crocodile.

The story of Hebrew - its origins, revival and continuing evolution - is the story of a people.

Our religion, our story, is, at its heart, a love of this language and a refusal to let it go.-Ben Judah

Ivrit explores the remarkable evolution and revival of Hebrew - a language whose trajectory charts the recent history of the Jewish people. In a colourful, in-depth essay, award-winning writer Ben Judah explores the crucial role of modern Hebrew in defining and reshaping Israel and the Jewish people. He brings key figures to life, including his own ancestors, and contends that, while the dreams of Zionism are a mix of tragic successes and partial failures, the dream of the Hebraists is the one complete triumph.

The issue also includes a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer translated into English for the first time, cultural criticism by Joanna Rakoff about literary accounts of female publishing assistants, an essay by Marta Figlerowicz about the Polish writer and artist Bruno Schulz, and a delicious celebration of Jewish-Italian food by Luisa Weiss.

The inside story of the 2023 Voice Referendum, from Yes to No

In late 2023, Australians voted 'No' to recognising Indigenous peoples through a constitutional Voice. Broken Heart unpacks the true, complex history of the referendum, illuminating how an alliance between Indigenous advocates and constitutional conservatives fractured under political pressure, and a proposal conceived in compromise was killed by partisan politics.

Told from the unique insider perspective of a constitutional lawyer who worked closely with Noel Pearson on the Voice for over a decade, this book analyses the mistakes of the government and 'Yes' advocates, the fickleness and ultimate intransigence of the right, and the betrayals and lies that led to the referendum's defeat.

Broken Heart tells a story of hope and tragedy. But its lessons will assist future reformers and leaders who want to make Australia a better place.

'This is the story of a broken heart and of a large one. Shireen Morris has written an indispensable account of the hard way of the constitutional reformer in this country. An enthralling tale of hope, commitment and goodwill, as well as mendacity, opportunism and betrayal.' Frank Bongiorno, author of Dreamers and Schemers

'Powerful and moving . . . Broken Heart is an erudite and forensic analysis of a nation-defining political campaign, ultimately destroyed by betrayal and self-interest. It challenges us to learn, reflect and remain energised if we are to become a better, fairer country.' Larissa Behrendt, host of Speaking Out

A new path for Australia, by an eminent economist and author of the bestselling Superpower

Could Australia become a full-employment, renewable-energy superpower?

Ross Garnaut says yes, and it starts with taxing carbon. A levy on the big polluters will help fund Australia to become a carbon-free energy giant, lower the cost of living and assist the world to cut emissions.

In this path-breaking book, Garnaut focuses on the underpinnings of successful social democracy. He traces when economic policy has worked for Australia and when it hasn't, and critiques the Albanese government's stilted progress. He also explores the extraordinary low-carbon opportunity Australia has before it, utilising his unrivalled expertise on industrial development. Getting this right, Garnaut argues, would secure the economic base of Australia's social democracy.

A thought-provoking book by a visionary thinker, eminent economist and author of the bestselling Superpower.

One of Australia's finest essayists, the first to cut through 'the great Australian silence' to convey the richness and uniqueness of Aboriginal culture to settler Australians

'The most literate and persuasive of all contributions on Australia's Indigenous people' -Marcia Langton

W.E.H. Stanner's words changed Australia. In his 1968 Boyer Lectures he exposed a 'cult of forgetfulness practised on a national scale', regarding the fate of First Nations people, for which he coined the phrase 'the great Australian silence'. And in his essay 'Durmugam' he provided an unforgettable portrait of a warrior's attempt to hold back cultural change.

The pieces collected here span Stanner's career as well as the history of Australian race relations. They reveal the extraordinary scholarship, humanity and vision of one of Australia's finest essayists. Stanner's writings remain relevant in a time of reckoning with white Australia's injustices against Aboriginal people and the path to reconciliation.

With an introduction by Robert Manne

'Bill Stanner was a superb essayist with a wonderful turn of phrase and ever fresh prose. He always had important things to say, which have not lost their relevance. It is wonderful that they will now be available to a new and larger audience.' -Henry Reynolds

'Stanner's essays still hold their own among this country's finest writings on matters black and white.' -Noel Pearson

A must-read biography of an enigmatic personality who helped shape early Melbourne

Madame Brussels, the most legendary brothel keeper in nineteenth-century Melbourne, is still remembered and celebrated today. But until now, little has been known about Caroline Hodgson, the woman behind the alter ego.

Born in Prussia to a working-class family, Caroline arrived in Melbourne in 1871. Left alone when her police-officer husband was sent to work in remote Victoria, she turned her hand to running brothels. Before long, she had proved herself brilliantly entrepreneurial: her principal establishment was a stone's throw from Parliament House, lavishly furnished and catered to Melbourne's ruling classes.

Caroline rode Melbourne's boom in the 1880s, weathered the storm of the depression years in the 1890s and suffered in the moral panic of the 1900s. Her death in 1908 signified the end of one kind of Melbourne and the beginning of another: in terms of prostitution, the city went from tolerance to complete prohibition in her lifetime.

Drawing on extensive research, author and historian Barbara Minchinton deftly pieces together Madame Brussels' story and recreates a fascinating, colourful period in Melbourne's history. This is a major biography of an Australian icon.

In The Strange Death and Curious Rebirth of the Israeli Left, Anshel Pfeffer takes the pulse of Israel's left wing, examining its health and prospects and dissecting the country's complex post-Netanyahu political reality. He concludes that until it comes up with a new story to tell Israelis, the left will remain a bit player in the country it once built and ruled.

Also in this issue, Richard J. Evans looks for the roots of antisemitism in chief Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg's formative years, and Natalie Gryvnyak explores the neighbourhood of Ukraine's Jewish comedian-turned-president Volodymyr Zelensky. And in three enlightening book reviews, Barry Schwabsky evaluates Jewish decadence and its influence on modernity, Lauren Elkin looks back on the work of the indomitable Vivian Gornick and Raphael Zarum pays tribute to the legacy of Jonathan Sacks.

What's obsessing Jewish American writers today?

Younger writers were freed to think about specifically Jewish questions. [Their] work has a narrower appeal. Only time will tell if it is also a deeper one. -Adam Kirsch

After the Golden Age examines the current generation of leading American Jewish writers as they grapple with questions about religion, Israel, politics and multiculturalism. In a ground-breaking essay, one of America's foremost literary critics, Adam Kirsch, shows how a new wave of writers, including Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss and Joshua Cohen, is charting and creating a modern Jewish world that is different from that of Roth, Bellow and Malamud.

The issue also includes a report by Kaya Genç on paranoia and conspiracy theories in Erdoğan's Turkey, Jo Glanville on the vanishing Jews of Dublin and a colourful portrait from Patrick Mackie of Mozart's Jewish librettist. Sarah Krasnostein delves into the extraordinary feats of the enemy aliens shipped from Britain to Australia in 1940, and George Prochnik explores the worlds of W.G. Sebald and Daniel Mendelsohn.

As war devastates Eastern Europe, the Jews of Ukraine - who have played pivotal roles in modern Jewish culture and Ukrainian political life - face an uncertain future.

Ukrainians voted for a mixture of Benny Hill and Boris Johnson, and they somehow wound up with Churchill. -Vladislav Davidzon

This issue of The Jewish Quarterly explores the rich, tumultuous history of the Jews of Ukraine, who have played a pivotal role in modern Jewish life. Ukraine has been the site of some of the darkest moments in Jewish history, from brutal pogroms to Babi Yar, yet its Jews were central to the foundation of the Hasidic and Zionist movements and to the advancement of Hebrew and Yiddish literature, as well as to the evolution of modern-day Ukraine.

In a fascinating essay, Vladislav Davidzon, who has been observing and writing about Ukrainian Jewish life for more than a decade, traces the turbulent history and uncertain future of this community as their country once again fights for its survival.

The issue also includes an essay by David Herman reflecting on the first seventy years of The Jewish Quarterly, a feature by Tali Lavi on the Yiddish renaissance unfolding in Australia's most cosmopolitan city, an account by Rabbi Harvey Belovski of a life-changing event that shaped the philosophy of Maimonides, and book reviews by Devorah Baum and Jakub Nowakowski.

The first biography of Gwen Harwood (1920-1995), one of Australia's most significant and distinctive poets.

Harwood is renowned for her brilliance, but loved for her humour, rebellion and mischief. A public figure by the end of her life, she was always deeply protective of her privacy, and even now, some twenty-six years after her death, little is known of the experiences that gave rise to her extraordinary poems. This book follows Harwood from her childhood in 1920s Brisbane to her final years in Hobart in the 1990s. It traces how a lively, sardonic and determined young woman built a career in the conservative 1950s, blasting her way into the patriarchal strongholds of Australian poetry.

Harwood refused to be bound by convention, 'liberating' herself, to use her word, before women's lib existed. Yet she also struggled for much of her life to combine marriage and motherhood with her creative ambitions. In this sense, she is a twentieth-century everywoman. She is also a unique and powerful presence in Australian literary history, a poet who challenged orthodoxies and spoke in a remarkable range of voices.

This illuminating, moving biography reveals a deeply passionate figure both at odds with her time and deeply of it, and reclaims and celebrates this important Australian writer.