Episode 39: Fear and loathing in the diaspora, live in Oslo with Bjørn Gabrielsen.

Ask Haviv Anything

Haviv Rettig Gur

History

4.9 • 640 Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2025

⏱️ 119 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During an August speaking tour in Norway, Haviv was interviewed at an event hosted by the remarkable Jewish organization Kos & Kaos - The Nordic Jewish Network. It's a unique group founded in 2016 that brings together Jewish voices and friends and allies of the Jewish community across Scandinavia for dialogue, cultural events and critical conversations.

Norwegian writer and journalist Bjørn Gabrielsen interviewed Haviv in front of a packed house in Oslo on August 21 about the war in Gaza, the condition of diaspora Jews in the wake of October 7, the state of modern journalism, how the Middle East is seen in the West, and more.

This episode was sponsored by the children of Naomi Pinchuk of Chicago in honor of her 78th birthday on August 30th. Happy birthday, Naomi! Till 120.

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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Ask Haviv Anything.
0:08.0	This episode was recorded live in Oslo, Norway on August 21st, at an event hosted by Kusan Chaos, the Nordic-Jewish network.
0:18.0	I sure hope I pronounce that correctly. Founded in Oslo in 2016, Kosen
0:23.5	Chaos has become a unique platform where Jewish voices and friends and allies of the Jewish
0:28.9	community across Scandinavia come together for dialogue, for culture, for critical conversations,
0:35.5	by the way, across a surprising spectrum, just a real wide spectrum
0:40.1	of Norwegian politics, Jewish politics of the Jewish world generally. It was a pleasure to be
0:45.8	their guest last weekend in Oslo. The conversation you will hear is a discussion between myself
0:51.4	and Bjorn Gabrielson, a Norwegian writer, journalist, literary critic.
0:57.1	He brought a unique voice and tempo to the conversation.
1:01.5	Bjorn, I really appreciated how you ran everything, including the humor.
1:06.0	I discovered a non-Jewish man who has a tremendous knowledge of his country's Jews and also concern for his country's Jews.
1:15.6	And I am grateful he was my interviewer and I appreciate that we met.
1:20.6	There was a loud protest outside. I don't think it'll come through the microphones.
1:26.6	It added some excitement to the proceedings.
1:28.4	We couldn't help but reference it a little bit in the conversation.
1:32.6	So just be aware of that.
1:34.7	Thank you so much to Louisa and all the team at Coase and Chaos in.
1:38.2	Thank you to Bjorn.
1:39.1	It was a pleasure.
1:40.2	It was an honor to be part of your conversations up there in the cold north,
1:46.2	which in August was not a terrible place to be.
	...

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