Humanity at the Sea

Itamar Mann in Conversation with Dinah Riese

The Mediterranean has for many centuries been a space of exchange and migration – including for Jewish migrants. The current handling of migration across the Mediterranean, as well as initiatives for sea rescue, reveals not only the externalization of borders but also exposes weaknesses in international law and human rights: the Mediterranean has become a mass grave.

In conversation with journalist Dinah Riese (taz), international law scholar Itamar Mann will discuss the legal, political, and ethical questions that remain tied to this migration movement to this day. From a historical perspective on Jewish migration to Palestine, Vietnamese boat people, and Syrian refugees since 2015, he develops – drawing on Hannah Arendt and Emmanuel Levinas – the utopian concept of a right of encounter.

The Digital Lecture Series Human Rights as the Last Utopia? Migration and Jewish History reflects on the history, present, and future of human rights as a political promise that must be continuously defended. Against the backdrop of Jewish migration history, five scholars, together with journalist Dinah Riese, examine the development of international refugee protection from diverse perspectives.

In the process, historical achievements become visible – achievements that are increasingly being questioned today. Which experiences from the past, and which legal or philosophical perspectives, can help overcome current limits in thinking about migration? And where can we find approaches in the here and now that point toward a more open future?

Itamar Mann

Itamar Mann is Professor of International Law at the University of Haifa (on leave) and a visiting professor at Universität Münster law faculty. His work moves between doctrine, theory, and history. His research focuses on the law of the sea, migration and refugee law, international criminal law, and the conceptual foundations of legal responsibility in situations of crisis. Alongside his academic research, Mann has been closely engaged in human rights practice. He serves as the President of Border Forensics, an interdisciplinary collective investigating border violence and state accountability.

He is currently working on a second book, Liferaft Manifesto: Democratic Survivalism and the Sea, which explores how democratic principles can be preserved under conditions of climate breakdown and mass displacement.

Dinah Riese

Dinah Riese heads the domestic news desk at taz newspaper. Previously, she worked as a taz editor covering migration and integration. She has received multiple awards for her reporting on the so-called advertising ban on abortions, Paragraph 219a of the German Criminal Code. Her interview with survivors of the Halle attack was nominated for the Reporter:innenpreis (Reporters’ Prize). In March 2022, she co-authored the book Selbstbestimmt. Für reproduktive Rechte (Self-Determined: For Reproductive Rights) with Gesine Agena and Patricia Hecht, published by Klaus Wagenbach.

 

We would like to thank the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung for supporting the Digital Lecture Series.

In media partnership with taz.

Booking: Registration link will follow shortly

Next date:

• Date Wednesday, 24/June/2026 19:00
• Venue Jüdisches Museum Berlin
• Address Lindenstraße 14, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg