The Times of Israel Podcasts

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with Daniel Syrkin, director of the acclaimed TV series "Tehran." Recorded on Monday amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, Syrkin discusses the impact of the current geopolitical events on the storytelling of "Tehran" and the challenges of producing a series that reflects the most recent realities of life in Iran. The "Tehran" director shares insights from his background in military intelligence and how it shaped his understanding of the Iranian regime and the making of the series, created with Israel's Kan 11 and Apple TV. He also discusses the cultural authenticity of the series, the emotional responses from Iranian actors to their Israeli costars and crew, even during the last 10 days of the conflict. Syrkin notes that sometimes the only way for him to cope as an Israeli is by working on the show, and notes that whatever happens next, it will be reflected in the next season, Season 4. And so this week, we ask Daniel Syrkin, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. IMAGE: 'Tehran' director Daniel Syrkin with actor Niv Sultan from 'Tehran' (Credit: Tully Chen)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Since 3 am on Friday morning, Israel has been at war with Iran. We begin the program with a pause to look at how each of us sees this Israeli moment. Rettig Gur weighs in on how this war with Iran was inevitable ever since Hamas's murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and began the ongoing war in Gaza. The IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir told Israel's political leaders in the past day that the campaign in Iran is essential to ensure "the existence of the Jewish people," according to Israel's Channel 12. "The operation in Iran is an operation to defend the existence of the Jewish people. History will not forgive us if we do not act now." We discuss the tipping point of launching the operation and the international media's cynicism that it was begun in part as a ploy for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stay in power. A constant critic of Netanyahu, today, Rettig Gur applauds his courage in taking on Iran. Finally, we hear Rettig Gur's thoughts on Netanyahu's hopes that the Iranian people will use this opportunity to shake off their shackles of oppression and overturn the regime. And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. IMAGE: Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, February 7, 2025. (OFFICE OF THE IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER via AP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Rabbi Noa Sattath, the head of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. For Pride Month, we discuss the history of the openly gay community in Israel and the connection between the LGBTQ+ struggle for equal rights and the broader struggle for democracy in Israel. Sattath, an ordained Reform rabbi who until recently served as Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), was also previously the Executive Director of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance. We hear Sattath's thoughts on the intersectionalism expressed by many members of the global gay community in their support for Hamas and condemnation of Israel during the war. For Sattath, the current visibility of the LGBTQ+ community once seemed like a farfetched dream. In seeing what has been accomplished in a relatively short time, she is inspired in her work at ACRI, including the struggle to maintain human rights for Palestinians detained on and after the murderous Hamas onslaught on October 7, 2023. And so this week, we ask Rabbi Noa Sattath, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. IMAGE: NYC Pride float calling for a 'Free Palestine' rides through the annual Pride March into the West Village on June 30, 2024, in New York City. (Alex Kent/Getty Images/AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI editor David Horovitz. How do you cover a war when no objective, proven journalists are allowed to report independently in the war zone? And when one side of the conflict -- a terrorist regime -- floods international media with its narrative while the other side -- an attacked sovereign nation -- provides no narrative, guess which side's story makes front pages? This week on What Matters Now, Horovitz lays out the challenges of penetrating the fog of this war within the constraints of an Israeli information vacuum. "The hardest challenge for journalists, and it's certainly never been harder for us in the last 19-20 months, is to get the facts first... Getting to the facts has never been harder," said Horovitz. And so this week, we ask ToI editor David Horovitz, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. IMAGE: Palestinians run following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, June 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Hebrew University Prof. Elie Podeh. Podeh, the Bamberger and Fuld professor in the History of the Muslim Peoples, recently published a research article, "Israel’s 2005 Disengagement from Gaza: A Multilateral Move Under Unilateral Façade." In the article, we learn that while the Gaza Disengagement was a unilateral decision, it was carried out in partnership with the United States, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. Among other revelations in the paper, we hear about the committees formed among the partners and their work on arrangements for border control, economic transition, and security cooperation. All elements were negotiated behind the scenes, especially under the guidance of American envoys and Egyptian mediators. Podeh weighs in on prime minister Ariel Sharon's decision not to allow the PA to take credit for any part of the diplomatic cooperation and the question of whether delegitimizing the PA's authority in Gaza may have contributed to the Hamas takeover in 2007. We speak about -- today, as the IDF is poised to retake the Gaza Strip, what the reasons were for the Disengagement 20 years ago -- and, in Podeh's opinion, why the Strip shouldn't be resettled by Israel. And so this week, we ask Prof. Elie Podeh, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Last week, US President Donald Trump completed a four-day trip to the Middle East, his first official state visit of his second term. He struck economic deals in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and, in lifting sanctions against Syria, made a bold move that could reboot the wartorn country. On May 13, Trump delivered an almost hour-long speech at the Saudi-US Investment Forum at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that gives deep insight into his plan for the Middle East and beyond. Rettig Gur examines this speech and explains its significance. We hear how it reflects Trump's diplomacy, which in many ways harkens back to an earlier style of US policy. And we hear how, while the speech only names Israel once, it is actually a leitmotif. And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. IMAGE: US President Donald Trump speaks during the Saudi-US investment forum at the King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center in Riyadh on May 13, 2025. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Eurovision mega-fan Tal Dahan, straight from Basel. Dahan is a volunteer reporter with the Hebrew-language EuroMix website, which has been the number one source for Israelis about the Eurovision for decades. This year marks Israel's 47th time participating in the Eurovision, a song contest that was established 69 years ago to unite Europe through music. We are recording just after the first semi-final and ahead of Israel's participation in the second semi-final on Thursday night. It is expected that Israel's candidate, Yuval Raphael, will make it to the finals on Saturday night with her song, "New Day Will Rise." Dahan talks about the betting favorites going into Saturday's final and also discusses the politics of the competition. And so this week, we ask Tal Dahan, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Elana Kaminka, peace activist and bereaved mother. On October 7, 2023, Elana's firstborn son, Lt. Yannai Kaminka, 20, a commander in the Home Front Command, was killed battling against Hamas at the Zikim IDF training base. His efforts and those of his fellow officers there saved the lives of almost 100 recruits, as charted in a recently released IDF probe into the failures on and leading up to October 7. In a frank and open discussion about what it means to choose a path of peace after losing her first child to terrorists bent on destroying her nation, Kaminka speaks with The Times of Israel just after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down in refusing to hold a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 disasters. Kaminka made aliya from California as a lone soldier at age 18 and later married Eyal with whom she had four children. Prior to October 7, she was already active in groups committed to fostering empathetic, respectful and nuanced dialogue. After losing her son, she redoubled her efforts to promote engagement between Israeli Jews and Palestinians -- and to protest the Netanyahu government, which she holds accountable for her son's death. She is an active member of Tag Meir and the Parents Circle Families Forum and speaks tirelessly about the need to counter extremism and develop empathy and compassion among all levels of Israeli society. While advocating for a future of dignity and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike in the Land of Israel, she is also a mother of three additional children, including her son who was conscripted to a paramedics unit a mere six weeks following his older brother's death. And so this week, we ask Elana Kaminka, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with the coordinator of The Times of Israel's Those We Have Lost project, Amy Spiro, for this special episode in honor of Israel's Memorial Day to Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror. We explain about the genesis of our Those We Have Lost project, and how we aim to tell the stories of individuals slain in Hamas's brutal attack on October 7, 2023. The first entry was written on October 11, 2023, when the number of the murdered was still unclear and funerals were held around the clock. Today, with 1,100 individual entries covering almost every single person killed by Hamas, our Those We Have Lost project paints a picture of each of their lives and the ongoing ripple effects of their deaths. Spiro speaks to the challenges she's faced -- including the mundane issue of how to write names in Latin letters -- and where she draws her information from. The Those We Have Lost project works to ensure that despite the massive scale of the loss, no one is forgotten. On behalf of The Times of Israel, Borschel-Dan urges listeners to visit the project's home page this Memorial Day and keep the fallen's memories alive. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Prof. Manuela Consonni, director of Hebrew University's Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism. Consonni, a leading scholar of Holocaust memory, gender, and post-war European culture, decided to mark Yom Hashoah, Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, with an exhibition at the Mount Scopus campus called, "Faces of Women's Resistance." The exhibition looks at how women -- Jewish and non-Jewish -- resisted the Nazi regime. Like men, many were fighters, partisans and rescuers, but also the sheer survival of their family was put on the shoulders of many mothers. We discuss definitions of resistance and what means were available to women during the Nazi regime. And finally, we delve into the use of Holocaust language when discussing the hostages kept by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023. So this week, we ask Prof. Manuela Consonni, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Two young women who managed to survive over a year in the concentration camp at Belsen, Germany, are shown, April 30, 1945. (AP Photo)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Mitch Ginsburg, a producer at the Israel Story podcast. Ginsburg, a former military reporter for The Times of Israel, brings us a special episode from Israel's flagship podcast series, called The Hebrew Hobbit: A Passover Special. In it, Ginsburg charts the tale of a number of Israeli POWs who took upon themselves the unlikely task of translating JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit" while imprisoned together in an Egyptian jail. In a vivid soundscape, Ginsburg brings a 360-degree account of life before, during and after their detention -- for the soldiers and those they left behind. This Passover holiday, we hear the improbable story of a group of Israeli men who formed a mini-kibbutz in the heart of an enemy country's prison and what happened after their exodus from Egypt. So this week, we ask Israel Story's Mitch Ginsburg, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: An undated photo of the POW group who together translated 'The Hobbit' into Hebrew prior to their release from an Egyptian prison in November 1973. (courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host arts and culture editor Jessica Steinberg speaking with Idit Ohel, mother of hostage Alon Ohel. Ohel talks about her son, who was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, from the Nova music festival. Ohel discusses what she knows about the injuries sustained by Alon on October 7, including shrapnel in his eye, and she firmly demands that he receive medical attention. She says she deeply believes that despite his injuries and captivity, he is surviving and will continue to do so until he's released home. She explains what she's heard from released hostages Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen, who were kept captive with Alon, and we hear how Alon endures, playing imaginery piano on his chest as a musician, whistling favorite songs and talking about his family. Ohel says that her son, like her, has always meditated, and she assumes he is still doing so as one of the many methods that has allowed him to survive so many months underground. She discusses what it's like to mark another Passover without her son, and the need for the entire country and Jewish nation to rally behind the remaining hostages, in order to push the government toward an extension of the hostage deal. So this week, we ask hostage mother Idit Ohel, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Idit Ohel, mother of hostage Alon Ohel, speaks during a rally calling for the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, March 8, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with author and scholar Dara Horn. Horn is the author of novels and non-fiction, including “People Love Dead Jews,” “Eternal Life,” “A Guide for the Perplexed,” and now her first book for young readers, “One Little Goat.” A graphic novel, "One Little Goat," was dreamed up by a young Horn and written decades later alongside the uniquely grungy illustrations of Theo Ellsworth. The program's first half delves into the book's trippy storyline and how she arrived at it. As Horn remarks on her website, "'One Little Goat' is a quirky, dryly funny, Passover-themed graphic novel featuring a lost matzah, a never-ending seder and a time-traveling talking goat." In the second half of the program, we hear some about the ideas Horn proposed in her bestselling work, "People Love Dead Jews," and she speaks about her new education initiative, Mosaic Persuasion, which is bent on teaching American schoolchildren about real, living Jews and Jewish culture. We hear about how the Hamas massacre of 1,200 in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, has -- and has not -- shifted American discourse. And Horn points out the Jews' driving counter-culture DNA that has been passed down from generation to generation, much like the rituals of the Passover seder. And so this week, we ask author Dara Horn, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with arts and culture editor Jessica Steinberg hosting and speaking with Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of released hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen. Dekel-Chen, a dual Israeli-American citizen, was a vocal and visible hostage parent throughout the months of his son's captivity. Sagui Dekel-Chen was taken hostage on October 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nir Oz, while his pregnant wife and two young daughters were hiding in their safe room. He talks about the relief that he and the family felt upon seeing Sagui released home to Israel, the challenges that Sagui and the rest of the family and Nir Oz community still face, and the sense of rebirth that Sagui feels post-captivity. For 496 days, Sagui didn't know if his own family had survived, as well as extended members of his family and friends. Dekel-Chen also reflects on the sense of abandonment felt by many hostage families from the Israeli government throughout the months of the war, and particularly now, as the army has returned to fighting in Gaza, leaving 59 hostages still in captivity. He speaks about the tremendous support he and the other hostage families received from the US government, from both the Biden and Trump administrations and his surprise that American Jewish organizations didn't join together to support the hostage families. And so this week, we ask history professor Jonathan Dekel-Chen, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Freed hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen with his father Jonathan aboard an IDF helicopter en route to the hospital soon after his release from 498 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza, February 15, 2025 (IDF)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel editor David Horovitz. Recording at noon in ToI's Jerusalem office ahead of a planned fateful cabinet vote on the firing of Shin Bet head Ronen Bar tonight, Horovitz attempts to summarize this fraught Israeli moment. As the Israel Defense Forces troops are again entering the Gaza Strip for ground operations, fears of a crumbling Israeli democracy are bringing thousands to the streets, alongside others who reject the notion of a renewed war in Gaza without a hostage deal first. Horovitz takes us through a litany of issues fueling the domestic strife and assesses how Israel again finds itself at a crossroads. "All of us want Israel to survive and to thrive and we have two things simultaneously: We have terrible threats from without and we have tremendous division from within," says Horovitz. "This is extremely dangerous for Israel." And so this week, we ask ToI editor David Horovitz, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Israelis march in a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his plans to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, in Jerusalem on March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with philosopher and author Dr. Micah Goodman. As 24 living hostages languish in Gaza, Israel finds itself at a crossroads: Will the nation sign a deal with the terrorist group the Jewish state is bent on destroying or return to war against Hamas to apply pressure for the captives' release? Goodman explains how both sides of this dilemma see their arguments as protecting the nation. We hear, however, how the quests for national security and solidarity may appear to be in conflict with each other -- and how to overcome that paradox. And as Goodman pushes for Israel to sign a deal to release the hostages -- living and dead -- he explains how we must trust Hamas "to give Israel 17 reasons to restart the war." He cautions it must be a war that is launched at Israel's discretion, backed by national consensus and with the determination to realize the goal of destroying Hamas. And so this week, we ask Micah Goodman, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. Illustrative: A Palestinian boy carries a toy gun while standing with members of Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, during a rally in Gaza City on May 24, 2021. (AFP / Emmanuel DUNAND)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI's senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. At a Cairo summit of Arab leaders on Tuesday, a consensus of states adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave -- in contrast to US President Donald Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision. The over 100-page “Early Recovery, Reconstruction, Development of Gaza” plan envisions a Gaza Administration Committee, made up of independent technocrats, to manage an initial six-month transitional phase. It also urges elections in all Palestinian areas within a year, if conditions support such a move. The rub? The plan doesn’t explicitly tackle the issue of Hamas and how the terror group will be disarming -- if at all. It also pushes for a Palestinian state before addressing any of the armed Palestinian factions. Rettig Gur dissects elements of the plan and weighs in on its seriousness. And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: In this photo provided by Egypt's presidency media office, Arab leaders pose during the emergency Arab summit at Egypt's New Administrative Capital, just outside Cairo, March 4, 2025. (Egyptian Presidency Media Office via AP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with film critic Jordan Hoffman. Ahead of the 2025 Academy Awards on Sunday night, The Times of Israel's film critic gives his predictions on which of the five films related to Israel or the Jews will have any chance of taking home a statue. We hear about how the ongoing war in Gaza is creating off-screen drama for a film, "September 5," that has nothing to do with the current conflict but dares to show Israel as a victim after the country's athletes were massacred in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Hoffman weighs in on the merits of "A Real Pain" and pronounces it an excellent addition to the pantheon of Jewish film. About "The Brutalist," he has some reservations, although he applauds the film overall. We learn how the Bob Dylan bio-pic may not have anything really overtly Jewish about it, but that it's not a slam to Members of the Tribe. And finally, Hoffman discusses the Palestinian/Jewish Israeli co-production that is hardly a coexistence project, but rather a "From the River to the Sea" production. And so this week, we ask Jordan Hoffman, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: This image released by A24 shows Adrien Brody, left, and Guy Pearce in a scene from 'The Brutalist.' (Lol Crawley/A24 via AP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Ahead of a fateful day for Israelis in which Hamas for the first time will release the bodies of hostages who died on October 7, 2023, or in captivity, including potentially the Bibas family, Rettig Gur discusses how the iconic little red-haired boys have entered all Israelis' heart to become everyone's children. We hear how the series of staged hostage-release ceremonies are a way for the terrorists to mock Israelis and show Gazans who is in charge. He wonders what could make Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continue with this farce into a second phase of the hostage release-ceasefire deal. We hear about a recent poll from the Israel Democracy Institute on support for proceeding to the second stage of the ceasefire agreement and learn that an overwhelming majority of Arab respondents -- and a large majority of Jewish respondents -- support continuing with the second stage if the first stage is completed as agreed. But for a prime minister who wants to remain in power, is the will of the people enough for him to take a step that is unpopular with his coalition? What could be on the horizon that is a grand enough gesture to secure the next election? And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Graffiti of Shiri and Yarden Bibas and their sons, Ariel, left, and Kfir, right, who were taken captive by Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. On February 4, 2025, US President Donald Trump made a bombshell proposal to resettle the population of Gaza. The announcement caught the world by surprise and over a week later, no one is entirely sure what Trump intends beyond restarting and resetting the discussion of Gaza after the war. We discuss Israeli comedian Reshef Levy's biting Hebrew-language assessment of politicians' responses and how they reflect the ambivalence the plan has aroused in the Israeli public. We wonder if the Trump proposal is based on previous historic plans such as the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan. And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Displaced Palestinians wait at a security checkpoint in the Netzarim corridor while traveling from central Gaza to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, February 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. This week, we answer a slew of listeners' responses to our conversation last week, "Excruciating dilemmas as murderers set to be released," about the painful issue of the release of Palestinian security prisoners as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal. We received dozens of emails from listeners who asked how an Israeli implementation of the death penalty for mass murderers may shift future terrible negotiations as the nation currently reels from the reality that terrorists with blood on their hands are being freed. We speak about the two cases in which Nazis were sentenced with the death penalty and one case in which an Israeli IDF officer was executed by a firing squad in 1948 after being falsely accused of treason. The death penalty is still on the books in Israel, ostensibly. If it were enacted for terrorists who are serving multiple life sentences, could it reduce the "exchange value" for Israeli hostages? And so this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, a Palestinian prisoner and former a top commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades who was released by Israel, waves a Palestinian flag as he is cheered by people after arriving in Ramallah aboard buses of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on January 30, 2025. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Dayan is leading Yad Vashem's delegation to Auschwitz to observe the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the death camp's liberation on January 27, 2025, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ahead of his trip, Borschel-Dan sat with Dayan in his Jerusalem office to speak about the role of the institution in the past 15 months, following the murderous Hamas onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Following the massacre of 1,200 and hostage-taking of another 251, Dayan quickly experienced a betrayal from leaders he once considered "friends," such as António Guterres, the current Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Pope Francis, a fellow Argentine, with whom he had previously felt a warm rapport. This week, Dayan came out against Elon Musk for comments he made to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in which he said there is “too much focus on past guilt” in Germany. “Contrary to Elon Musk’s advice, the remembrance and acknowledgment of the dark past of the country and its people should be central in shaping the German society,” Dayan wrote on X on Sunday, the day before the world marked the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In our recent conversation, Dayan explained when he feels it is appropriate to take a public stance, and when there is likely less chance that his message will be heard. We also speak about new global political realities -- especially in Europe -- and why Yad Vashem is set on opening its first satellite campus in Berlin. And so on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we ask Yad Vashem head Dani Dayan what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Chairman of Yad Vashem Dani Dayan at Auschwitz to observe the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the death camp's liberation, January 27, 2025, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. (Yad Vashem)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with comedian/filmmaker Adir Miller and his mother Marianne Miller, a child Holocaust survivor. On January 27, Marianne -- a well-known Israeli speaker and educator -- will address the United Nations General Assembly on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Born in wartime Budapest, Marianne will speak in New York about her survival story, surrounded by three generations of her family, as she was last year while leading a March of the Living delegation from the city of her birth to Auschwitz. As a baby, Marianne was saved by her mother, who tore off her yellow star and, holding her daughter, ran away from a transport for mothers and children to certain death. They evaded capture after Marianne's mother bribed an Arrow Cross Hungarian Nazi soldier with a simple golden ring. Son Adir, one of Israel's most celebrated comedians and artists, used his mother's stunning survival story as the basis of his recent movie, "The Ring," which he wrote, directed and starred in. "The Ring" is playing now in Israeli theaters with some 240,000 viewers so far. It will be screened in New York on January 28 at a special screening hosted by the Israeli-American Council (IAC). This year marks 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, where over 1.2 million people, including 400,000 Hungarian Jews, were murdered. So this week, we ask Adir and Marianne Miller, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel's senior analyst, Haviv Rettig Gur. When this podcast conversation was recorded, the deal between Israel and Hamas for a hostage release and temporary ceasefire in Gaza had not actually been signed and sealed. Despite jubilant announcements by mediators on Wednesday night, by Thursday morning, claims of last-minute demands from Hamas had prevented a formal announcement. Whether or not the deal will go through, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new flexibility on several previously immovable points is noteworthy. In our conversation, Rettig Gur postulates that there’s a reason Netanyahu seems to be struggling to speak clearly to his coalition partners and the electorate about his reasons for supporting the deal — and about what’s going on in the talks. Much of it may have to do with a potentially watershed moment -- the Trump inauguration on January 20 -- or maybe there is a secret second deal that Trump is already forwarding. Hamas's very survival is its victory, acknowledges Rettig Gur, who mourns the tragic fate that awaits Gazans as the agents of destruction again return to power. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur: What matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: People celebrate along a street in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 15, 2025, as news spread that a ceasefire and hostage release deal had been reached between Israel and Hamas, aimed at ending more than 15 months of war in the Palestinian territory. (BASHAR TALEB / AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel's senior analyst, Haviv Rettig Gur. This week, a committee appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to examine defense spending and IDF military force design for the future announced that the election of Donald Trump as US president offers an unprecedented opportunity to remove the threat Israel faces from Iran.the Trump’s return to the White House, said the Nagel Committee on Monday, “creates, for the first time, the potential for a fundamental change, and the removal or meaningful reduction of the Iranian threat.” Likewise this week, the incoming US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff announced that he would travel to Doha, saying a hostage deal being mediated by Qatar is on the verge of completion, as US President-elect Donald Trump again warned “all hell will break loose” in the region if an agreement between Israel and Hamas is not reached by his January 20 inauguration. We all know that Trump is one to talk tough, but the question is -- how much of this rhetoric will translate into action? And will he aid Israel in its aid to prevent a nuclear Iran? So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur: What matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: US President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with The Times of Israel's founding editor David Horovitz. Five years ago this week, The Times of Israel launched its Daily Briefing podcast to keep listeners updated on the latest news out of Israel and the region, from Sunday through Thursday. Starting from October 7, 2023, the podcast has moved to seven days a week in an effort to broadcast fair and accurate news from Israel during wartime. We discuss the locations of some of the podcast's more unusual listenership. Horovitz delves into ongoing efforts on the part of the government to limit the freedom of the press, from the banning of Al Jazeera to halting paid ads in Haaretz. He explains the "gentleman's agreement" that is the nature of the relationship of Israeli press with the military censor -- and how frustrating it can be. We learn about the inescapable blindsides in reporting this war that see unverifiable narratives out of Gaza be taken as truths, and how dangerous this situation is. So this week, we ask editor David Horovitz, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Newspapers and magazines for sale at a shop in the center of Jerusalem. November 10, 2013. (Nati Shohat/FLASH90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with stand-up comedian Yochay Sponder. After the 2012 Gaza War, the comedian began using his talent to make people laugh as a tool for pro-Israel advocacy in his heavily Hebrew-flavored English. This work has only ramped up since the October 7, 2023, murderous Hamas onslaught, where thousands of terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking another 251 hostage to Gaza. Initially after the attack, Sponder, whose soldier cousin fell in battle on October 7, thought it may be inappropriate to take to the stage and make people laugh. Today, he considers it his reserve duty and Sponder uses his brand of truth-telling to remind the world who started this ongoing war and that Israelis still hope for peace. With a personal genetic background that would put a Benetton poster to shame, Sponder uses a brusque uber-Israeli persona to counter politically correct norms and spotlight hypocrisy. Sponder has toured his English-language show, "Self-Loving Jew," extensively this year. In our conversation, he discusses a performance in the United States in which a group of pro-Palestine activists showed up. The result was not what he expected. So this week, we ask Israeli comedian Yochay Sponder, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. Check out the previous What Matters Now episode: https://omny.fm/shows/times-will-tell/wmn-what-matters-now-to-andrew-fox-cynical-use-of IMAGE: Stand-up comedian/Israel advocate Yochay Sponder. (Limor Azran Garfinkle)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Andrew Fox. Fox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, served in the British Army from 2005 to 2021, completing three tours in Afghanistan, including one attached to the US Army Special Forces. At the transatlantic think tank, he specializes in Defense, the Middle East, and disinformation. He holds degrees in Law and Politics, Modern War Studies and Psychology. This week, Fox and a team of researchers published a report that made international headlines titled, "Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza." According to the report, the Palestinian death toll for the Gaza war appears to include thousands of people who died of natural causes as well as incorrect figures — partly in an effort to inflate the toll of women and children. Worse, international media outlets are too quick to accept the figures from terror group Hamas -- usually without the scrutiny and rigor that are applied when reporting numbers supplied by Israel. The Hamas-run Health Ministry's figures, the report claims, are being manipulated for propaganda needs. The Gaza health ministry, under Hamas, “has systematically inflated the death toll by failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting fatalities among women and children and even including individuals who died before the conflict began,” the report said. We discuss the report and hear Fox's assessment of how the IDF's operations in Gaza have played out, as well as the one arena Israel has neglected -- the fight for world opinion. So this week, we ask London-based defense analyst Andrew Fox, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: The IDF operates in the southern Gaza Strip's Rafah in this hand out image from December 16, 2024. (IDF)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Middle East expert Ksenia Svetlova. As the rebel factions in Syria continue to fight to wrest control -- from the fallen Assad regime as well as from each other -- one of the ways to measure how the country will emerge is to look at the factions' treatment of women: On Tuesday, for example, the Biden administration said it will recognize and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women. In 2020, Svetlova published a Hebrew-language book, "On Heels in the Middle East," depicting her travels throughout the Middle East as a female (and sometimes overtly Jewish) journalist. Born in Moscow, Svetlova immigrated to Israel at the age of 14. She is a journalist and analyst and was a member of the 20th Knesset for the Zionist Union party. Today she is the executive director of ROPES, which works to connect "forward-thinking Israeli and Palestinian emerging leaders with like-minded peers from across the Middle East and North Africa." In our conversation, she draws on her experiences reporting from inside the region's Islamic countries to evaluate and rank their women's rights and freedoms. We discuss which country most supports women's rights -- Tunisia -- and the many countries that vie for the least free. Later, we hear Svetlova's thoughts on future Russian influence in Syria and the region. So this week, as all eyes are on Syria and the rebels that hope to rule it, we ask Ksenia Svetlova, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: A woman holding a rifle borrowed from a Syrian opposition fighter poses for a picture, next to a government forces tank that was left on a street, at the Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria, December 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, an Iranian career diplomat who participated in the previous round of nuclear talks, is currently Iran's Vice President for Strategic Affairs since August 2024. In that role, he wrote an op-ed in the bi-monthly Foreign Affairs journal. The century-old magazine focuses on international relations and policy and can serve as a platform to float ideas and hear reasoned responses. In Zarif's article, "How Iran Sees the Path to Peace," among the arguments raised was the idea of a "referendum" voting on the governance of the territory that largely includes the Jewish state. "Iran can continue to play a constructive role in ending the current humanitarian nightmare in Gaza and work with the international community to pursue a lasting and democratic solution to the conflict," writes Zarif. "Iran will agree to any solution acceptable to Palestinians, but our government believes that the best way out of this century-long ordeal would be a referendum in which everyone living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — Muslims, Christians, and Jews — and Palestinians driven to diaspora in the twentieth century (along with their descendants) would be able to determine a viable future system of governance. This is in line with international law and would build on the success of South Africa, where an apartheid system was transformed into a viable democratic state." To Rettig Gur, Zarif's op-ed -- filled with posturing and warnings to the Western world -- is a sign of Iran's faltering regime and he explains why. So this week, we discuss this new era of Iranian potential weakness and how the West needs to handle it wisely, as Haviv Rettig Gur weighs in on what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Masoud Pezeshkian, center, flashes a victory sign after casting his vote in Iran's presidential election as he is accompanied by former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left, at a polling station in Shahr-e-Qods near Tehran, Iran, July 5, 2024. (AP/Vahid Salemi)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. Tuvia Book was honorably discharged as a combat medic in the Israel Defense Forces following the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Like most Israeli reservists, however, he stashed a uniform in his basement, "just in case." That emergency occurred on October 7, 2023, when Book, learning of the Hamas murderous onslaught on southern Israel, pulled out that uniform and, hearing a rumor that some units based in the south were lacking combat medics, packed his car and drove. He arrived, without enlistment papers and no longer even registered in the draconian IDF bureaucracy. He was accepted into the Palmar Asaf Medical Extraction Unit and fought his way back into the IDF system. Book, who in "real life" is a Times of Israel blogger, a tour guide, author and Jewish educator," has served in the reserves for the past 12 out of 14 months of war. At the end of November, the Medical Corps reported that some 5,300 wounded soldiers had been treated amid the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and another 700 in Lebanon. Book describes his unique reservists unit, and how a combination of speed, professionalism and technology is resulting in a vastly lower case fatality rate — the proportion of wounded who end up dying -- than in any previous war. So this week, we ask Tuvia Book, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Reservist Tuvia Book, a combat medic in the Palmar Asaf Medical Extraction Unit, in Gaza, 2024. (courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Inspired by an op-ed by David Brooks in the New York Times called “Why We Got It So Wrong,” the pair discuss how a similar misconception of the political landscape may afflict Israel's center-left as it did the Democratic party. Rettig Gur discusses a newer face on the political landscape -- October 7-hero and Democrats head Yair Golan -- and talks about how his rise is in many ways a return to "classic" Labor. But, he adds, the classic Labor electorate is rapidly aging -- or fleeing that party. We hear about a party so far-left as to be an anomaly -- Hadash -- and how extremely controversial comments from its "token" Jewish member MK Ofer Cassif have recently seen him suspended from the Knesset for six months. We learn that Israel's many parties are a remnant of Israeli tribalism -- which may or may not be how Israelis are voting today. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Head of the Democrats Yair Golan at the Knesset in Jerusalem on November 6, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. At the start of the war in retaliation for Hamas's murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israel Defense Forces reported that more than 100 percent of reservists called up for duty had shown up — nearly 300,000 reservists in total, marking the largest-ever call-up of reservists in Israel's history. This week, we learned that there has been a significant decline in the rate of reserve soldiers showing up for duty and the turnout rate in the reservist units currently fighting in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip has varied between 75% and 85%. In an effort to bolster the standing army, over the summer, the IDF Personnel Directorate sent out 3,000 draft orders to Haredi men aged 18-26. Out of those 3,000 men, only around 10% have shown up to be drafted into the military. The IDF's overall goal for the just concluded draft period — about four months — was 1,300 ultra-Orthodox soldiers. Ultimately it reached just over 900, including those who were drafted outside of the 3,000 new orders. This means that the IDF has seen an 85% increase in the number of Haredi soldiers joining the army, compared to the same draft period in previous years. However, the military has said that it currently requires some 10,000 new soldiers — 75% of whom will be combat troops. In our conversation this week, we hear personal anecdotes about the service of Borschel-Dan and Rettig Gur's family this year and how they fit into the broader Israeli experience. We also learn about rising resentment among many segments of Israeli society over the entrenched refusal of Haredim to draft in necessary numbers -- and what could be a way out. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: An IDF soldier walks among Haredi Jewish men during a protest against a potential new draft law that could end their exemptions from military service in Jerusalem, October 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, we hand the mic over to Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and an author, thinker and writer for The Times of Israel and many other outlets. Recently, Klein Halevi shared with us his longtime interest in interviewing Rabbi Irving Yitz Greenberg, whom he called one of this generation's most important Jewish theologians. Greenberg has been a central figure in the creation of a post-Holocaust Jewish identity and in establishing Holocaust commemoration projects like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. He is a leader in inter-denominational Jewish pluralism and in Jewish-Christian interfaith dialogue. Now, at age 91, Greenberg has published his magnum opus, “The Triumph of Life,” which, according to Klein Halevi, offers a brilliant and original argument for a new understanding of Judaism. So this week, we ask both Yossi Klein Halevi and Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  Image: Left to right: Author Yossi Klein Halevi. (Shalom Hartman Institute); Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg (Courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. The United States is electing its next president on November 5 and according to a poll published this week, Israelis massively favor Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris. So ahead of next week's results, we take a closer look at exactly how Israelis are polling, which candidate they favor -- and some reasons why. We also learn how the current polling matches previous surveys of Israelis ahead of past US elections and who was actually elected in the end. We also hear from Rettig Gur, who has been touring Jewish communities over the past week, what concerns he's gathered about both candidates from the American Jews he's spoken with. And finally, we look at the recently published AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of Americans which, among other things, drills down into the US population's partisan divide on all things Israel and Middle East. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: This combination of pictures shows US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (L) speaking during a Get Out the Vote rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 30, 2024, and former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking at a campaign rally at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on October 29, 2024. (Angela Weiss / AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. This week, a sukka that was reportedly put up by the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace caused a social media storm because of the cynical use of Palestinian iconography on a hut that was plastered with symbols of the Sukkot holiday and phrases in English and Yiddish. Rettig Gur weighs in on why this misuse of a (not kosher) temporary hut so irks many Jews. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated during a meeting with President Isaac Herzog and in other forums in his whirlwind Israel trip this week that the death of Hamas head Yahya Sinwar offers a window of opportunity to shift the course of the war. We discuss how the US's input wouldn't have allowed the IDF to enter Rafah, where Sinwar was eliminated, and the frustrations felt by Israelis for a perceived shackling of Israel's capabilities. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: A sukka reportedly put up by Jewish Voice for Peace on a US campus that caused a social media storm, October 2024. (Social media/X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. This week we speak with the editors of a new prayerbook -- "Az Nashir - We Will Sing Again: Women's Prayers for Our Time of Need" --  written by women, for women, in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Israel. The anthology was compiled and edited by Shira Lankin Sheps, Anne Gordon, and Rachel Sharansky Danziger, and it was published by The Layers Press, an imprint of The SHVILLI Center. The three editors join Borschel-Dan in The Times of Israel's Jerusalem office this week and explain their impetus to tackle such an ambitious project and the decisions they made while putting it together, such as the inclusion of "visual prayer" -- 30 colorful illustrations by female artists. According to the editors, the Hebrew-English tome is a prayerbook companion that emulates a long tradition of Jewish women writing prayers, supplications and liturgical poems in their own mother tongues.  So this week, we ask Shira Lankin Sheps, Anne Gordon, and Rachel Sharansky Danziger, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: The editors of 'Az Nashir - We Will Sing Again: Women's Prayers for Our Time of Need,' (from left to right): Anne Gordon, Rachel Sharansky Danziger and Shira Lankin Sheps. (courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. Shortly after October 7, when the murderous Hamas onslaught on southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza, Israel was pulled into defending itself and fighting Iran or its proxies on seven fronts: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, the West Bank and of course Iran. But there is an eighth front that has emerged and is no less pernicious: the battle for public opinion and legitimacy. Since war broke out, Israel advocate Aviva Klompas has used her robust social media platforms to provide a counter to the onslaught of anti-Israel hate. As co-founder and CEO of Boundless, Aviva says she aims to reshape Israel education and confront antisemitism head-on. This war is affording her great opportunity. We speak about this advocacy work and her new book, "Stand-Up Nation." So this week we ask Aviva Klompas, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Author and Israel advocate Aviva Klompas (Zev Fisher)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, US bureau chief Jacob Magid is joined by journalist Joshua Leifer to discuss his new book Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life."  Tablets Shattered made some extra headlines upon its release when a rogue Brooklyn Bookstore employee cancelled a rollout event because the emcee slated to interview Leifer identified as a Zionist. The incident highlighted one of the critiques Leifer makes in the book regarding antisemitism on the American left. But Tablets Shattered looks more broadly at American Judaism, arguing that it has peaked, in its current form. But it also offers a blueprint for putting the pieces back together.  While a product of the Conservative denomination and an ardent left-winger, Leifer maintains that it is ultra-Orthodox Judaism that offers much of that blueprint, and we discussed why that is. So this week, we ask Joshua Leifer, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Journalist and author Jusha Leifer. (Courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host Amanda Borschel-Dan. This week, ahead of the one-year mark of the October 7 massacre, we check in with philosopher and public intellectual Dr. Micah Goodman. Best-selling author Goodman revisits a theory he discussed with Borschel-Dan on October 9, mere days after Hamas infiltrated Israel's south and slaughtered 1,200 and abducted 251 hostages back to Gaza. We hear about Goodman's idea of the "zero-sum game" that Israel must play to restore deterrence and maintain legitimacy and its results so far. Now, a year into this ongoing war, we learn how the Israeli narrative of the war is shifting from perceiving it through the prism of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Today, two other narratives are increasingly gaining steam: One states that October 7 was an opening salvo to a regional war and the other zooms out even further and places it in the context of a realignment of the global axis. We hear how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "right" in warning against Iran, but his coalition just may obstruct efforts to solve the conflict once and for all. "We need new politics in order to defeat Iran," said Goodman. So this week, we ask Dr. Micah Goodman, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Philosopher and public intellectual Dr. Micah Goodman. (Yonit Schiller)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Last week, three women were arrested after distributing flyers with six hostages' faces in MK Yuli Edelstein's synagogue in Herzliya, including a picture of him as a Prisoner of Zion alongside and the famous "Let My People Go" slogan used to support the refuseniks in the Soviet Union before being allowed to emigrate to Israel in 1987. After a week of backlash to their arrests and his apparent support for them, Edelstein clarified that while he understands the hostage families' protests, he does "not forgive people who turn the hostages into currency to promote goals that have nothing to do with them.” At the same time, there already are efforts inside most -- if not all -- synagogues throughout Israel to release the hostages: the longstanding prayer for the release of hostages that is found in most standard prayerbooks. Rettg Gur and Borschel-Dan discuss the two sides' stances and question whether they are all that far apart on the issue of the hostages. The two then turn to the question of whether or not Israel is basically experiencing an undeclared, low-burn regional war after a week in which a ballistic missile from the Yemenite Houthis reached Tel Aviv, a drone from Iraq was downed over the Sea of Galilee, along with the "usual" rockets from Gaza and Lebanon. Rettig Gur argues that even if Israel isn't currently in a regional war, it's time for one, but with one specific target. And so this week we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, center, meets with Iraqi community members during his visit to Basra, Iraq, September 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jourani)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host Amanda Borschel-Dan. This week, we're joined by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, a leading voice in Conservative Judaism, who has served as head rabbi of New York's Park Avenue Synagogue since 2008. We speak about his soon-to-be-published book, "For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today" (Harper Collins), which was written after the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1,200 and abduction of 251. The book is a blend of memoir, Torah study and reflection on what it means to be a Jew in the Diaspora today even as Israel continues its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Using the October 7 onslaught as a touchstone, the book is roughly divided into past, present and future and examines the connection between American Jewry and Israel throughout the decades. Cosgrove addresses concerns such as a new generation of young Jewish Americans who are proud of their religious heritage, but repudiate the nationalism exhibited by the Jewish state. So this week, we ask Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, head rabbi of New York's Park Avenue Synagogue, holding his new book, 'For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today,' September 11, 2024. (courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. This week, Israel was shattered by the news that six hostages, all previously thought alive, were discovered dead in a Gaza tunnel. The six hostages whose bodies were recovered over the weekend — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi — were killed just days before troops found them, according to autopsies and the IDF. They were all buried this week and hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Sunday demanding a hostage release deal, now. Rettig Gur and Borschel-Dan have an open, painful conversation about what may be the two sides of Israel's Sophie's Choice: between live hostages and, potentially, the military deterrence to prevent more Israelis from being taken. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: A display of 27 coffins of the hostages who were killed while in captivity in Gaza set up at Habima Square in Tel Aviv. (Zohar Ben Yehuda)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host Amanda Borschel-Dan. This week, as campuses across North America open their doors for their fall semester, we speak with New York Times Opinion columnist Bret Stephens. The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer recently wrote a column called, “What I Want a University President to Say About Campus Protests,” in which he channels a university president presenting his foundational principles, including, “the spirit of inquiry.” In this week's episode, we hear Stephens's take on concepts that have evolved and flourished on campuses in the past several decades, including how critical theory has shifted faculties and the role of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). So this week, as students return to campuses, we ask Bret Stephens, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: The New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens. (Jason Smith via JTA)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. This week, we speak with Hebrew University in Jerusalem Prof. Aron Troen for a deep dive into two powerful issues facing him since October 7. One draws upon his professional expertise: Troen is a professor of Nutrition Science and Public Health. His most recent research is dealing with whether or not there is a state of famine in the Gaza Strip during this war that Hamas launched on October 7 with the massacre of some 1,200, mostly civilians, in southern Israel. But Troen is also an Israeli who was personally affected by the Hamas onslaught and among those killed on October 7 were his sister and her husband, who were murdered in their home on Kibbutz Holit, leaving three children, Troens nieces and nephew orphans. His nephew, who survived the murders of his parents, now lives with him. We discuss in depth Troen's professional work and how he and his team dispelled reports of famine. And in the second part of our lengthy interview, we talk about his sister and how he and her children still believe we can work for a day in which the Palestinian and Israeli peoples can live side by side. So this week, we ask Prof. Aron Troen, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  Check out the previous What Matters Now episode: https://omny.fm/shows/times-will-tell/what-matters-now-to-yossi-klein-halevi-will-israel IMAGE: Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Aron Troen (Louis Weil)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. This week, we speak with Israeli thinker Yossi Klein Halevi for a deeply intense probe into what it means to be part of the existential Israeli struggle. We discuss how, as the war in Gaza continues, the different forces in Israeli society are caught up in a destructive push-pull dance even as Israel is losing its moral capital during this long war. During this time of existential schism in the Jewish state, we hear how to weave threads of unity. So this week, we ask best-selling author Yossi Klein Halevi, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Author Yossi Klein Halevi (Shalom Hartman Institute)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Israel awaits an expected retaliatory attack from Iran and Hezbollah for the assassinations of Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran and Hezbollah chief of staff Fuad Shukr in Beirut. We don't know what's going to happen: The potential strike could be tonight, could be tomorrow -- or could be never. During this period of uncertainty, we discuss with good humor, "How do you prepare for a potential 'Armageddon' -- both physically and metaphysically?" So this week we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: A bomb shelter in Nahariya painted by Lidia and Igor Katliarski (Lidia Katliarski)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. "Ex astrophysicist now Hobbesian realist." Not many people can pull off that social media profile moniker. In fact, there's likely only one: Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the founder of NGO Monitor. Today, Steinberg is an emeritus professor of Political Studies from Bar Ilan University. Among his realms of interest, he is an expert in human rights, soft power and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He's delved so deeply into NGOs that in 2002 he founded one himself, the Institute for NGO Research, which is a recognized organization in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council since 2013. NGO Monitor states that it aims to promote accountability and discussion on the reports and activities of NGOs claiming to advance human rights and humanitarian agendas in Israel. Steinberg often targets the bigger "corporate" NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and a word that came up several times in our discussion is “hypocrisy.” But during our conversation, he also names several smaller groups that are going fair-minded work. So this week, we ask Prof. Gerald Steinberg, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the founder of NGO Monitor, at The Times of Israel's Jerusalem office, July 30, 2024. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/ToI)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan, speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Israel's national anthem, "Hativkah," was loudly jeered before its soccer team kicked off play at the Paris Olympics against Mali on Wednesday night. To the relief of all, the game passed without major security incidents as the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Since the 1972 Munich Games, Team Israel has been closely protected by the Israeli Security Agency. However, as rhetoric and activism against Israel heats up during the ongoing war with Hamas, it is the only national team with an extra round-the-clock security detail provided by the host country France. As Israel is increasingly battered on the global stage and called a "pariah state," could protests turn violent? Rettig Gur discusses how to maintain a true north concerning the Gaza war and indifference to world opinion, while still holding vast empathy for the suffering in the Strip. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, hosted by deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan. Will Israel survive until 100? And if so, which Israel will remain: A democratic Jewish state or a Jewish state, with a side of democracy? These are questions posed by Prof. Eugene Kandel, who served as the Head of the National Economic Council and Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel from 2009-2015, and is today the founder and the Chairman of the independent think tank, RISE Israel Institute. In our in-depth discussion, Kandel breaks down Israel's current societal problems and how they could affect our children. Finally, we hear an out-of-the-box idea to change that divisive trajectory. So this week, we ask Prof. Eugene Kandel, what matters now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Prof. Eugene Kandel, today the founder and the Chairman of the independent think tank RISE Israel Institute. (courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, The Times of Israel deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. Since Wednesday afternoon, 100s if not 1,000s of Israelis are marching in support of the hostages in Gaza and their families from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. They're meant to finish their march at the end of Shabbat, Saturday night, with a massive protest in Jerusalem.  We look at when protests in Israel have achieved their goals in the past 50 years and how these outcomes shifted Israeli society. And we examine how the current protests staged by families of hostages held in Gaza may have shaped the war.  So this week, we ask Rettig Gur, What Matters Now. What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: Families and friends of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza call for their return as they begin a four-day march from Tel Aviv to the Prime Minister's house in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.